The Serbian manager has pruned his squad to 24 players and they will travel to South Africa for the World Cup qualifiers
Twenty four players will travel to South Africa on Tuesday for the World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia.
Fifteen players trained in Accra on Monday as the team started preparations for the final two games of Group G in the World Cup qualifiers.
The Black Stars trained on Tuesday morning ahead of the trip to Johannesburg. Ghana is hoping to make a return to the World Cup after missing out in the 2018 edition in Russia. A win over Ethiopia and South Africa will guarantee Ghana a place in the play-offs.
Full Squad:
Goalkeepers: Joseph Wollacott (Swindon Town), Lawrence Ati-Zigi (St.Gallen), Manaf Nurudeen (Eupen), Richard Attah (Hearts of Oak)
Defenders: Andy Yiadom (Reading FC), Philemon Baffour (Dreams FC), Baba Abdul Rahman (Reading FC), Montari Kamaheni (Ashdod), Daniel Amartey (Leicester City), Alexander Djiku (Strasbourg), Joseph Aidoo (Celta Vigo), Ismail Abdul Ganiyu (Asante Kotoko)
Midfielders: Baba Idrissu (Real Mallorca), Mubarak Wakaso (Shenzhen F.C), Edmund Addo (Sheriff Tiraspol), Mohammed Kudus (Ajax Amsterdam), Daniel Kofi Kyere (FC St. Pauli)
Wingers: Andre Ayew (Al Sadd), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace), Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Dreams FC), Kamal Deen Sulemana (Rennes), Samuel Owusu (Al Fayha)
Meanwhile Jonathan Mensah (Injured), Thomas Partey (Injured) and Felix Afena Gyan (Unavailable) will not travel with the team to South Africa for the clash against Ethiopia.
The Group G encounter will take place at the Orlando stadium on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 15:00Hrs GMT.
The Black Stars opened their camping ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers against Ethiopia and South Africa on Monday at the Accra Sports Stadium
With only fifteen players out of the 28 players called by coach Milovan Rajevac, the Black Stars did some drills and shake ups before facing lower tier side Golden Kicks 5-1 in a training match.
Israel based striker Richmond Boakye Yiadom ‘Kwame Fish’ scored a brace on his return to the team while Crystal Palace striker Jordan Ayew also added another goal.
Caleb Ekuban and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku added a goal each after the break to wrap up a fine performance in the afternoon.
The fifteen players who currently in camp include goalkeeper Joseph Wollacott (Swindon Town), Manaf Nurudeen (Eupen), Richard Attah (Hearts of Oak), Philemon Baffour (Dreams FC).
The rest are Joseph Aidoo (Celta Vigo), Ismail Abdul Ganiyu (Asante Kotoko), Mubarak Wakaso (Shenzhen F.C), Edmund Addo (Sheriff Tiraspol), Andre Ayew (Al Sadd), Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace), Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Dreams FC).
Also, Samuel Owusu (Al Fayha) is around together with Richmond Boakye-Yiadom (Beitar Jerusalem), Benjamin Tetteh (Yeni Malatyaspor), Caleb Ekuban (Genoa).
The rest of the players are expected in Accra on Monday.
Meanwhile Head Coach Milovan Rajevac has invited Montari Kamaheni of Ashdod FC to replace Gideon Mensah of Bordeaux. The left back suffered bruises on his left ankle during Saturday’s French Ligue 1 clash against PSG.
The Black Stars will depart Accra on Tuesday afternoon for South Africa for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifier against Ethiopia at the Orlando stadium – Johannesburg on Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 15:00Hrs GMT.
The matchday fixtures of the Premier League will be honoured across all league centers over the weekend
Ghana Football Association’s director of communications, Henry Asante Twum, has rejected suggestions that Premier League games scheduled for the weekend could be postponed because of the international break.
Although, all major leagues across the world are on break to pave way for the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, Ghana Premier League continues unabated.
The Black Stars will travel to South Africa to face Ethiopia in the penultimate qualifying game in Johannesburg before they face South Africa in Cape Coast Sports Stadium four days later.
And according to Twum, all games will be honoured at the various league centers as Asante Kotoko travel to Bibiani on Friday to lock horns with debutants Gold Stars at the Dun’s Park.
“The league just started last week and I’m the just ended weekend we played matchday two. It’s been a while since Kotoko played at Baba Yara Sports Stadium but looking at the crowd here even under COVID-19 restrictions, it is very impressive,” Twum told Akoma FM.
“Therefore, the FA thinks that there is no need to break or postpone the games but rather, we have planned that on Friday, Gold Stars will play against Kotoko, then on Saturday, other games will continue.
“Also on Sunday, all matches are scheduled at 3PM and with the hope that by 5PM, all league games will be cleared.
“Moreover, the Black Stars game will be played at 7PM so people can still go back home from league centers and enjoy the game comfortably. So every premier league game is going on as scheduled,” he ended.
Crystal Palace striker striker Jordan Ayew was on target when Black Stars defeated lower division side Golden Kicks FC 5-1 in a training match ahead of 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers against Ethiopia and South Africa.
After coming under intense scrutiny for going over 50 official games for both club and country, Jordan found the back of the net at the Accra Sports Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Israel-based striker Richmond Boakye Yiadom also scored twice in the game as the Black Stars fine tune for the all important games.
Also, Dreams FC youngster Abdul Fatawu Issahaku added another goal before Called Ekuban wrapped up the victory with a solo effort.
The Black Stars, after today’s friendly, will travel to Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday to continue with their preparations for the game against Ethiopia over the weekend.
Ghana will host South Africa in the last game of the qualifiers and the winner of the fixture will top the group.
The Giants of the West showed class as they dispatched their Malian counterparts to make it out of the group with a game to spare
Ghana’s Hasaacas Ladies defeated Malian side AS Manda 3-0 to make it out of Group B of the maiden Caf Women’s Champions League ongoing in Egypt.
After winning their first game against Malabo Kings last week, Hasaacas Ladies needed to prove their worth once again and they did it with class.
Two goals from Evelyn Badu and another effort from Perpetual Agyekum sealed the win for the Ghanaian giants and they now find themselves in the semifinals even before they play their last game.
Badu latched onto a loose ball after a poor defending by the Malians on 17th minute and opened the scoring. The bulky striker’s effort took a slight deflection to beat the goalkeeper.
Caf Women's Champions League
Badu's shot was deflected into the net and the Ghanaian champions are in front. Hasaacas Ladies 1-0 AS Manda pic.twitter.com/Fg3FifAlCb
Deep in additional time, Perpetual Agyekum a wonderful goal from a free kick. The midfielder sent in a powerful drive from almost 30 yards out which went straight through the hands of Manda goalkeeper.
After the break, Hasaacas Ladies fluffed several opportunities that came their way.
Badu scored her double of the day with calm finish after she connected to a pass from her teammate. The goal means that she has scored four times and currently leads the topscorer’s chart.
⏰ 58’ | 𝐺𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿@EvelynBadu15 scores her second of the night and the fourth in this competition to become the top-scorer.
The striker has seized global headlines for the bad reason after his contract was terminated by the South African club following reports that he has bad luck
Ghanaian forward Mohammed Anas has been released by South African Premier Soccer League side TS Galaxy following complaints by some teammates and supporters that he has ‘bad luck’.
The Ghanaian, who has played in South Africa for almost a decade, has seen some of the clubs he represented relegated at the end of the season. And with his current struggling to survive or win games, the club’s top hierarchy agreed to ship him out to save themselves from future problems.
A source said some Galaxy players in the team raised their concern about Anas having bad luck and transferring it to the whole team.
“Every team he’s played for here (in South Africa) has either dodged relegation by a whisker or got relegated. He was at Maritzburg and they merely survived relegation that season. He was at Free State Stars when they were relegated and the same happened at Polokwane City.
“Last season he was with Black Leopards and the same thing happened. The players were worried that they are trying everything but the results are just not coming. He was quietly released by the club last week,” said the source.
In 2017, a post-match interview by Anas went viral after he thanked his wife and girlfriend. He, however, denied being unfaithful, saying, “My family knows that I call my daughter my girlfriend. That’s what I was talking about. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
The Kumasi-born moved to South Africa in 2016 from Eswatini and has represented five clubs including Maritzburg United and Black Leopards.
Ghanaian Champions Hasaacas Ladies on Monday, November 8, 2021 took part in the maiden CAF Women’s Club Licencing Workshop in Cairo, Egypt as part of advancing professionalism in women’s football clubs in Africa.
The Workshop was held for teams that are currently participating in the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League.
Chief Executive of the club Evelyn Nsiah Asare represented the Club at the Workshop.
The workshop, organized by CAF with the support of FIFA, was attended by coaches and managers from the eight clubs that have qualified for the final tournament.
Speaking at the workshop, CAF Vice-President and Chairperson of Women’s Football Committee, Kanizat Ibrahim said: “Having strong women’s football clubs is a guarantee of quality in the future. We owe it to ourselves to build a structure that respects standards and CAF is happy to support women’s clubs in order to improve professionalism.”
The objectives of the workshop were to:
Introduce the new CAF Women´s club licensing system and regulations to the clubs;
Explain the general objectives of the club licensing system;
Explain the club licensing criteria and requirements;
Understand the organization and structure of the participating clubs;
Have one on one meetings with the clubs to evaluate level of compliance of club licensing;
Gather administrative, financial and competition information related to the participating clubs;
Provide support and advise on fulfilment of the club licensing requirements;
CAF has worked on important updates on the Club Licensing Program at the continental level, which includes launching the inaugural edition of the CAF Women’s Club Licensing Regulations. This step comes in line with the creation of the 1st Edition of the CAF Women´s Champions League 2021 whereby clubs needed to meet certain criteria in order to obtain a licence and be able to participate in the competition.
CAF & FIFA Women’s Football departments and CAF Club Licensing gave brilliant presentations about women’s football clubs and development strategies.
The introduction and implementation of the system allows CAF to better understand the realities of the top women’s football clubs and accelerate the professionalization of the Women’s game in the continent.
The CAF Women’s Club Licensing Regulations focuses on the sporting, administration, infrastructure, finance, and legal pillars. It is particularly important to mention that the CAF Women’s club Licensing criteria are simple and realistic for the clubs to meet and is applied to the women’s football clubs participating in every edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League.
In view for the participation in the CAF Women´s Champions League 2021 which is organized in two phases (zonal qualifiers and final phase), the CAF member associations concluded a licensing process at national level in respect to the obligation of their clubs having to meet the criteria and requirements set by CAF for participation in the competition.
For the 2021 CAF WCL edition, 34 clubs were licensed and 32 took part in zonal qualifiers.
The Porcupine Warriors played in front of their home fans for the first time in almost two years and it ended the way they anticipated
Asante Kotoko have moved to the summit of the Premier League log as they were made to work tirelessly before they could break down a resilient Bechem United by two late goals.
AshesGyamera.com’s Editor-in-chief, Evans Gyamera-Antwi highlights the five most valuable lessons that the victory came along with on Sunday.
Prosper Ogum Narteh is stubborn but expert in substitutions
The Kotoko gaffer has shown once again that he prefers Mudasiru Salifu as a holding midfielder to Richard Boadu ‘Agadas’ even though it keeps failing. His stubborness may cost him one day. In spite of this, he has had his substitutions during games spot on in the two games played so far. In the game against Dreams on opening day, Ogum’s tactical changes won the day for Kotoko and it was the same story on Sunday against Bechem.
Ogum not ready to start Richard Boadu
With Kotoko struggling to break down the bulwark defence of Bechem, Ogum brought on Richard Boadu and Isaac Oppong for Stephen Amankonah and Joseph Amoako respectively. That decision changed the role of Fabio Gama and Richmond Lamptey and helped his side to exert more pressure on Bechem’s defence.
Very late in the game, Georges Mfegue Rodrigues and Samuel Boateng were introduced and the duo added bite to the attack which led to Oppong winning a penalty. Boateng then headed in another goal to seal the day after meeting a cross from Oppong.
Kotoko supporters missed their club in Kumasi
Per the performance Kotoko have displayed, it would not be a surprise if Kotoko maintain their top spot until new year since they have favourable games coming up but the atmosphere created by the supporters in their first game at Baba Yara Sports Stadium since March 2020 speaks a lot of things.
As early as 7am on Sunday, there were long queues at the various entrances to the stadium as supporters were waiting to be served tickets to enter and watch their beloved players and club. Out of the twenty players for the game on Sunday, only five had played at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium for Kotoko before and the remaining fifteen were waiting to make their bow.
Even when the going was tough for them, the supporters kept chanting and urging their players on to find an open and score a goal. It wasn’t surprising that their loud shout even pushed the referee to award them a penalty when Isaac Oppong was bundled down in Bechem’s penalty area.
The wild jubilations around the stadium and through the principal streets of Kumasi confirmed that football was indeed missed and Kotoko supporters have longed for months to watch live games after attending church, wedding, naming ceremonies and other social activities on Sundays.
Okrah exposes Yussif Mubarik & Ganiu is a lucky lad
Although, Kotoko won, they should be thankful that Bechem United were poor upfront. The visitors had numerous opportunities to win the day but fluffed them especially Emmanuel Avornyo. Augustine Okrah also beat the hell out of Yussif Mubarik.
Nice game today. I was elated to be back to Baba Yara Sports Stadium and thanks to the supporters for the warm reception.
The duo, who were teammates few months ago became sworn enemies on Sunday. However, it was Okrah who had the better side as he constantly exposed the weakness in Mubarik.
Also, Ganiu who partnered Mubarik was very luck not to have had an early shower. That career-threatening tackle on Avornyo would’ve been deemed a straight red card on any day but referee Gabriel Opoku Antwi favoured him.
Late goals carrying Kotoko
After two games, Kotoko have scored five goals and it will interest you to know that all of these goals came in the last five minutes of each game.
Against Dreams FC, Kotoko equalised on 86th minute through Mudasiru, before goals from Richmond Lamptey and Isaac Oppong wrapped up the win for them. Once again, they had to wait until 85th minute against Bechem United before Abdul Ganiu shot them in front through a penalty.
Samuel Boateng scored his debut goal for Kotoko and it was also deep in additional time.
Ganiu joined by Dickson Afoakwa to celebrate goal against Bechem
Henceforth, any side that will face Kotoko will be aware that until the referee blasts his whistle to bring down the curtains in the game, it is not all over and they can be punished even in the last few seconds.
Doubters To Believers
At the start of the season, many people questioned Asante Kotoko’s decision to tour Dubai as they failed to win even one game against all the lower tier sides they faced. Beside, reports were that new coach Prosper Ogum Narteh was struggling to make out his final starting squad as too many new players arrived at the club.
Lamptey challenging Avornyo for the ball
A lot of pundits, rival fans and media suggested that Kotoko will struggle especially in the early embers of the season but after two games, they are cruising at the top. At this point, people have now started to revise their notes.
Doubters are gradually becoming believers as they see Kotoko as the real deal. Of course, they’ve got to believe as as Kotoko is prospering under Prosper Ogum.
With Kotoko heading to Bibiani next weekend to face league debutants Gold Stars, they’re expected not to drop points or at worse not to end in a defeat.
The Hunters midfielder is concerned about the safety of Premier League players as referees are reluctant to issue red cards when matters most
Bechem United forward Augustine Okrah says the Ghana Premier League referees must do more to protect players following his side’s 2-0 defeat against Asante Kotoko at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Okrah, who was making a return to the Baba Yara Sports Stadium following his transfer from Kotoko to Bechem, had a fairly game but was concerned by some of the challenges that avoided strict punishment, as no red cards were issued despite several cynical challenges on his teammates.
Notably among them was the rush challenge by Kotoko’s captain Abdul Ganiu Ismail on Bechem United striker Emmanuel Avornyo in the second half.
The lanky striker went past defender Mubarik Yussif and with Ganiu as the last defender, the Kotoko skipper brought him down in a dangerous manner. However, despite the referee consulting the fourth referee, only a foul and yellow card were awarded to the surprise of Bechem United players and technical team.
Nice game today. I was elated to be back to Baba Yara Sports Stadium and thanks to the supporters for the warm reception.
