Twenty-four of the final 27 players in the Black Stars squad were present in training on Tuesday in anticipation of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
After a nine-day training in Kumasi, the team will go to Ivory Coast for the AFCON, which is set to begin on January 13, 2024.After a detailed examination, the technical team, under the direction of Chris Hughton, decided to move the first day’s training from the Baba Yara Stadium to the Dr Kwame Kyei Sports Complex since the pitch at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium was not in good shape.
Joseph Wollacott, Lawrence Ati-Zigi, Alidu Seidu, Denis Odoi, Kingsley Schindler, Gideon Mensah, Abdul Fatawu Hamid, Nicholas Opoku, and Daniel Amartey were among the 24 players who took part.
Other players including Abdul Samed Salis, Baba Iddrisu, Alexander Djiku, Salisu Mohammed, Elisha Owusu, Richmond Lamptey, Andre Ayew, Joseph Painstil, Antoine Semenyo, Ernest Nuamah, Jonathan Sowah, Majeed Ashimeru, Ransford Yeboah and Osman Bukari were all present.
Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Ayew and Inaki Willians are part of the 27 man squad but were not present due to injury concerns but reportedly they will join before the friendly match against Namibia on Monday, 8 January, 2024. Thomas Partey will not make it to this years AFCON due to injury and recovery processes, it is considered to be a big loss since he has the experience in midfield and has also featured in three AFCON tournaments.
The black stars will play against Egypt, Cape Verde and Mozambique in the group stage of the competition. In the previous tournament, the team was eliminated from the tournament in a humiliating group stage exit. It was one of the saddest nights for black stars losing 3-2 to Comoros at the Roumdjé Adjia Stadium in Garoua,Cameroon. The tournament was supposed to be played in June 2021 but was moved to 9 January and ended on 6 February 2022 due to the Covid 19 global pandemic.
Senegal lifted the trophy after beating Egypt in the final on penalties, winning their first ever AFCON title.
The last time the black stars came close to the trophy was in 2015 in Equatorial Guinea. Ghana played against the current host nation Ivory Coast in the final at the Estadio de Bata Bata. The match ended 0-0 in 90 minutes and went to extra time. After extra time, nothing separated both teams and the match further went to the penalty shootouts. Ghana started on a good note and was leading 2:0 in the first two shootouts.
Afriyie Acquah and Frank Acheampong missed two penalties which sparked the hopes of the Ivorians. After tough round of penalty shoot outs Ivory Coast won with Ghana’s goalkeeper Razak missing the last penalty for Ghana and Ivorian goalkeeper Barry, after saving the penalty scored the wining goal for the Ivorians to win 9-8 on penalties.
The night was one of the most dramatic display in football after Ivory Coast came back from 2:0 down to win 9:8 in the penalty shootouts to win their second Africa Cup of Nations trophy. Coincidentally they won their first trophy against Ghana in a penalty shootout in the 1992 final.
This year Ghana is going back to Ivory Coast in the quest to win their 5th Africa Cup of nations after 40 years. Ghana is known to be one of the promising countries in terms of football and for the black stars not winning any major trophy for the country has raised concerns among citizens over how the quality of football is falling in the country.
Ivory Coast being a neighboring country to Ghana will see a large number of Ghanaian supporters to cheer the black stars up for them to end the trophy drought in the country. Are we going to witness Ghana lifting the trophy in Ivory Coast after losing to the Ivorians in two consecutive finals?
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