Daily Independent (Lagos)
George Akpayen
11 December 2008
Lagos — In spite of emerging as champion of the maiden edition of the U-20 West African Football Union (WAFU), Ghana believes that the Flying Eagles of Nigeria remains one of the favourites for the African Youth Championship (AYC) in Rwanda next month.
Sellas Tetteh, head coach of Ghana's Black Meteors as the U-20 in that country is nicknamed, is of the opinion that the Flying Eagles, despite failing to progress beyond the quarter-final stage still remains a side to watch when the African championship commences in six weeks.
The Ghanaian was, however, saying this bearing in mind that the Nigerian selectors would beef up its U-20 national team with some of its foreign-based players.
Apart from ranking Nigeria as one of the favourites, Tetteh, who was Ghana's assistant coach to the 2006 edition of the FIFA World Cup in Germany, also tipped his native country, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire as nations from the West African region that are capable of winning the U-20 African championship in Rwanda.
"That Nigeria could not make it to the last four of the WAFU Cup did not determine its performance at AYC. I think Nigeria is indeed a team to watch out for in Rwanda. I predict that it is going to be a different scenario entirely in Rwanda, especially for teams from West Africa. I see Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire doing well at the championship," he said.
But Tetteh said Ghana's priority would be qualifying for the World Youth Championship (WYC) in Egypt, as he hopes that Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire reaches the U-20 world championship as well.
"For us, I think qualifying for the World Cup in Egypt is the main thing and I wish Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire will also make it to the World Cup," Tetteh quipped.
Speaking on the triumph of his side at the just-concluded WAFU Cup, the excited Ghanaian coach admitted that the success story did not come easy.
But he is happy that WAFU Cup would give Ghana so much dimension for the AYC since the team made up of home-based players would have the chance to compete for shirts in the African championship.
"Our last two matches, the semi-final and final, have been the toughest we have played out of the six matches in the competition. I believe that with what my boys played in this championship, the foreign-based players that will be part of the build up to AYC will have to prove themselves because I only believe in what I see, not what people say they are. But I know the home-based players will not disappoint when the time comes," said Tetteh.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
