Black Stars chase face-saving win over Niger today

 An uninspiring, ego-shattered Black Stars will honour the last of the calami­tous AFCON 2025 qualifiers with a home game against Niger at the Accra Sports Stadium, today.

It might be the most difficult outing for the Stars, although there is perhaps nothing at stake for them; nothing competitive to drive them to go for a win except pride.

Every follower of the Black Stars can attest to this. Never in the history of Ghana has foot­ball, at least for the past decade, had the Black Stars sunk so low; so low to the extent of failing to qualify for an AFCON.

Sequel to this, the signs had been on the wall for those that matter or those that call the shots to find a way around it but noth­ing was done to rescue the free fall of the team.

Now, Ghana is set to record a piece of history for completing AFCON qualifiers as whipping boys in a group that consist of the Palancas Negras of Angola, Su­dan, and Niger unless they win the last game against the Nigeriens.

This must be reprehensible to those at the helm of affairs of the Black Stars, having supervised such shambolic performances throughout the campaign.

What explanation can they of­fer to those players that put their lives and everything on the line to win the four AFCONs that earned Ghana the accolade of continental giants?

Preparation-wise, psyching players up and motivating fans to be at the Accra Sports Stadium on a working day such as a Monday would be much more Herculean than the attempt to beat Niger to at least do the team’s pride some good.

A shocking Sudan thrashing by Niger (4-0) on Thursday provided some amount of hope for what could be the greatest comebacks in the history of African football.

With the Stars needing two wins and a Sudan collapse in the last two games, the Black Stars had their destiny in their own hands to stretch the determination of the second slot for the group to the final day.

And, there, they lined up with the group leaders, Angola, with qualification sealed.

All the Black Stars needed was to revive the team spirit of old to give the Angolans a shocker, a feat similar to the one they recorded against Mali in the World Cup qualifiers early this year.

The Stars realised this and started the game with that hunger and poise fans wanted to see.

New skipper, Jordan Ayew, fired the Black Stars ahead with a beautiful free-kick to put the team’s agenda on course.

However, the team succumbed to the Angola pressure as the Stars lived dangerously; a period that saw Ghana concede a penalty which was saved by goalkeeper, Abdul Manaf Nurudeen, but later conceded an equaliser following a beautiful team effort.

Ghana continued to live dangerously and survived two late scares as the Angolans broke free and had two one-on-one situa­tions which they missed.

The one-all outcome effec­tively ended Ghana’s hopes for a comeback. That requires them to appease Ghanaians with a win against Niger who are also out of contention for a Morocco 2025 place.

So, while Angola and Sudan engage in a celebratory game to revel a triumphant entry to Morocco, Ghana, together with the Nigeriens will be mourning the loss in Accra as they take stock to know where their respective campaigns went bad.

To say all is not well with the Black Stars is stating the obvious. For eight top players of the team to opt out of national duty at such a critical moment raises more eyebrows.

The reasons for various degrees of injuries may not be convincing enough but without concrete evidence to suggest oth­erwise, one is forced to accept that as the reality.

With virtually nothing at stake now, Coach Otto Addo is expect­ed to assemble a squad strong enough to subdue the Nigeriens who shocked Sudan in the penulti­mate group match.

Niger appear spiritless until they spanked the Sudanese. That suddenly lifted them over Ghana on the table. And in a quest to maintain their third position, they will face off squarely against the Black Stars.

Just like the Angolans, they will bring their physique to bear on the game, a tactic that could compel the Ghanaians to with­draw as they are occupied with club commitments.

That notwithstanding, the Stars must be ready to end the campaign on a pleasant note. A defeat to Niger in front of the home fans will be inexplicable.

A lot of the pressure would therefore be on Jordan Ayew, Ku­dus Mohammed, Gideon Mensah and others who would be on the battlefield against Niger.

BY ANDREW NORTEY

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