Paintsil: Ghana's game against CAR tricky
A Former Black Stars full-back, John Paintsil, has described Ghana's game in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Central Africa Republic (CAR) as tricky.
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Even though the 42-year-old former West Ham United player is confident of victory, he anticipates that Thursday's game against CAR at the Baba Yara Stadium will see the visitors come with a different game plan to frustrate the Black Stars and ensure an upset.
Sharing his thoughts on the upcoming game to the Graphic Sports in an interview last Friday, Paintsil was of the opinion that countries found it more pleasurable when they beat the Black Stars because of Ghana's pedigree on the continent.
''It’s a tricky match which we all believe we'll win but we know that any team that plays the Stars always come and disturb us because the Ghana national team motivates other teams. When we beat them, they don’t care but when they beat us it is big news, so they've got nothing to lose if we beat them'', he said.
According to him after playing together for a while now, Coach Chris Hughton's boys have established some telepathy and understand each other well enough to overcome any threat that the visitors may possess.
''It's a tricky match but we believe the boys are ready to do well because where we are there is no turning back. They have done it previously well in the games that they played so now I think the cohesion is getting to the right level because the more they play together the better they get used to each other and this is one of the games they would like to showcase their talent'', he said.
Touching on the controversy over whether Black Stars skipper Andre Ayew must be invited despite not playing actively because he is a free agent, Painstil who also played for Fulham said that was in the domain of the coach, and he must take whatever decision he felt was right for the team.
“I am not the coach but sometimes there is a philosophy in every coach about expectations they have about their players. Some coaches when you are out of club, they don’t want to invite you because they feel you are not ready”, he said.
