Time for Stars to avenge Rwanda loss
Rwanda may not be one of the continent’s football powerhouses, but 12 years ago the Amavubis left Ghana’s Black Stars grief-stricken, after a late strike by Olivier Karekezi handed his side, then handled by one-time Ghana coach, Ratomir Dujkovic, a famous 1-0 home win and denied Ghana the opportunity of participating in the 2004 AFCON hosted by Tunisia.
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Since that epic match in Kigali, the two nations’ path has not crossed, but tomorrow’s AFCON 2017 qualifier at the Amahoro Stadium offers the Ghanaians a fine chance to avenge the July 6, 2003 loss which caused the Stars to muss Tunisia ’94 -- the only dent in Ghana’s Nations Cup history since 1992.
Now under the care of Coach Avram Grant, the Stars have a fine opportunity to banish that nightmare as they march towards the 2017 Nations Cup in Gabon, having started the qualifying campaign on a flying note with a 7-1 mauling of Mauritius in Accra in June.
Grant has many of the architects of the Mauritius massacre in camp but there are doubts over the availability of captain Asamoah Gyan, who has fitness challenge, after receiving a knock on the knee when the team played Congo in a friendly last Tuesday.
However, the team’s medical staff, headed by Dr Adam Baba, is hopeful that the Shanghai SIPG striker, who had ice pack strapped over his swollen knee when he sat out of yesterday’s training in Kigali, will recover in time to lead the Stars against the Amavubis.
But Grant can fall on in-form midfielder, Andre Ayew, who has taken the English Premiership by storm by scoring three goals in four appearances for Swansea.
Always a highly motivated player, Ayew will be key to the Stars’ game plan tomorrow, alongside his younger brother Jordan, who scored the winning goal in Ghana’s 3-2 win over Congo last Tuesday.
Other available players are England-based trio of Christian Atsu, Baba Rahman and Jeffrey Schlupp, Spain-based Wakaso Mubarak, Afriyie Acquah, Harrison Afful (Columbus Crew, USA), John Boye (Sivasspor, Turkey), Jonathan Mensah (Evian, France), Gyimah Edwin (Orlando Pirates, South Africa), Daniel Amartey, (FC Copenhagen, Denmark) and Rabiu Mohammed (Krasnodar, Russia).
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The rest are Solomon Asante (T.P. Mazembe, DR Congo), Bernard Mensah (Getafe, Spain), David Accam (Chicago Fire, USA) and Richmond Boakye Yiadom (Atalanta, Italy).
Ghana leads Group H ahead of Rwanda, who defeated Mozambique 1-0, on superior goal difference.