Let’s be patient with Black Stars – Kuuku Dadzie

Former Black Stars Cap­tain, James Kuuku Dadzie, has called for maximum support for the senior national team, the Black Stars, as they take on the Pharaohs of Egypt in the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ghana will seek to get its campaign back on track on Thursday after falling to a 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde at the Félix Houphouet-Boigny stadium here in Abidjan on Sunday.

Speaking exclusively to the Times Sports after the game, Mr Dadzie, who coached the Black Starlets and the Black Princess­es, said the team would need the support of the nation more than before to progress in the tournament.

“Let us be patient and contin­ue to give our hundred per cent support to the team. We have played one game. We are left with two games. Let’s support the boys for the second game and with the mindset that the country is still behind us, they will produce the results.

“The first game is gone and we can’t cry over spilled milk. We have an opportunity to get back on track and they’ll need our maximum support to do that.

Ghana can make it out of the group but it starts with our second game and that is why the twelfth man – the fans – will be most critical and once we make it out of the group, the course of our campaign will change,” a confident Kuuku Dadzie said.

Assessing the performance of the Black Stars against Cape Verde, Kuuku Dadzie, a member of the Ghana 1978 AFCON winning team, said though unfortunate, the fellow West Africans were a better team on the day.

“The game was very competi­tive and from my point of view, the Cape Verde team were a little ahead of us.

“This is the first game so I’m very confident that the Black Stars will rise to the occasion and get us the result we crave for. Football is a game of uncer­tainty. Let’s wait for the second game and see how it pans out.”

Following criticisms of the technical team led by Chris Houghton over player selection, the former skipper of the team said the coach has his reasons for fielding the players he select­ed for the game.

“The coach knows which team will give him the results and he made the selection accordingly based on their suitability and availability. It’s unfortunate it didn’t go our way but coaches have reasons for their selection.”

Going into the second game, he said the players would have to psyche up and that is where the support base would be crucial.

“It is all psychological and the players will have to be psyched up to understand the task ahead and I know they know it.

“If they adopt that mindset that this is the game of their careers that will propel them to victory though it’s not going to be easy against Egypt,” he said.

 FROM JULIUS YAO PE­TETSI, ABIDJAN, COTE D’IVOIRE

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