Black Satellites Held By Gabon In Qualifier

The Black Satellites were held to a goalless draw by their Gabonese counterparts at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in the first leg of the 2015 African Youth Championship qualifiers on Sunday.

The first half which was fairly balanced ended with both sides failing to find the back of the net.

The Black Satellites lacked cohesion throughout the game and couldn’t get the rhythm they needed because there was a lot of individual play.

Despite the decision of Oti Akenten, the Technical Director of the GFA to walk into the dressing room to help Selas Tetteh give pep talks to the Satellites boys during the half time break, the score line remained the same in the second half of the game.

Ghana wasted all the goal scoring opportunities they created with Samuel Afful being the worst culprit. The way team was relaxed and their goalkeeper Menene Mekosso resorted to a lot of antics to delay play during the closing minutes of the game.

The home fans, who were impressed with the performance of the Gabonese applauded them in the course of the second half.

The Black Satellites will travel to Libreville in two weeks time to face Gabon in the return encounter.

Gabon qualified to this stage after earning a goalless draw in Kigali against Rwanda before beating their opponent 1-0 at home in the return leg, while Ghana got a walk over before reaching this stage.

The winner of the two-leg third round qualifier will advance to the finals to be staged by Senegal.

Seven winners will join hosts, Senegal for the Championship slated for 8-22 March 2015.

Starting line-up: Mutawakilu Seidu, Owusu Bempah, Patrick Asmah, Steven Anokye Badu, Joseph Adjei, Latif Abubakar, Thomas Agyapong, Yaw Yeboah, Samuel Afful, Samuel Tetteh, Prosper Kasim.