Posted On Wednesday, 24th April 2013
Ghana U17 team crashed out after just the first round
By Ameenu Shardow
Kwasi Nyantakyi says the Ghana U17 team achieved its pre-tournament targets despite their disastrous finish at the African Junior Championships.
The Black Starlets crashed out of the tournament being staged in Morocco after the group stage without winning even a single game.
Paa Kwesi Fabin’s team recovered from a dreadful start against Nigeria with a 6-1 defeat but were unable to garner enough points to make it out of Group B which had Congo and Ivory Coast as the other members.
Despite the disastrous campaign of the Black Starlets, Ghana FA boss Kwasi Nyantakyi says the targets set for the team had been achieved.
“First of all you need to know the targets set for the team before you can make a firm conclusion on whether they did well or not,” he told GHANAsoccernet.com.
“Our motive was to present players of the right ages as part of our developmental agenda and not about taking over-aged players to win trophies.
“If they had won the cup it would have only been a bonus but then our real motive was to take players of the right ages to the competition and so far as we achieved this to a large extent I believe they met their targets.”
The Black Starlets’ poor showing in Morocco is probably Ghana’s worst performance in the history of the African U17 championships which it has won twice.
There however appears to be a shift on the premium Ghana places on the tournament – with focus now more on developing players rather than winning.