Sports News of Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Source: GHANAsoccernet.com
Kwesi Nyantakyi admits the Black Stars’ triumph at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations will be a major plus for his administration as the head of the Ghana FA.
Ghana encounters tournament hosts Equatorial Guinea on Thursday for a place in Sunday’s grand finale to be played in Bata.
The Black Stars are overwhelming favourites not only for the semi-final clash, but also for the title, having revived their campaign following a disastrous start.
Ghana have, however, often choked at this stage of the competition in recent times.
Three of their previous four semi-final clashes have ended in agony – even when they hosted it back in 2008.
Their passage to the finals in 2010 also ended in a major disappointment with the more experienced Egyptian side winning the title at the death to prolong Ghana’s three-decade wait for an African title.
Ghana FA boss Kwesi Nyantakyi concedes this consistent failure has been a major psychological barrier in his administration – one he is very eager to succumb come Thursday.
“I have raised this issue many times and on many fora expressing the view that our inability to go beyond the semi-final on those previous occasions might be a psychological shortcoming,” he said.
“So I tasked the experts in that area to look at how we can unravel the mystery surrounding it.
“But I believe that if Ghana went beyond the semi-finals into the finals [this term], it will make all of us happy and especially those of us at the helm of affairs – we will be happier.
“All Ghanaians will be happy, but those of us closely associated with the team will be happier because it would have been a demonstration of a favourable outcome of all the investment, all the sacrifice and all the hard work that we have put into this team.
“In football, always, it is the results that show. You can do everything and anything if you don’t get the results, it means you haven’t done much.
“And all these years we have spent at the Federation will be seen not with the achievement that we expect until we have something concrete to show.”