{"id":413436,"date":"2017-09-01T14:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/09\/01\/2018-world-cup-kwesi-appiah-hopeful-of-qualification\/"},"modified":"2017-09-01T14:00:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T14:00:25","slug":"2018-world-cup-kwesi-appiah-hopeful-of-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/01\/2018-world-cup-kwesi-appiah-hopeful-of-qualification\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 World Cup: Kwesi Appiah hopeful of qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Sports News of Friday,  1 September 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>fifa.com<\/p>\n<p>2017-09-01<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/77189725.295.jpg\" alt=\"Kwesi Appiah C\" title=\"Kwesi Appiah C\" width=\"295\" height=\"200\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Kwesi Appiah is confident Ghana will be in Russia<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=149916385178506\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=149916385178506\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1504274425_353_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> There is a cohort of African countries that have been ever-present at the FIFA World Cup\u2122 in recent years: Ghana, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon and Algeria have all appeared at both of the last two editions of the global extravaganza.<\/p>\n<p>It will be a different story next time round, though, with Algeria, Cameroon and Nigeria having been drawn in the same qualifying group, meaning that only one of them will make it to Russia 2018. On top of that, Ghana have stumbled in their section early on, enabling Egypt to claim pole position.<\/p>\n<p>This sluggish start, coupled with the Black Stars\u2019 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations disappointment, prompted the Ghana Football Association to make a change in the dugout, drafting in James Kwesi Appiah as the new coach. \u2018New\u2019 in a manner of speaking at least.<\/p>\n<p>The appointment actually took Appiah back to highly familiar surroundings: he previously served as Milovan Rajevac\u2019s assistant throughout the Serbian\u2019s spell in charge, which included a run to the quarter-finals at South Africa 2010, before taking the top job himself and guiding his homeland to Brazil 2014 via an emphatic play-off victory over the Pharaohs.<\/p>\n<p>Appiah knows full well that repeating the feat this time round will be a tough task, admitting as much to FIFA.com in an exclusive interview. \u201cWe\u2019re sitting on one point, while Egypt have got six,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, we\u2019re going to try to win our upcoming matches and leapfrog them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A chance to turn the corner<\/p>\n<p>Ghana\u2019s next assignment consists of a couple of games in close succession against Congo, who are propping up the table after two matchdays. This, therefore, represents a golden opportunity for Appiah\u2019s men to make up ground on Egypt, who themselves face a double header against second-placed Uganda, although the coach was adamant that the basement boys will prove no pushover: \u201cCongo have a good team. Nobody in this group can be taken lightly; on the contrary, we have to approach every match in the same manner, with the same desire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, an upbeat Appiah insisted that Russia remains well within reach for his side: \u201cEvery team has played two matches, so we\u2019ve got four games left each and 12 points to play for. Anything is still possible, so long as we keep working hard and we perform well. We\u2019ll have to see what happens, but I think anyone in the group can still qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aiming for progress on all fronts<\/p>\n<p>Despite Ghana\u2019s chequered fortunes of late, both in World Cup qualifying and at the Africa Cup of Nations, Appiah is confident that his charges have what it takes to rise to the challenges ahead of them: \u201cI\u2019m satisfied with the squad at my disposal. I just want to help them compete better in the remainder of the qualifying campaign and beyond. We have some young players in the team and we\u2019ve got to ensure they kick on in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What goals, then, has the 57-year-old set for Russia 2018 and Cameroon 2019? \u201cGhana were knocked out in the semi-finals of the 2017 AFCON, but it was a creditable showing. We\u2019ve got to try to build on that, refine our game and bring through new players. With regard to the next edition, which is two years away, for starters we\u2019re just going to try to qualify and then we\u2019ll take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Ghana\u2019s remaining fixtures on the road to Russia 2018:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>1 September: Ghana-Congo<\/p>\n<p>5 September: Congo-Ghana<\/p>\n<p>2 October: Uganda-Ghana<\/p>\n<p>6 November: Ghana-Egypt<\/p>\n<p>FIFA. com<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 55 updated by: 55 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports News of Friday, 1 September 2017 Source: fifa.com 2017-09-01 Kwesi Appiah is confident Ghana will be in Russia &#13; There is a cohort of African countries that have been ever-present at the FIFA World Cup\u2122 in recent years: Ghana, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon and Algeria have all appeared at both of the last two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":397761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2018 World Cup: Kwesi Appiah hopeful of qualification - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/01\/2018-world-cup-kwesi-appiah-hopeful-of-qualification\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"2018 World Cup: Kwesi Appiah hopeful of qualification - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sports News of Friday, 1 September 2017 Source: fifa.com 2017-09-01 Kwesi Appiah is confident Ghana will be in Russia &#013; 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