{"id":420305,"date":"2017-09-20T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T09:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/09\/20\/u-17-wc-2017-ghana-look-to-rekindle-past-glory-on-return-with-title-in-india\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T09:00:31","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T09:00:31","slug":"u-17-wc-2017-ghana-look-to-rekindle-past-glory-on-return-with-title-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/20\/u-17-wc-2017-ghana-look-to-rekindle-past-glory-on-return-with-title-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"U-17 WC 2017: Ghana look to rekindle past glory on return, with title in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Sports News of Wednesday, 20 September 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>GHANAsoccernet.com <\/p>\n<p>2017-09-20<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/86010555.295.jpg\" alt=\"Black Starlets Failed\" title=\"Black Starlets Failed\" width=\"295\" height=\"126\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Black Starlets<\/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\/1505898031_713_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\">When it comes to the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria\u2019s dominance of the prestigious age group tournament is often spoken of.<\/p>\n<p>The African nation has not done much at the senior World Cup but has won the U-17 equivalent five times \u2014 more than any other team.<\/p>\n<p>However, while their domination has been strung over 16 editions of the tournament, no one established their credentials as heavyweights in the category quite like Ghana. The Ghanaians were so rampant in the 10-year phase between the 1991 and 1999 edition that they won the title twice (1991, 1995), besides finishing second two more times (1993, 1997). They also finished the 1999 edition in third place.<\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s fortunes have, however, plummeted since those heady days. Barring a semi-final spot at the 2007 edition held in South Korea, Ghana have never been contenders.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the Black Starlets will be competing in their first U-17 World Cup in a decade when the competition begins on 6 October with Ghana taking on Colombia in New Delhi. Being drawn in Group A with teams like South American giants Colombia, USA and India, who will have overwhelming support from the stands, the African outfit will have their work cut out to progress to the knockout stages. Luckily for them, the format of the tournament means that four best third-placed teams will also get an entry into the knockout stages.<\/p>\n<p>What would hold them in good stead is the confidence they gained from finishing second in the uber-competitive African U-17 Championships held earlier this year. In their qualifiers, they first overcame a strong challenge from Burkina Faso, edging past them 6-5 over two legs, before beating Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in the main tournament they thumped Cameroon 4-0 before drubbing Gabon 5-0. In the semi-final of the competition, they beat Niger on penalties before losing 0-1 to Mali in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the talented youngsters will have to shoulder the burden of winning a title their country last won before any of them were even born.<\/p>\n<p>Recently Kwesi Nyantakyi, the president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), was quoted in the Ghanaian local media proclaiming that the team was good enough to win the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Starlets have the quality to win the World Cup after some players were released by their clubs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The national team coach Paa Kwesi Fabin was more circumspect. However, he was confident that despite the weight of pressure weighing on the shoulders of his wards, the team would make an impact in India.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not travelling to India just to add up to the numbers. We are going to work hard to win the ultimate but I don\u2019t want to promise. I just want to tell Ghanaians that they should expect a very good tournament from the team,\u201d the coach stated in an interview with Graphic Sports before the team flew out to UAE for a training camp earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana\u2019s return to the U-17 World Cup after 10 years of missing out may be a sign that things are finally on track in the African country. But given their past pedigree, nothing less than a title would be good enough.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related_articles\" style=\"width: 100%;\">\n<div style=\"clear: both; font-size: 90%; background-color: #eeeaea; padding: 5px; width: 60%; margin-top: 10px;\">\n<table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/96124592.jpg\" style=\"padding-right:2px;\" \/><\/td>\n<td style=\"border:0; padding:0;width:100%; vertical-align:middle; font-size:11px;\">Courtesy of <b>GHANAsoccernet.com<\/b> &#8211; Ghana&#8217;s leading football news website. Click for more news.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Comments:<\/strong><br \/>\nThis article has no comments yet, be the first to comment\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: -1 updated by: -1 --><\/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 Wednesday, 20 September 2017 Source: GHANAsoccernet.com 2017-09-20 Black Starlets &#13; When it comes to the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria\u2019s dominance of the prestigious age group tournament is often spoken of. The African nation has not done much at the senior World Cup but has won the U-17 equivalent five times \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":418234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420305","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>U-17 WC 2017: Ghana look to rekindle past glory on return, with title in India - 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\/20\/u-17-wc-2017-ghana-look-to-rekindle-past-glory-on-return-with-title-in-india\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"U-17 WC 2017: Ghana look to rekindle past glory on return, with title in India - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sports News of Wednesday, 20 September 2017 Source: GHANAsoccernet.com 2017-09-20 Black Starlets &#013; When it comes to the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria\u2019s dominance of the prestigious age group tournament is often spoken of. 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