{"id":112416,"date":"2023-10-19T17:53:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T17:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/19\/former-great-olympics-coach-predicts-doom\/"},"modified":"2023-10-19T17:53:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T17:53:53","slug":"former-great-olympics-coach-predicts-doom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/19\/former-great-olympics-coach-predicts-doom\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Great Olympics coach predicts doom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"384\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697629019_185_Screenshot-2023-10-17-092413-696x384.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Screenshot 2023-10-17 092413\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black Stars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former Great Olympics coach, J.E Sarpong says the Black Stars will need a miracle to qualify for the next round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His comments come after Chris Hughton and his boys failed to record a win in their two friendly games against Mexico and USA.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana suffered a 2-0 defeat against the CONCACAF champions before losing 4-0 to the US Men\u2019s team on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>However, the Black Stars have been paired with Egpyt, Cape Verde and Mozambique in the 2023 AFCON scheduled to be hosted in Ivory Coast next year.<\/p>\n<p>And with less than four months to the start of the tournament, the veteran Ghanaian coach believes the Black Stars will need a miracle to even make it to the next round of the tournament.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"696\" height=\"564\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_0781-696x564-1.jpg\" alt=\"Coach JE Sarpong\" class=\"wp-image-1924266\"  \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Coach JE Sarpong<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He further urged Ghanaians to lower their expectations since the four-time African champions is not favourite to win the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the moment, it is impossible for Ghana to win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which is a fact. It will even take a miracle for Ghana to qualify for the next round of the tournament,\u201d Sarpong, who is also a former Ebusua Dwarfs trainer told Kumasi-based Sompa FM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn our group, everyone is talking about Egypt because they are the most successful team in the AFCON but they seem to be struggling recently and I think the focus should be on Cape Verde and Mozambique. In our case, we have lost to Comoros and have been struggling to win games so it will be difficult for Ghana to win the AFCON tournament in Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n<p>I will implore Ghanaians to lower their expectations because it will take a miracle for us to qualify for the next round of the tournament. We are not the favourite to win the tournament,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has been scheduled to kick off from January 13 to February 11, 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana last won the AFCON trophy in 1982 in Lybia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"VLOZvSPex7U\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FC BARCELONA PRESIDENT: Joan Laporta is under investigation for bribery and other crimes\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VLOZvSPex7U?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Stars Former Great Olympics coach, J.E Sarpong says the Black Stars will need a miracle to qualify for the next round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).\u00a0 His comments come after Chris Hughton and his boys failed to record a win in their two friendly games against Mexico and USA. Ghana suffered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Former Great Olympics coach predicts doom - 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\/2023\/10\/19\/former-great-olympics-coach-predicts-doom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Great Olympics coach predicts doom - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Black Stars Former Great Olympics coach, J.E Sarpong says the Black Stars will need a miracle to qualify for the next round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).\u00a0 His comments come after Chris Hughton and his boys failed to record a win in their two friendly games against Mexico and USA. 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