Sellas Tetteh nearly saw Ghana’s quest for the Africa Youth Championship title blown away after a late revival by South Africa dented his sides deserved victory en-route to the final.
Wednesday afternoon’s 4-3 win over the Amajita in the semi-final left some questions for the Ghana coach ahead of Sunday’s final against Cameroon.
Ghana were coasting to a comfortable 4-1 win when their opponents pulled two goals back in the last 19 minutes of the game.
At 4-3, anxiety finally set in at the Amahoro stadium as South Africa pushed to send the game into extra-time and possibly win it there (during extra-time) while the Black Satellites sought to guard their narrow lead, which they successfully did.
The dip in concentration was similar to Ghana’s opening day match with Cameroon, when the Black Satellites conceded the tournament’s fastest goal. With just 34 seconds into the start of the game, Ghana found themselves on the back foot, needing an Andre Ayew goal to level matters before recess.
Before stepping onto the field for Sunday’s final against Cameroon, a side Ghana will be meeting for the second time in the competition, after drawing 1-1 in the group stage, Sellas Tetteh hopes to correct the mistakes before lining up his team for the game.
“At a given time within a limited time, you could lose concentration. But when I looked at the time they (South Africa) scored the third goal, I knew we would carry the 4-3 along to victory.
“But all the same it doesn’t look so good that you would be 4-1 in the lead and allow your opponent to come close to 4-3.
“That is football. When it happens, we learn from it, correct our mistakes then we push forward again,” the Ghana coach said in an interview.
As Ghana attempts to push for the title, Sellas remains aware of the threat posed by the Cameroonians with Alain Wabo, coach of the Young Lions firing the shots ahead of the game with claims that he has studied Black Satellites and will be “teaching Ghana some lessons.”
However, Sellas Tetteh admits that if the same mistakes are repeated, then Ghana will miss out of a third Africa Youth Championship trophy.