Black Stars skipper Asamoah Gyan says though Ghana has been placed in a tough group, the team has what it takes to sail through the group stage of the 2015 Nations Cup.
Ghana are in Group C alongside Senegal, South Africa and Africa’s top ranked country Algeria in a group that has been described as the “Group of Death”.
With a relatively younger team that the squad that placed fourth in the last edition of the competition, the skipper of the senior national team is confident that the young players are ready to prove their quality at in Equatorial Guinea.
“Though our group is tough, don’t forget that the other teams also know that Ghana is a strong country. Ghana is one of the best soccer nations in Africa and all we have to do is to approach the tournament positively and qualify to the next stage.”
“We’ve got young and quality players who are ready to do their best to win the games and qualify from the group stage and move on to further stages or if possible win the competition”, Gyan told Ghana fa.org in an exclusive interview before the team left for their training camp in Spain.
The Black Stars began preparations for the competition with training sessions with new head coach Avram Grant and his technical team in Accra before travelling to Spain.
And Gyan who was part of all the training sessions of the team has welcomed the Israeli trainer and further pledged that the players are ready to work together with the coach to achieve the targets of the team. “He is someone who tries to help the players adapt to his style of play and his strategy so far has been to give everybody the opportunity to fight for a role in the team.” “All we have to do is to give him all the support we can as players, welcome him and abide by the tactics he brings on board.” “We are really ready to work with him and all we need now is the support of the people of Ghana to push us to the highest level because he is a top manager and he is a good man too ”.
“We’ve had 5 days of successful training sessions in Accra and we are expecting the rest of our colleagues to join us in Spain. Everybody has been committed and eager to make it to the AFCON.”
“Everyone is happy especially returning to camp once again to see each other and it was good to come to Ghana too because we got to see our families before leaving for the tournament.”
“I can see we are ready for the tournament though we are yet to begin serious training”, the Al Ain striker said.
On the decision to review the bonus structure of the team, he said: “We met with the GFA to sort out the issue concerning our bonuses before we travel for the tournament. We are happy everything has been resolved now and all we are thinking about is the African Cup of Nations to give all best for the nation.
The Black Stars will be in Spain for ten days before travelling to Equatorial Guinea on January 14, five days before they face Senegal in Mongomo.
Source:Ghanafa.org