Preview: Black Meteors on image redemption mission against Japan

Ghana’s U-23 side will have another chance to make amends against Japan on Tuesday, following their humiliating defeat to the Asian side last Saturday.

The two sides cross paths again when the second installment of a two-way International friendly kicks off at the Best Denki Stadium, in Fukuoka this afternoon.

The Black Meteors were clobbered 6 nil by an unrelenting and superior Japanese side the last time out.

Japan, who are using this game to help in their preparations towards the upcoming Olympic Games Men’s Football event, run riot in both halves over Coach Paa Kwesi Fabin’s side who had no antidote to their opponents dominant play.

The result and overall performance drew much ire from Ghanaian football followers, and the Meteors team will certainly eye an image redemption, when the two sides meet again.

Speaking ahead of the game, assistant Coach Yusif Basigi, believes Ghana have had the chance to do an analysis of the first game and make frantic efforts to correct what went wrong.

‘’The Japanese are a well-rehearsed side with good tactical play and it really worked for them because if you look at our side it was quite individualistic which didn’t help team cohesion’’ Coach Basigi told ghanafa.org.

‘’They took advantage of the lapses on our side and they punished us as a result of that. But now we have also come back to do post match analysis, we have picked all the weaknesses from our side and the strength from their side so now we are putting the pieces together to play them in our next game which I think will yield very good result this time around,” he added.

Ghana’s preparations have been helped by news that goalkeeper Richmond Ayi has been given the green light by the medical team to feature in the game.

The Hearts of Oak shot stopper- who is one of two goalkeepers on the team’s roster- missed the first game after picking up an injury during training.

However, he is now available for selection and will compete with William Esso (who kept the post in the first game) for a starting berth.

Expectations are quite high for the Ghanaian side to get their revenge against the Japanese.

A section of the public also believe the assignments came too suddenly with the Ghanaian team having little time to prepare adequately for the matches, hence the invite should have been turned down.

Coach Basigi is however preaching for patience as the technical handlers work on the team, making gradual improvements.

‘’Ghanaians should take it easy with us because this is a very good exercise that will give us the exposure. It has exposed our weaknesses and strength. ‘’The score line may be too huge – all the same I think that they have to be patient with us. We are going to improve match after match it’s a matter of being patient.

On Tuesday’s match, Basigi has outlined the team’s objectives. ‘’I know we need the results but they should know that getting the result is not enough – but getting a good team is the best. The result is so humiliating but getting the results and getting a good team is what matters most’’ he noted.

The match will kick-off at exactly 15:00 GMT.