Thomas Freeman Yeboa

The Black Meteors are on the verge of ending Ghana’s 15-years absence from the Olympic Games Men’s football competition and and will need a win over their Ivorian counterparts in the semi-finals of the 2019 U23 AFCON to confirm their tickets to Tokyo.

The former Ghana U20 skipper insists the team is highly motivated and ready for the Tuesday’s match which could help them achieve two targets.

“Yes we are under pressure to qualify to the Olympics but we are dealing with the pressure. As players we were able to avoid making mistakes and won the match against Mali despite the pressure on us”.

“All the players we are ready because tomorrow is really an important day for all of us. Mentally and physically we are prepared and believe with hard work and determination we will qualify for the Olympics and the final on Friday.

“However, we are expecting a tough match against Cote D’Ivoire because they are one of the best teams in Africa and both countries have players who play at high levels.”

But for us it will be an achievement to reach the finals and book our tckets to the Olympic Games. That is our biggest motivation and we are aiming to achieve it on Tuesday”, Yeboah said in an interview with www.ghanafa.org.

The game between Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire is scheduled to kick off at 16:00hrs (14:00hrs GMT) at the Cairo Stadium.

Ghana U23 captain Yaw Yeboah says the Black Meteors have the ability to deal with the pressure of breaking the jinx and qualify to the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo.

We are ready to break Olympic Games qualification jinx despite pressure: Skipper Yaw Yeboah

Ghana has failed to arrange for a friendly in the last two international breaks partly due to the ongoing normalisation in the West African country.

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Andre Ayew who was the skipper of the Black Satellites team that won the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup further explained that Ghana football was on the ascendency from 2009 until the incident that happened in Brazil.

"We are very disappointed because in the last two international windows we did not have any friendly games and we don't know why," the Swansea forward told BBC Sport.

"We progressed really well till 2014 when we had some little issues. From then we don't have to lie, we keep regressing.

"From 2009, if you look at what we have done, we went to the 2010 World Cup. We went to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations we lost to Egypt in the final.

"In 2012 we went to the semi-finals, 2015 we went to the finals, 2014 we went to the World Cup so you could see there was progression.

"We were playing friendly games against big countries. We played England, Russia, big countries so that we continue progressing but since then we have lost that organisation," Ayew said.

After their disappointing round-of-16 exit from this year's Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, Ayew says Ghana were hoping to use friendly matches to regroup and prepare for the qualifiers of the 2021 Nations Cup finals in Cameroon.

Ghana are in group C in the qualifying campaign, alongside South Africa, Sudan and Sao Tome. The Black Stars begin the quest for a fifth title next month against South Africa having last won the continental showpiece event in 1982.

Andre Ayew - who is the current captain of the senior Ghana side - says the 2009 U-20 triumph was important for the country and that African teams must take youth tournaments seriously.

"Football for most African players is a way to survive. It's a way to make the whole family eat so these tournaments are very important not only for personal life to help a player become professional but to also prepare the future of the country's football," said Ayew.

Despite Ghana's lack of fixtures since Egypt 2019, Andre Ayew said he was pleased to see other African countries moving in the right direction.

"What Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria are doing is showing all other countries that if you want to win, if you want to compete for a tournament, it doesn't come easy, it's hard work, it comes with a plan. They have shown an example.

A few years ago, Ghana was the example."His former team-mates from that triumphant 2009 success also shared his sentiments.

"While all the countries are having international friendlies, Ghana cannot produce even one friendly, it's very bad. Look at the brand of Black Stars,"

Black Stars skipper Andre Ayew says Ghana football has been retrogressing since 2014 after its senior national male football team’s poor showing in the 2014 FIFA World Cup staged in Brazil.

Ghana football has been on the decline since 2014: Andre Ayew

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Thomas Freeman Yeboa

Articles written by the author

We are ready to break Olympic Games qualification jinx despite pressure: Skipper Yaw Yeboah

Ghana football has been on the decline since 2014: Andre Ayew