Ghana’s U-20 male team, the Black Satellites, will face Uganda in a fierce African Games football event final at the Accra Sports Stadium today.
It will be Ghana’s second chance at African Games football gold medal after winning the Maputo edition in 2011.
The Black Satellites after the Maputo exploits have struggled to replicate that standards that saw them rule the continent in football at that level.
But set to stand in the way of the Ghanaians is an impressive Ugandan side that has dazzled football fans in the capital with their free-flowing football.
At the semi-final stage of the competition when they went 2-0 down, they ended up as surprise winners after equalising and going two goals ahead to win 4-2.
That, perhaps, explained and proved to fans that their 2-1 opening day win against Nigeria was no fluke.
Ghana, however, were slow starters but picked up remarkably to secure a semifinal berth with one of the competition’s favourites, Senegal.
It turned out to be a final before a final game as both countries battled it out in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Eventually, the Satellites triumphed courtesy a 1-0 win with goal scored by Ephson late as the 83rd minute.
Today’s game would not be any different from the semifinal encounters as both sides appear poised for action and motivated by the high stakes.
The Black Satellites Coach, Desmond Ofei, has used the platform well to make a case for the new generation of coaches coming up, endearing himself to the fans with the attractive football played by the team.
His strategy so far has been a tight midfield dominance protected by a three-back system.
That appear to be working well as the Satellites boasts of an impressive statistic of conceding just a goal and scoring five goals in their last four matches.
The only game they failed to
score was the opener against Congo.
Afterwards, they defeated The Gambia 3-1 and Benin 1-0 to top Group A with seven points.
Clearly, this shows the size of the clash fans would be exposed tonight; two enterprising teams having a go at each other.
Comparatively, they appear equal on paper but the highly anticipated crowd at the venue is expected to spur the host nation on to conquer the Ugandans
BY ANDREW NORTEY