Preko blames Satellites defence for African Games poor show

Head oach of the national U-20 team, the Black Satellites, Yaw Preko has attributed his side’s 4-2 defeat to Junior Eagles of Mali to elementary mistakes by his players. 

Awudu Tahiru’s brace did little for the Satellites as an Ibrahima Sangare double and two others from Abdoulaye Kanou and Souleymane Drame condemned the Black Satellites to their second defeat to exit the competition.

In a post match interview, Preko blamed the defeat on avoidable errors on the part of his players, saying they defended poorly and allowed easy goals. 

“The first goal against us came out of nothing and when you are chasing a game you need the defence to be solid, we did not react well in that light and we got punished with the second goal in the 41st minute which was through a defensive mistake.”

Back from recess we had to chase the game, however, we lost focus at the back making some elementary mistakes and they hurt us with two more goals. 

He said the late camping also had a toll on the team.

“We did not get things easy in all three games. Senegal and Mali went to the U-20 World Cup and you could see that they built upon that team, naturally they played more high profile and competitive matches than us, he revealed.

“You could see the Malians were playing to a well-rehearsed and a compact game than us; they had better telepathy, understanding and were very confident on the ball,  these are signs of long term preparations which my team did not have due to the limited time we had.”

“For Ghana as a country we have to know and identify what we want and the direction to go, this attitude of a bit of everything would not help us.”

“We have talents in Ghana but organising and harnessing them is always a problem. Currently, there is no one overseeing the activities of the various teams in terms of a management committee.  When you go for a tournament you become isolated because of the lack of a management team that helps to solve little problems here and there.”

He said the absence of a running league has affected the players because “every player needs competition to be fit, most of the players lacked match fitness.”

Nonetheless, the former Ghanaian international said he sees huge potentials in the team and when they are well nurtured, Ghana will reap the full benefit.

BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY