Black Stars head coach, Kwesi Appiah, has underlined the usefulness of Sunday’s pre-AFCON friendly with Namibia in Dubai to the team.
Ghana lost the game 1-0 thanks to a first half goal from Namibia’s Manfred Starke.
Some fans have expressed concerns that the team will have challenges in the tournament if the Stars cannot beat Namibia but Kwesi Appiah believes that the result is not disastrous.
Rather, he perceives the tie as one that is a point of learning for the entire team.
“Namibia are not minnows and I believe that in modern football, every country has developed. Namibia had one chance and they took that. We had a lot of those but we could not score.
But on the game, we went out to win even though we have loaded the players with a lot of intensive training work and there was a lot of heaviness in their legs.
The bottom line is that we have to get our final 23 for the tournament so I had to allow other players to feature to ensure that I make the right decisions.
However, we have to look at the essence of the match. We looked at the shape of the team to help us see where the lapses and loopholes are before we go to Egypt.”
Appiah is expected to name his final 23 for the tournament on Monday and that set of players will face South Africa on June 15 in the second and final pre-tournament friendly before flying to Egypt for the tournament.
Ghana’s opening game is on June 25 and the Black Stars face Guinea-Bissau.