Chris Hughton, Gaffer for the senior national team is urging his players to step up their performance when they face the United States of America in the second friendly game on Tuesday at the GEODIS Park Stadium in Tennessee, Nashville.
Hughton’s call follows Ghana’s 2-0 loss to the El-Tri of Mexico at the Bank of America in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The latest results against the Mexicans meant that the Black Stars are yet to win a single game in four attempts against the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup Champions.
⏰ 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 – International Friendly
🇲🇽 Mexico 2️⃣-0️⃣ Ghana 🇬🇭 #BlackStars | #MEXGHA pic.twitter.com/P1pa2U4Kbf
— 🇬🇭 Black Stars (@GhanaBlackstars) October 15, 2023
The two friendlies against Mexico and the USA are to help shape up the team for the World Cup qualifiers commencing in November & the AFCON next year in January.
Chris Hughton in a post-match press conference was quizzed on what he expects from the final friendly against the USA.
The former Brighton & Hove Albion Manager stated:
“It is exactly the same message for the players, what we don’t want is to leave this international camp with two poor results.”
“The result of that, is always you are looking for reaction from the team in the second game [USA].”
“If you are able to get the right reaction, which I am quite sure that we will from the team, then it gives you a better possibility of putting in a performance that can get something out of the game in the second game [USA].
“So what we have to do is to learn from the things you didn’t do so well in the first game, [Mexico].”
The last time Ghana faced the USA in an international friendly, the Black Stars lost by two goals to 1 on US soil, a game which saw former Skipper Asamoah Gyan notch his 51st international goal for the national team on July 1, 2017.
It will be the seventh meeting between both countries, with the first in 1983 where the Black Stars beat the USA by five goals to 0 in the President’s Cup.
The two countries have also met three times in the FIFA World Cup, the first was the 2006 tournament in Germany, where the Black Stars won by two goals to 0.
The second was the 2010 in South Africa, where the Black Stars also won by two goals to 1.
The final meeting in the FIFA World Cup was in Brazil in 2014, where the USA finally got one over the Black Stars, also beating Ghana by two goals to 1.
