Ghana coach faces selection headache

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Ghana coach faces selection headache

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic has been presented with a selection headache with his two first-choice defenders available for selection when they play Guinea on Wednesday.

The Black Stars were without the suspended duo of John Mensah and Isaac Vorsah when they swept away Mali 2-0 in their 2012 Africa Cup of Nations Group D match on Saturday.

Captain John Mensah was also struggling with a thigh injury but he looks to have recovered as he returned to training on Sunday, the first time since he was shown the red card in their opening game against Botswana on Tuesday.

In their absence youngsters John Boye and Jonathan Mensah have been excellent in defence, holding off the threat from the Malians with impressive displays.

Boye was even named the man-of-the-match in their game against Botswana on Tuesday following an acrobatic goal-line clearance, which prevented the Zebras from drawing level.

The Serbian trainer must now decide whether to drop the excellent partnership between Boye and Jonathan Mensah in favour of his first-choice centre backs.

Ghana assistant coach Akwasi Appiah admits that a difficult decision must be made in the coming hours over the choice of the centre backs to start against Guinea.

"A difficult decision must be taken on Wednesday on who will play in central defence because the two who have come in have been excellent," Appiah said.

"This clearly shows that we have a very good starting team and we have a bench equally good to take up the challenges.

"We will be thinking about this in the coming hours. We will take into consideration our opponents and how they are likely to line up against us before we make that decision.

"It is not going to be an easy one but we will take the best decision in the interest of the team."

Ghana need just a draw against Guinea to finish top of the group and face the second placed team in Group C.