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Emmanuel Toku, Starlets' striker
Emmanuel Toku, Starlets' striker

Starlets eye Cameroun scalp

This year’s African Under-17 Youth Championship kicks off in Gabon on Sunday with much more than the quest to be champions at stake. Out of the eight teams  – Gabon, Cameroun, Ghana, Guinea in Group A, Angola, Niger, Mali and Tanzania – in Group on parade, only four qualify for the World Cup in India later in the year and that opportunity is the target of most of the teams as they prepare to kick off the competition.

While most fans will consider it intriguing to have some of Africa’s heavyweights lumped in Group A, the less endowed football nations who have made it to Gabon believe it is their luck and opportunity to also claim a ticket to the World Cup.

A football game involving Ghana and Cameroun at any level is a cracker and that is what fans have been served with as the Black Starlets face their Camerounian counterparts on the opening day.

For the Starlets in particular, their dream of making it to India begins tomorrow and are thus taking nothing for granted as they go into this game considered fit for  a final.

Despite being world champions in 1991 and 1995, the Starlets have struggled in recent times to even qualify for the African Championships let alone make an appearance at the world stage.

So presented with a chance to be at the world event, Coach Paa Kwesi Fabin and his charges will leave nothing to chance.

Last Wednesday, the final list of the boys to do the job was confirmed and Coach Fabin believes they understand their mission in Gabon and are confident they will deliver.

The final 21, namely goalkeepers: Danlad Ibrahim (1), Kwame Aziz (16), Michael Acquaye (21);defenders: John Otu (2), Gideon Acquah (3), Edmund Arko-Mensah (3), Najeeb Yakubu (5), Bismark Terry Owusu (14),  Kingsley Owusu (20) and Faisal Osman (15).

others are midfielders Emmanuel Toku (10), Isaac Antah (8), Ibrahim Sulley (7), Gabriel Leveh (13), Rashid Alhassan (17), Mohammed Iddriss (18) and Eric Ayiah (6), Kwadwo Opoku (9), Emmanuel Toku (10), Samuel Mone Andoh (11), Yusif Abdul Razak (12), Patmos Arhin (19) who make up the attackers, are poised for action and the one week stay in Gabon ahead of the competition, have also put them in competition readiness for Sunday.

Due to their pedigree, the Starlets are among the favourites to make it to the semi-finals, but Coach Fabin insists they will not be carried away by the ‘favourites’ tag and will work hard to achieve their aim in Gabon.

“It has not been easy qualifying to the championship as our last opponents, Cote d’Ivoire, almost caused us a place. Now we are faced with such big names in youth football in Africa, but we are well prepared and the boys are well psyched for this competition.

“We are in Gabon with a mission. A mission to qualify for India and that will remain our primary focus until it is accomplished,” Coach Fabin, who is hoping to be third time lucky with the Starlets, told the Mirror.

In the qualifiers, the Starlets showed their attacking strength but were a  bit naïve in defense and  it is hoped that that weakness has been worked on, given that the Camerounians come into this game with their physical advantage as well as buoyed by the achievements of their senior brothers, the Indomitable Lions, who were last February crowned African Champions in Gabon.

In tomorrow’s opening, Gabon and Guinea will meet in the other Group A game while Group B goes into action on Monday with Mali playing Tanzania and Angola facing Niger.

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