George Lamptey (Coach of Liberty Professionals)
I’m confident the Black Stars will progress from the Group stage at next year’s World Cup despite the tough opposition in the group.
Ghana’s biggest problem is the team’s defence but I know the technical handlers will work on that before the tournament in June.
We will have time to shape all the rough edges in the team but our players need to come together and we will go through..
I will urge them to guard against complacency. One thing we should be careful about is underrating the United States of America because of our previous victories over them. It is not going to be easy this time.
I entreat every Ghanaian to support the team with confidence because our team has some great players to match the Germans and the Portuguese in our group.
I don’t know why people look at names. Ghanaians must know that football goes beyond names
Milislav Bogdanovich (Coach of Aduana Stars)
I tip the Black Stars and Germany to advance from Group G in next year’s World Cup.
I think Ghana, compared to the other Africa teams, are in a very strong group.
No one expected such a difficult group for Ghana, but even though I believe that there are no minnows in international football, I think on paper USA are the weakest team there. So it will be a straight fight among Germany, Portugal and Ghana.
There is a lot of responsibility on the players, Ghana has world class players who can match any team and make it to the final round of the World Cup. Anything is possible especially with the right combination of factors such as, a good pre-tournament camp, bonuses and how the players deal with the pressure and responsibility of representing Ghana at the World Cup.
If everything is done right, Ghana and Germany will qualify ahead of Portugal and USA.”
Sam Johnson (Ex-Black Stars & Hearts Coach)
I believe the Stars have what it takes to scale the challenges at the group stages of next year’s World Cup.
Apart from Germany who could be potential threats, the Stars could manage Portugal and the United States.
Ghana’s team have matured over the years and now have very confident players who are all playing in top flight leagues in Europe and we won’t be intimidated at the tournament since these players play against each other in their various leagues.
When Ghana beat the Czech Republic at the World Cup in Germany 2006 the Czechs were far ahead of Ghana.
‘We only have to watch Germany carefully because they have always been one of the tournament’s favourites and they often make it to the last eight.
But despite our fear for the Germans we can say confidently that we have improved in our matches against them since we lost 1-6 to them some 20 years ago. In our last game against them in the South Africa 2010 World Cup they were lucky to run away with a 1-0 win..
