Why we lost the Cup - Aboagye
One of the key actors in the bronze medal winning Black Satellites at the just-ended FIFA U-20 World Cup, has mustered the guts to publicly state that the team’s backline was the reason behind their failure to clinch the ultimate.
Advertisement
Midfielder Clifford Aboagye, by far one of the diminutive performers on the pitch, told the Graphic Sports in an interview last Saturday that the team would have gone far had the defence been a bit more compact.
“We conceded some bad goals which could have been avoided , if our defence were a bit more vigilant.
“Our team is made up of some good defenders, but I don’t know why we kept conceding goals in this competition,’ he stated.
Though the Satellites emerged as the third best in the competition, their defence was rated by journalists as the weakest in the competition, conceding as many as 12 goals, even though it scored one of the highest number of goals in the competition.
Referring specifically to games against France in the group opener and subsequently Spain, Aboagye said even though the entire team did not do so well that defeat against France could have been avoided had the defence held onto their own.
“In the end, we qualified through divine providence, as we were going out of the competition at the very first round. Had we won or prevented that defeat we would have been saved the trouble and suspense that we endured as we kept hoping that the results of other matches would help us qualify.
“We all know that if our defence had played strongly as our opponents we would have beaten France in the semi-finals and qualified for the final.
”Sometimes it is frustrating when you work so hard in attack only for the work to end up in vain, because we concede more goals”, he bemoaned.
Aboagye who received the ‘Bronze Ball’ as the third best player in the competition, said one of his best games was against Chile.
The Inter-Allies youngster, who is already in the books of Italian Serie A side, Udinese, is also looking forward to signing for an European side as he looks into the future with optimism.
By Andy Quoa/Graphic Sports/Ghana