The Black Satellites opened their CAF U20 Africa Cup of Nations account with an impressive 4-0 win over Tanzania U20s on Tuesday evening in the Mauritania city of Nouadhibou.
Two first half goals from Dreams FC teenager Percious Boah and Fatawu Issahaku put the Ghana team in a comfortable lead at half time before Boah and Schalke 04 forward Joselpho Barnes added more goals in the second period as Ghana run riot.
Here are the five things we at SPORTSWorldGhana.com learned from the game with much focus on the Black Satellites of Ghana.
Percious Boah a future star in the making.
A big number nine in the making and the name is Percious Boah. The Dreams FC teenager is clearly the leading light of this Ghana U20 team. Two goals in one game. That is an excellent return for Boah who is 18 years old.
He has got a striker’s height and is a prolific attacker. The first of his brace came from a freekick which he scored directly to opened the scoring and the second was equally sumptuous as he danced around the Tanzania defence before releasing a clever left-footed effort.
No more slow starters conundrum
Over the year Ghana national teams have been known to start slowly at major tournaments with either a draw or at worse a defeat before they push to qualify from their groups during the following games , most of the times resorting to the so-called “mathematics”.
But this time around in Mauritania there is nothing of that sort as the team of Karim Zito came firing from all angles against Tanzania winning by 4-0 in their first outing of the competition. What a fine start !
Karim Zito has done a good job.
Credit to the technical team of the Ghana U20 side. Head coach Karim Zito has proven many times that he is one of the best youth team coaches in the country and he and his backroom staff deserve to bask in glory for the wonderful performance and results of the Satellites team at the U20 AFCON.
Morocco will be a tougher test
We wait to see what the North Africans will bring on the table when the two teams meet on February 19th. This game against the Moroccans clearly presents a tougher test for the Ghana U20 team as the North Africans are a better football nation as compared to Tanzania who have not made any big name on the continent.
Tanzania gave a fight
They lost by 4-0 and that qualifies for a humiliation or a spanking but the Tanzania U20s fought really well and pushed the game to the last whistle of the referee. Ghana were just better and the results is clear but the opponents would feel sorry not to have scored at least a goal. They threatened the Ghana goal couple of times in both the first and second periods but they would not succeed.