Accra, Feb 15, GNA - Hans Dieter Schmidth, coach of Kumasi King Faisal football club has attributed his club's victory in this year's GHALCA Coca-Cola Top 4 competition to confidence and belief for success by his players.
In an interview with the GNA Sports after Faisal had beaten Dansoman-based Liberty Professionals by 2-0 to pip Kotoko on superior goal difference to win the trophy, the coach said hitherto the players did not have the inner conviction that they could win something for themselves if they played for a small team.
"I always stressed to them that there is no difference between them and players of Hearts or Kotoko and I am very happy that the message has gone down well with them", he added.
He said it has not been an easy tournament as every match was difficult since everybody was determined to win.
Mr Schmidth said their last match against Liberty was a very tactical one as they had to play with a lot of caution especially when going forward as their opponents were very fast on the break.
"But as the game progressed, we saw that Liberty were getting tired and that was the time to push more men forward and we started to take our chances", said the coach.
He said they are going to build on their performance in the tournament as they shift attention to the African and league campaigns. Alhaji Karim Grunsah, founder and of the King Faisal Club said the victory, which was the first major trophy for his team is a victory for good football.
He said Faisal played the best football throughout the tournament and he never wavered in his prediction at the start of the tournament that his team would win.
Alhaji Grunsah said the victory goes to confirm all that he had said that the big teams are dominating the local soccer scene not because they are playing the best football but because of other things.
"For GHALCA to go to Togo to bring a referee to handle the match between Hearts and Kotoko is an indictment on the sort of officiating in Ghana and if things are not put right our game would continue to suffer", he added.
He was optimistic that if the team keeps its composure and goes into Africa with the same form, he is sure they can reach far.
Alhaji Grunsah said he is bent on keeping all his players irrespective of advances made by some of the big teams since they would all be going to Africa and would want to present their best squads. He called for more support and encouragement to enable the team make its needed mark.
