Confident Faisal Coach sure of victory

Accra, Aug 4, GNA - Coach Francis Oti Akenten of King Faisal is confident of beating their Tunisian counterparts, AS Marsa of Tunisia in

this Saturday's second Group A match of the Confederations of African Football (CAF) despite having to play three matches a week to compete on the local and continental events.

The Coach said his players are currently being stretched to their limit as they have to play week in and week out, including midweek, not forgetting long journeys they have to make on the local and international scenes to play their matches.

He said, in view of this difficult situation, they have been forced to reduce their training sections to once a day to ensure that the players do not experience exhaution. "What makes it more difficult for us is that our squad is not that big, hence we have to work with only 21 players on both the local and continental scenes.

"This situation has arisen because most of the players who registered to play for us on the continent, decided later to play for other teams after we have gone ahead to egistered them.

"It means that though we have registered them and are on our list for the continental matches, we cannot use them as their cards are with the teams they are playing for presently." Coach Oti-Akenten said despite these difficulties his boys are well-psyched up for the encounter and does not see the Tunisians standing in their way to make history.

He said at the moment, he has three injury scares, but thankfully the players appear to be recovering just in time to give him more options.

"We have prepared well for the Tunisians though we know pretty little of them apart from the fact that all Arab clubs play it very tight at the back and rely on dangerous breaks whenever the opportunity presents himself." "For now, we rehearsed for all these game plans and I am confident that at the end of the game, despite whatever the Tunisians have up their sleeves, we have what it takes to win."

He said the win is also crucial because it will cement our lead on the table, going into the final matches in the first round. Faisal opened their account in Group A of the Confederations Cup with a big bang, traveling all the way to Guinea to shock Fello Stars of Conakry by a lone goal to move into first position in their group. The Tunisians on the other hand, dropped vital points in their opening game at home when they were held to a goalless drawn game by AS FAR of Morocco.

Faisal, who currently tops the GT Premier League Table have to shift camp from their traditional Kumasi home to Accra, in view of repair works on the playing turf of the stadium. 04 Aug 05