Starlets expected to leave for home on Saturday

Piura, Sept 23, GNA - Ghana's Black Starlets who have been eliminated from the FIFA U-17 World championship, Peru 2005 are expected to leave Lima for Ghana on Saturday and arrive in Accra on Monday. The team has for the moment left Piura on Friday morning for the capital Lima for travel arrangements towards their journey back home. The elimination of the Starlets has saddened the hearts of many including Peruvian fans who gave all their support to the team during their last encounter after Peru had also been kicked out with two straight defeats.

Even though the Ghanaians lost, the Peruvian fans still kept following them and showering them with praises for not losing a single match in the championship.

The loss of the Starlets has thus seen the early exit of two African teams participating in the tournament, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The African champions, Gambia have however exhibited remarkable performance in Piura and left the city with praises of "Gambeea, Gambeea" on the lips of many of them and any black person seen on the streets is asked, 'Are you a Gambian'.

Ghana's defeat though painful, should spare the young lads and it is expected that least the country's football fans would accord them an "Ayekoo" so as to encourage them to perform better in future other tasks.

Captain Ansong told the GNA Sports after their elimination in Piura on Friday that "We know Ghanaians are sad, but we did not intend to loose" and apologised on behalf of the team that they hope for another time to make amends and shine.

"The chance was not on our side and so we would be praying for the next U-17 to perform better for the country so as to sooth the hearts of our people by performing better than us" the disappointed captain said. Gambia is now holding the sole hope of Africa at the competition and Fred Osam Doudu, the Ghanaian coach of the team gave the assurance that they would continue to improve on their performance and 'do the magic' to ensure that the cup came to Africa.