Adolf Armah confident in Black Stars

Former Black Stars skipper, Adolf Armah who is now based in the United States of America (USA) has expressed his confidence in coach Kwesi Appiah and his Black Stars to advance from the group stage of the ongoing AFCON 2013 in South Africa.

Speaking to yours truly on the tournament, the man who led Ghana to qualify in 1981 for Libya 1982 said all is not lost for the young national team.

He noted that the players must play as a unit and be creative throughout games.

"We need players who can run for 90 minutes and over and they must never be selfish,” he said. According to the star player affectionately called the Midfield Dynamo or Midfield Generalisimo, the Black Stars team is good, but lacks creativity. He prayed that they will shun the one attacker strategy and adopt the 4-4-2 formation to be able to bang in more goals.

He said football is about goals and so if the team lacks the plans to score, then they are not doing well. Adolf Armah also praised the Black Stars for scoring the first goals of the tournament and hoped that they will keep on scoring more goals.

The member of the 1978 Black Stars squad that won the African Cup for keeps expressed that all African countries fear Ghana, so they come in very hard but the players have to use their minds to overcome all hard tackles and play to the whistle of the referee.

He warned them to guard against red and yellow cards as the best players could be carded and that alone can take Ghana out like previous tournaments when the maestro Abedi Pele Ayew was sidelined from the 1992 final because he attracted two yellow cards. He tasked the defenders and midfielders to support the attack and rush back to cover as fast as they can. Adolf Armah who played for Accra Hearts of Oak together with Anas Seidu, Mohammed Polo, Robert Hammond and Douglas Tagoe said Ghana will always be a favourite for the African Cup, but only a few hitches make the nation drop.

He even expressed interest in coming back home to take on any of the junior national teams to impart his knowledge of the game and groom the young ones who have the talent to be like him.

The very stylish but constructive player said players must know when to lay accurate passes and when to shoot at goal. He stressed that the current players may not be skilful like him or Mohammed Polo or Osei Kofi, but they can produce the much needed results if they want to. The 1979 African second best player hinted that there should be love and unity among the players and that can send them to the finals. Adolf Armah played in Gabon, Ivory Coast, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before doing his coaching course and coming down to handle Accra Hearts of Oak for a while. He was co chairman / technical director for Mamprobi Rising Stars and Silver Stars in Accra before travelling to the USA.

He has expressed interest in coming back home to repair the damages to Ghana Football and help place Ghana at where the country really belong. Credit: