Black Stars Coach Angry With Ghana Football Association

Ghana's senior soccer team coach, Cecil Jones Attuquayefio, has accused the country's Football Association (GFA) of betrayal over his decision to field mostly local players in Sunday's World Cup qualifier against Nigeria.

Consequently, the coach said, he is contemplating throwing in the towel since he could not work without adequate support from the Football Association.

The match ended 0-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium.

"The GFA instead of supporting me for this, gave the impression that the decision was totally mine and that they had nothing to do with it, thus invariably turning Ghanaians against me to save themselves," Jones complained in a post-match interview.

"What we have achieved today was solely out of hard work from my local team, with basically no support from the FA since they could not even produce a tape of a Nigerian match when I requested for it."

The coach said his reason for using home-based players was to enable him to strategize for the match because the professionals would arrive a few days to the match and might not blend.

He expressed satisfaction with the performance of the team drawn mainly from Africa Super champions, Accra Hearts of Oak.

Jones said his only regret was that the players had failed convert many of the chances that came their way.

He said it appeared to most fans before the match that it was a hopeless situation, considering the array of stars the Nigerians had assembled.

Jones insists that Ghana's World Cup qualification dream is still alive, a sentiment shared by former national team Skipper Abedi Pele, who was with the players to motivate them.

Jo Bonfrere, the Dutch coach of the Nigerian Super Eagles, said his team failed "because they came here not prepared to fight, but expecting victory on a silver platter."

He praised defender Taribo West who rose to the occasion and said but for him, the story would have been completely different.

Bonfrere said he has taken a cue from the Ghanaian example on the use of local players.

"This result makes all our four remaining matches very difficult but I hope that the team can qualify since they have that ability to rise to the occasion.

Brigadier Dominic Onyea, chairman of the Nigerian Football Association, expressed his disappointment with the result, saying level of soccer play by the local Black Stars has sent a good message to all Nigerians.

It was Jones' best result since taking over from Italian Giusseppe Dossena.

The Black Stars have four points from four games having lost three games -- two in World Cup qualifiers, and one in the African Nations Cup qualification tie.

On Sunday, the Stars managed to pin the Super Eagles to their own half and within a spate of 45 seconds, they had wasted two corner kicks.

Ishmael Addo nearly silenced the drum-beating and trumpet- blowing Nigerian fans, who thronged the Stadium before mid-day when in the sixth minute, he latched onto a loose ball, went through defenders Taribo West and Godwin Okpara, but shot off target with only goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu to beat.

Those early incursions boosted the morale of the Ghanaians who went all out but inexperience robbed them of good goal- scoring chances.

Skipper Emmanuel Osei Kuffour could have shot the Stars ahead in the 11th minute but surprisingly fumbled after he had pounced on a Charles Allotey through ball.

Three minutes later and against the run of play, Nigeria's new found striker, Victor Agali, hit the upright from Garuba Lawal's in-swinger.

The Super Eagles, who arrived in the country last Friday after a week-long camping in neighbouring Togo, looked tired half-way inside the second half.

This forced coach Bonfrere to bring on smallish Tijani Babangida and Julius Aghahowa for Garuba Lawal and Finidi George in the 65th and 77th minutes respectively.

Aghahowa clashed with goalkeeper Sammy Adjei and later hit Adjah Tetteh in the 78th and 83rd minutes respectively, forcing the Zimbabwean referee Felix Tangawanrima to flash the yellow card at him.

The Stars launched a last minute attack but Ishmael Addo hit the side net and Kuffour's goal-bound shot was scoped off the goal line.

Ghana and Nigeria have met 45 times in their soccer rivalry, with the Stars winning in 20 of the encounters, drawing 14 and losing 11.