National coach Ralf Zumdick could be in for an uphill task when his Black Meteors players line up against their South African counterparts, the Amagluglug on Sunday for the Athens Olympic qualifier.
Some key players he had hoped would beef up his squad would not be coming after all and the German must do battle largely with his local contingent.
Meteors captain John Paintsil is firmly ruled out of action for injury, while lethal goal poacher Isaac Boakye is proving too indispensable at the moment for German division two side Arminia Bielefeld, to be released for the crucial encounter for which the South Africans have virtually thrown away their All Africa Games football squad for their international players.
That is how daunting the task is but the prospect of losing out on yet another international, the big Yakubu Abubakar who has a game today for Ajax Amsterdam and whose earliest arrival in Ghana, if he manages to come at all, could be on Thursday, does not bother Zumdick in the least.
‘We will win on Sunday and I have every confidence in the boys here to do it. The fact that we did not get many goals in Nigeria does not make the team a bad one. Everyday they improve their teamwork and it is not like we cannot create chances. We create chances and that is a good sign for me", he told the Soccer Express yesterday.
He had just finished a late afternoon first time training since arriving from the Abuja Games with a light shake up with the team featuring two new additions to the Abuja set in the persons of Michael Osei and Ibrahim Attiku.
"There is no doubt that we have to win this match. We know the South Africans will be tough but we are prepared. This is no bad squad at all. If we are lucky we will get Sule Muntari, John Mensah and Yakubu Abubakar into the squad. I know the pressure will be on us to score but I also know the boys are ready."
Zumdick said he and his team are not expecting any easy game on Sunday and the boys are confident they will overcome. Typical of Zumdick he said he is concentrating on one game at a time and the return encounter against South Africa in March does not feature in his plans now. Not even the Meteors next assignment against Zambia on December 21.
After the Meteors game on Sunday, he would be turning attention on the Black Stars whose World Cup qualifier against Somalia comes off in November.
In the meantime the senior national team have pulled out of the Afro-Asian Games in India slated for the end of this month for time constraints. The players have all reverted to their clubs to prepare for the resumption of the Premier League.
Zumdick is still confident that but for age-based tournaments, he would hardly separate the Black Stars from the Meteors, hoping that pooling them would facilitate a faster team development.
"I am sure some of the players in the Meteors have played for the Black Stars before and those who have not are just about doing it. We can blend a youthful side with those with the experience and we shall have ready teams always on stand-by, that is what I am looking at."
