Coach Duncan proves point

(From Caesar Abagali, GNA Special Correspondent, Lima, Peru) Courtesy: PureJoy Fruit Juice

Lima, Sept 26, GNA - Turkey's 5-1 humiliating defeat of China in the quarter final match played in Iquitos, Peru on Sunday had proved Ghana Black Starlets coach David Duncan right when he blamed his team's inability to progress at the FIFA U-17 World Youth championship to bad refereeing in the last group match against China.

The Starlets drew all their three matches to obtain three points and had to play with a ten-man in two of their matches to earn the drawn results when on two occasions the referee had to show their players the red card.

Coach Duncan who spoke with the GNA Sports after the Ghana-China match indicated that the Peruvian fans were the best judges of the game and that Ghana could have scored more than three goals if the referee was not bias against them.

The Starlets were also scored three goals and conceded three in three matches and is the only side in the tournament to draw all their matches.

In the last group match for instance, the Chinese could not match the Starlets but the Ghanaians failed to translate their dominance into goals to enable them reach the quarter-final stage.

During the dying minutes of the game, the Chinese resorted to delay tactics, which according to Coach Duncan the referee failed to act. In other results, Mexico also defeated Costa Rica 3-1 on Sunday to qualify for the semi finals, a situation that indicated that the two sides were not just good and up to the task but if Ghana had utilised her chances during their matches against the two teams to could have in-roads into the competition.

Mexico and Turkey have thus secured their early tickets to the semi finals.