Ghana started their campaign to lift the 4th Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF 2014) trophy to beat their Nigeria counterparts by 1-0 on Sunday at the City Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Black Challenge, the national amputee football team, went through initial frustrations that characterized the tournament when they had to stay outside for over 15 hours awaiting allocation of rooms on arrival, to silence the Special Eagles of Nigeria.
The Ghanaians arrived in Nairobi in the morning of Saturday and had to wait till late in the evening to get rooms for players and officials due to some challenges the organizers faced.
Hamza Mohammed, Ghana’s teenage sensation settled matters for Ghana in the first half to separate the two West African rivals, who had the advantage of arriving in Nairobi days earlier.
Playing without their five professionals from Turkey and three other players expected to join them later, the Black Challenge started the game on a good note with beautiful inter-positional passes that mesmerized the Nigerians whose physical play could not match the skills of the Ghanaians.
The second half was balanced but Nigeria came close to equalizing on a few occasions; nevertheless, the Ghanaian defense was too strong for them. The Nigerians tried hard but failed to turn their chances into goals.
In an earlier Group A match, Nigeria beat host Kenya 2-1, whilst Liberia drew 1-1 with Angola in Group B. Ghana play Kenya on Monday with Nigeria standing bye to know their fate since they are on the same three points with Ghana in Group A. In Group B, Sierra Leone clash with Angola and later play Liberia.
