Zumdick Counts On Boakye

Black Meteors coach, Ralf Zumdick says he would be counting on the arrival of some foreign-based Ghanaian internationals to augment his squad for the Olympic qualifier against South Africa later this week.

Speaking to the Soccer Express in a post match interview on Sunday Zumdick confirmed that former Asante Kotoko striker, Isaac Boakye is one of his targets for the game.

Apart from Boakye, the German who guided Ghana to win bronze at the just ended All Africa Games was hopeful Israel based John Painstil and Italy based John Mensah would be joining the team.

During the All Africa Games Ghana scored a total of four goals in regulation time with all but one coming from the boots of midfielders. He is also still in talks with Lyon midfielder, Michael Essien to join the squad. But Zumdick believes that the fact that his striking trio of Shaibu Yakubu, Kwadwo Poku and Asamuah Gyan failed to score doesn’t undermine his team’s ability to score.

The former Asante Kotoko and King Faisal coach was quick to contend that the strikers would be up to task with time but stated that he cannot predict when. "I am going to work on them to improve their striking rate," he added.

When Soccer Express asked whether the striking trio had been overshadowed by the magnitude of the competition, the coach discounted it. The leading scorers in the Kinapharma Premier League-KPL could not find their names on the scoring sheet apart from Shaibu but Zumdick says he is still keeping faith with them.

The German who is on a three-month contract with Ghana is very confident that the addition of Isaac Boakye whom he worked with during his tenure at Asante Kotoko would bring more bite upfront.

The former Asante Kotoko striker is now one of the leading marksmen in the German Bundesliga 2 with his new club, Arminia Bielefield where is on a season’s loan.

As the Black Meteors prepare for the South African duel, Ralf Zumdick also known as the "The Cat" is sure that the arrival of the foreign-based players would give his team more options though he still holds the view that he has a good squad in the locally-based players.