Otto Addo, the Black Stars’ head coach, has said that the players’ desire to participate and achieve ahead of their upcoming World Cup encounter in Qatar makes it tough for him to make judgments.
Speaking during a pre-match news conference ahead of the team’s Group H encounter against South Korea, he stated that Ghanaians will witness a more “passionate” Black Stars.
He did, however, admit that the excitement of his troops is making it tough for him to make final judgments.
“Against South Korea, we will witness a passionate team. We’ll see the same fervor they showed in the previous game.”
Everyone is eager to play and is practicing hard, making it tough for Otto Addo to make judgments.
Meanwhile, coach Otto Addo has refuted claims that his squad overestimated Portugal in their first World Cup match at Doha’s 974 Stadium.
Some critics claim that the squad lost their first Group H game because they were overwhelmed by the level of Portuguese, causing them to retreat into their shells.
A response to these worries, the Black Stars coach remarked in a news conference on Sunday that his team performed without fear.
Even though the squad had some inexperienced legs, he said that it did not impact their confidence against the star-studded Portuguese side.
“I don’t think it’s real,” he stated in response to a query from JoyNews’ Gary Al-Smith. Our players performed admirably. I don’t think we overestimated them.”
“For me, we demonstrated that we could compete with them, even though we had a lot of inexperienced players,” he concluded.
“Some even had their debuts in the last game against Switzerland, yet they played admirably.”
Last Thursday, November 24, the Black Stars were defeated by the Portuguese by a score of three to two due to what has been generally termed as ‘biased officiating.’
After a scoreless first half, Ronaldo scored a contentious penalty in the 65th minute to give the Portuguese the lead.
Ghanaian captain André Dede Ayew equalized in the 73rd minute, thumping home from a feed by Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus.
The Portuguese, however, retook the lead and extended their lead with goals from Joo Félix and Rafael Leo in the 78th and 80th minutes, respectively.
The Stars closed the difference in the 89th minute as substitute Osman Bukari headed home a cross from former Chelsea defender Baba Rahman.
Also read: 3 reasons Kyereh should start against Portugal
However, this was unable to prevent the squad from suffering its first defeat in the tournament.
According to Otto Addo, the squad is now ready to make apologies in their upcoming encounter against South Korea.
In a news conference, he stated that his charges are pumped for their second game in Qatar.
He stated that Ghanaians would witness a fervent Black Stars squad against South Korea on Monday.
