Ghana U20 coach Silas Tetteh has disclosed that the failure of national league sides to release some of his key players on time denied them victory against the Nigeria U20 team.
The Black Satellites forced the Flying Eagles to a 2-2 draw in an international friendly played at the Accra Stadium on Monday afternoon.
The game which was organized to prepare both teams for the 2015 African Youth Championship in Senegal saw Manu Garba’s lads dominate the game and got the curtain raiser through Musa Yahaya in the 24th minute after an impressive build up with Taiwo Awoniyi.
Ghana leveled up via Yaw Yeboah’s spot kick in the 29th minute after Nigeria’s Eze Chidera fouled Ghana’s Samuel Tetteh.
Eze Chidera scored Nigeria’s second goal in the 40th minute but the Black Satellites came back strong through Joseph Adjei.
“My team ran to several problems during this game simply because the national league was on course and we couldn’t secure the release of all our players on time,” coach Silas Tetteh lamented to Goal after the game.
“But now we are getting them back. So we had a balanced game today and my team is also a balance team so we will continue to work on the team till we make it very solid.
“As you see us today we couldn’t adjust quickly to the opponent’s play in the first half. The Flying Eagles had perfect and long possession of the ball, but we have a two balanced side in today’s game.”
On the other hand, coach Manu Garba expressed his delight with the performance of his boys claiming they lived up to expectation but blamed his defenders for conceding two cheap goals.
“It was a very good game for both sides because the game was played with high intensity,” Garba told Goal.
“I fault my defenders for conceding the two goals that could have been avoided. They were not mentally alerted. But above all it was a very good game for both sides.”
The second match will be played on Thursday, February 19, at the Tema Astroturf Stadium.
By Shemmy Sholabomi, Goal.com in Accra