Nuamah – In-form Meteors player

Ghana’s Black Meteors were last Friday given a hard-hittingpassageway to the TotalEnergies Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations after being drawn with host nation Morocco, Guinea and Congo.

The strong-willed Ghanaians are expected to play the two-week tournament’s Group A opener against Morocco on Saturday June 24, 2023 at the Prince MoulayAbdellah Sports Complex in Rabat.

Other members of the group are Congo and Guinea.

Group B features holders Egypt, Mali, Gabon and Niger in what promises to be a high-flying show of grit, guts and splendour.

The first three nations will get their ticket for the Summer Olympics in 2024.

It is so sad that the Meteors have never qualified for the quadrennial tournament since they last participated in the Athens 2004 edition – and, it certainly does not speak well for Ghana that became the first African country to win a medal (bronze) at the football event of the Olympic Games.

That Barcelona 1992 feat opened the floodgates for Nigeria as they proceeded to snatch gold during the Atlanta ’96 Olympics, followed by another gold four years later by Cameroon at the Sydney Olympics.

Sadly, Ghana has struggled over and over again to make it to the Games and the last time they came close was in 2019 where they were pipped to it by South Africa, after a heart-stopping penalty shoot-out.

Today, there is a fresh generation of Meteors players led by Daniel AfriyieBarnieh, who has sworn to snatch a spot in the Paris 2024 Games.

Undeniably, they may have demonstrated it strongly during the qualifiers when they dispatched Algeria from the campaign after a ferocious double-do.

Reports suggested that the Algerians employed every sinew of tricks under their sleeve to upstage them in the first leg played in Algiers, but failed to break through the dogged resistance of the Ghanaians who covered every blade of grass on the night. At the end of the nervy, heart-pumping exchanges, the Meteors battled for a 1-1 draw with Abdul FatawuIssahaku’s scoring a stunning long-ranger at the 19 May 1956 Stadium in Annaba.

Ahead of the Meteors’ 83rd minute goal, Ghana goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim had saved a seemingly controversial penalty to the chagrin of the home crowd. But the Algerians would pull the leveller through another spot-kick to give themselves a lifeline in the return.

Sparklingly, Algeria’s nemesis – FatawuIssahaku, was on hand again to punish the North Africans – finishing off an electrifying gleamy run from Ernest Nuamah, on the left. It was a game the Ghanaians could have put away by a bigger margin, if they had made the most of the opportunities that tantalizingly galloped their way. All the same, Coach Ibrahim Tanko’s boys have shown extraordinary courage and determination in the qualifiers – proving why Ghanaians can rely on them to break the nearly two-decade jinx.

Indeed, players like goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim, Aaron Essel, Alex SarfoOpoku, David OppongAfriyie, Samuel Abbey-AshieQuaye, Dominic Nsobila, Emmanuel Essiem and AbassSamariSalifu among others, have all proven they have what it takes to wow the continent in the Morocco tournament – and proceed to the Olympics with an amperage of expectation.

The team’s Management and the Technical Team must take a critical look at the Meteors fragile departments and begin to work on them before they depart for the tournament. Let us remember we are housed in the same group as host nation Morocco and cannot afford to take things for granted.

Yes, we may have a solid squad; but we can do better to tighten the bolts and smoothen the rough edges – all in a bid to present a formidably winsome representation.

Having failed many times to make it to the Olympics, we must do all we can to ensure we do not miss the boat again this around. Hopefully, we can scale through!

PlainTalk with John Vigah