Atsu blames Liberia pitch for Black Stars defeat
Posted On Wednesday, 12th September 2012
Christian Atsu was not impressed with pitch at the SKD Sports Complex
By Patrick Akoto
Christian Atsu cited the poor pitch at the SKD Sports Complex as one of the reasons why the Black Stars underperformed against Liberia.
A brace by Indonesia-based striker Zah Krangar in a space of three minutes condemned the Black Stars to a surprise 2-0 defeat in Paynesville.
It the 17th defeat suffered by the West African heavyweights against the Lone Star as the Liberians looked superior to their opponent in every aspect of the game.
Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah made changes to the starting line up that beat Malawi in a 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifier which proved worthless as they team failed to spark in the friendly.
From defence to attack, the team remained ineffective as they surrendered to the sorry defeat against the lowly-ranked side.
But the Porto winger claims the poor pitch scuppered their chances to eclipse their Liberian opponent.
“I will say we had a difficult game. The picth was als a factor because it didn’t help us to play fluid football,” Atsu told Accra-based Peace FM
“I believe our normal game was interrupted due to the nature of the picth among other factors.
“We have to accept defeat and correct our mistakes in the next crucial game against Malawi.”
The 20-year-old also took a swipe at Liberian referee Jerry Yekeh for taken ‘strange decisions’ against the Black Stars.
“The referee was also a huge problem. He had isues with every move that we made and that also frustrated us,”
“His performance on the day was very poor and that must be taken into accont.”
The Black Stars will battle Malawi in the return fixture of the qualifier for the 2013 African Cup of Nations next month.
The team needs to avoid defeat in Blantyre to qualify to the African mundial having taken a healthy 2-0 lead from the first leg.
The 29th edition of the African Cup of Nations will be held in South Africa from 19 January – 10 February, 2013.
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Loool. Very funny. There is Always something or someone to blame for your unprofessionalism. Amateurs.
WARNING! These kumasi coaches will not take us anywhere…they are only good @ chop chop and fixing their inlaws.
How can you have a friendly with a ref from the same country!!! Only in Africa. Liberia is sh1t…
A bad carpenter always blames his tools.lyk liberia were playing on a better pitch
Professional footballers/liers….
Does everything has to be tribalistic? GROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was it a fifa friendly match or jux a celebration match. If it a fifa friendly then why do u allow a refree frm them to officiate rhe mach. I dont blem the players but the Gfa. Its jux cos of their stomach
It was a fixed match. Akwasi Appiah should have played the local Black stars instead of disgracing our top professionals publicly.
We are watching Akwasi and Nyantakyi very closely. Selling our matches?
These excuses would not lead us anywhere! The Black Stars were outplayed and should learn from their mistakes and correct them.
@Fiifi you are wrong. Why can’t Ghana be outplayed when Liberian is the referee?. Every Ghana move was either offside or a foul. The referee even disallowed a clean goal.
My concern is, does Akwasi Appiah knew that a liberian would referee the match? If he knew then he sold that match.
If we don’t speak up right now, every friendly match would be business as usual.
How do you know the Black Stars were outplayed? Did you see the match? All we have are news reports, so no one can say conclusively what really happened. We are only going by the scoreline. But there is more to a game than the scoreline says.
A coach who never played in europe how can he coach european base players? Is like eating abetie with shito instead of soup.this can only happen in ghana oh what a shame
I hope there will be no excuse when Zambia beats you in your own backyard, cry babies
I believe the time to appoint a psychologist for the Black Stars is now,I have observed our team for sometime and have noticed the tendency to place high premium on some matches(esp against A-rated teams),while placing lil premium on other games,esp against teams of lower repute,Our appointment of Akwasi Appiah as coach wasnt the best decision,cos I believe He is unable to drum into the heads of our players the spirit of attaching equal importance to each game as though they were world cup finals,we must be ruthless against smaller nations ala the exhibition Brazil put up against China,a team we could only share spoils with,A WORD TO THE WISE,……