Black Stars focused on World Cup bid – Desmond Ofei

 Assistant Coach of the Black Stars, Desmond Ofei has stated that the squad will focus on its own strengths in their bid to win the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Chad and Madagascar.

The 2024 African Games gold medalist told ghanafa.org that the team has learned valuable lessons from their failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Ofei highlighted the team’s de­termination to rectify the situation and appealed to Ghanaians for their support.

Ghana will host Chad at the Accra Sports Stadium on Friday, March 21, before traveling to Morocco to face Madagascar in two crucial World Cup qualifiers.

Commenting on the team’s readi­ness for the task ahead, Coach Ofei said “We are one hundred per cent ready because I think it’s not about me per say. But it’s what we have to do together and we are one hundred per cent ready as staff and I’m sure the players also.”

Sharing the team’s approach for the two matches, Coach Ofei stated that “as a team, we would have to look at ourselves because we have enough quality in the squad to make sure that we perform on the day.

“Yes, of course we want to also make the fans very proud, so it’s very important that we give a really good performance against Chad at home. They’re going to fight and it’s going to be like a final.

“So for us, I think it’s very important to make sure that this window is wrapped up very, very positively and make sure that the Ghanaian fans are very happy with us. Like I said, we have to look at their strengths. Now both teams have new coaches, so we don’t know how they’re going to set up. But we know the players of course, so it’s about us and how we get the boys ready to fight and make sure they give everything on a day,” he said.

According to him, discussions with Head Coach Otto Addo and Technical Advisor Winfred Schief­fer has centered on what to do to improve the team on every level.

“We are looking at improvement everywhere, both on and off the pitch. So we’ve been working really hard behind the scenes and trying to rectify all the things that might not have been worked out the way we wanted. So we’ve been working really hard.

He described the failure to qualify for AFCON as a very painful and disappointing moment but said lessons have been learnt.

“We’ve learned a lot from the mistakes on and off the pitch and we feel like we are very hungry to try and rectify the situation. And once again, we are willing to work really hard to rectify those mis­takes.”

On pitches, he expressed the need to also see improvement with facilities. “Our boys need to play on the best pitches. We’ve been engaging with the Sports Minister so they’re also trying and willing to help. I think that’s the key area for us, to make sure that the boys can play on the best possible pitch.

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