Medeama Officials In Cairo

Officials of Medeama Sporting Club are currently in Cairo for Tuesday’s CAF Confederations Cup Group stages draw.

Chief Executive Officer James Esselfie, communication director Benjamin Jesse and deputy Patrick Akoto arrived in Cairo on Monday for the draw scheduled for Tuesday.

The Mauve and Yellows are Ghana’s sole

representative in Africa, having progressed to the group stages of the continental competition after eliminating South African Champions Mamelodi Sundowns last Wednesday.

This will be the club’s first appearance at the Money Zone after missing out narrowly three years ago when they lost on penalties to Congolese outfit AC Leopards at the play-offs round.

The Mauves and Yellows are likely to come up against these seven countries MO Bejaia, TP Mazembe, Al-Ahli Tripoli, FUS Rabat, Kawkab Marrakech, Young Africans and Etoile du Sahel.

Medeama Officials In Cairo

Medeama To Face Sudanese Side Al-Ahly Shendi In Confed Cup

Ghanaian top flight side Medeama SC will play Sudanese side Al Ahly Shendi in the round of 16 of the 2015/2016 CAF Confederation Cup slated for next month.

The two times Ghanaian FA Cup winners secured passage after beating Libyan side Al Ittihad 2-1 on aggregate.

The Mauve and Yellows recorded an impressive 2-0 win over the North African side at home on Sunday to set up a date against the rich Sudanese side.

The West Africans will travel to Sudan for the first leg tie on the weekend of 8-10 April before the return leg takes place at the Sekondi stadium on April 17.

Al Shendi reached this stage after edging Congolese side Saint Eloi Lupopo 2-2 on the away goal rule.

https://twitter.com/MedeamaSC/status/711974093025906689

Medeama To Face Sudanese Side Al-Ahly Shendi In Confed Cup

Government Must Support Clubs In Africa Campaign - Medeama

Ghanaian Clubs have in recent times failed to make any significant impact in Africa Inter-Club Football Competitions and Moses “Parker” Armah claims, their failure has been due to lack of funds.

In other Africa countries, government support clubs representing their respective countries financially, but the story in Ghana is different.

And Parker, owner of Medeama SC, says government support would go a long way to help clubs in Ghana compete with other elite clubs in the continent.

“Our inability to do well in the continent club competition is down financial problems.” Parker said before the team left Accra to Tunisia.

“If you look at other countries, their ministries offer them financial support to boost their preparations. When we took part in the competition two years ago, we had a lot of information about what other countries do.

“For instance, when we went to Morocco, we realised the ministry offered them support in every aspect of their participation,  Equatorial Guinea, has the same system, but in Ghana, it is a different story and there’s nothing we can.

“We will do our best in our own way to take part.” He stated.

Medeama qualified to represent Ghana in the Confederation Cup after winning the MTN FA Cup last year.

Government Must Support Clubs In Africa Campaign - Medeama

My Ambition Was To Reach CAFCC Final - Kwesi Appiah

Al Khartoum coach Kwesi Appiah is disappointed his side were knocked out of the first round of the CAF Confederation Cup, crumbling his ambitions for the season.

The forner Black Stars captain and coach were sent parking out of the continental inter-club football competition after losing 1-0 to Ugandan Sports Club Villa over the weekend.

It was the second time the Ghanaian has failed to guide the Sudanese side past the first round of the competition, but he believed he had the squad to beat Sports Club Villa away from home to qualify despite drawing the first leg in Khartoum.

“I feel really disappointed because I don’t think we deserve to go out at this stage of the competition, but saying that; we should have won the game in Khartoum because we had so many opportunities to score more and we failed,” the former Asante Kotoko defender told the press.

“This what happens in football, when you fail to take your chances in high level games like this, you get punished,” he added.

Al Khartoum missed numerous chances including a penalty to give themselves an advantage ahead of the second leg, and Kwesi Appiah reckon they were punished for being profligate in front of goal.

“If you look at the game you will realize that we had many chances, we had a penalty but we failed to score and is a little bit worrying when you get the opportunities and you fail to bury them. If you take your opportunities, you are encouraged to fight to the end.

“My main ambition was to get the team to the finals but unfortunately we couldn’t make it and I am very disappointed we’ve failed ourselves and the fans.” He said.

My Ambition Was To Reach CAFCC Final - Kwesi Appiah

Super Sub: Bernard Ofori Floor AshGold In Battle of Champions.

Medeama SC floored Ashanti Gold at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday afternoon to lift the Ghana Football Association’s Super Cup trophy.

A late controversial finish by Bennett Ofori was enough to send the sparse spectators who had enjoyed the scientilatting performance from the Mauve and Yellows frenzy.

Tom Strand on Wednesday stated emphatically he was going to win the trophy, and the alacrity with which the MTN FA Cup champions took the game to the Miners showed they were ready to replicate the words the Swede told the press at the launch of the match at the FA secretariat.

They hit hard at the premier league title holders from the blast of the referee’s whistle, dominating the early exchanges and Ashgold had to revise their notes. The Miners quickly settled for the counter-attacking approach and soaked the enormous pressure Medeama SC poured on them.

However, they were very poor in executing the plan as the players hardly knew where to find their colleagues on the pitch, Medeama won all the 50-50 balls and asked Fatau Dauda numerous questions, but fortunately, he had answers.

At the other end, Muntari Tagoe was enjoying a holiday until AshGold broke through the right flank with Augustine Sefa. The final ball though, was feeble.

Few minutes later, the under post denied AshGold who woke from their siesta the lead when Emmanuel Osei Baffour struck a well executed interplay with Tijani Joshua.

The pendulum again swung in favour Medeama SC who were doing almost everything right but only a goal deluded them. Donsu who was AshGold biggest threat orchestrated the midfield with his super balls. Fatau Dauda, AshGold’s best on the day was at his best and pulled off fantastic saves to deny Benjamin Bature and and Yaw Ansah, forcing the game to end goalless in the first half.

Medeama SC took off from where they left in the 2nd half of the game by taking the game to Ashgold like they did in the early minutes of the first half. Ashgold, however managed to curtail the attacking threats of the Tarkwa-based club.

The tempo of the game cool as Medeama settled into the ‘control the game’ approach.

The glorious opportunity of the match fell to Kadri Mohammed to shake the net, after Hudu Yakubu’s corner kick found his head in an unmarked position, but his header missed the post.

Medeama responded by putting together a fast counter attacking play that finally fell the way of Benjamin Bature, their leading attacker. However he shot wide to create no problem for Fatau Dauda in post.

Muntari Tagoe pulled off a super save to deny Joseph Atto Bissah who struck a sumptuous bicycle kick with less than a quarter to the end of the match. His save forced to ball onto the path of Emmanuel Osei, he slotted home the rebound,  but flagged offside.

Bernard Ofori grabbed the headlines with three minutes to end proceedings when he scored from a position but believed he was offside, but the referee pointed to the center circle for AshGold to restart the match.

And Medeama led 1 nil. Three additional minutes was not enough for AshGold to claw back into the game, and the CAF Confederation Cup participants matched to the VIP for the Super Cup trophy — defending Tom Strand’s words last Wednesday.

Ashgold starting line-up: Fatau Dauda, Augustine Sefah, Tijani Joshua, Awudu Nafiu, Kadiri Mohammed, Eric Opoku, Joseph Atto Bissah, Shafiu Mumuni, Isaac Amoah, Emmanuel Osei Baffour, Nuhu Fuseini

Medeama starting line-up: Muntari Tagoe, Moses Sarpong Samuel Adade, Paul Aidoo, Daniel Amoah, Malik Akowuah, Atta Adjei, Kwasi Donsu, Benjamin Bature, Abass Mohammed, Enoch Atta Adjei.

Super Sub: Bernard Ofori Floor AshGold In Battle of Champions.

Super Cup Preview: Clash Of Trophy Winners.

The euphoria gathered momentum, the stakes grew higher, Bashir Hayford had promised to walk to the stance and insult any supporter who insult him for losing the match. But within the twinkling of an eye, the Ghana Football Association connived with the Ethics Committee to blow the fever deep down the ground, and the anticipation for the high-profile match is now as low as the belly of a snake.

The Ethics Committee met on case brought before them by Wa African United for alleged match-fixing with Techiman City on their match week 22 Division One League fixture last season.

They found Techiman City guilty and gave their ruling to demote the Techiman-based club which qualified as winners of Zone 1 in the Division One to the third tier of Ghana football, putting the start of the season in limbo.

However, the FA insist their planned date for the Super Cup clash between league champions Ashanti Gold and Medeama SC at the Accra Sports Stadium on February 7 and the commencement of the league has not changed.

And it means, the cup match which was launched at the FA secretariat last week, will have the teams representing Ghana in CAF inter-club football competitions — Champions League and Confederation Cup respectively, lock horns for the first major silverware to open the gates for the football weather which has been missing since September last year.

The game will serve as a good opportunity for both technical benches to test their readiness for Africa. Ashanti Gold have MO Bejaia of Algeria to engage in their opening encounter in the Champions League next week, and been in a competitive shape for the fixture will be massive.

Bashir Hayford said “It is a very good opportunity for us to prepare for the CAF Champions League game because everyone knows that we haven’t started the league whilst our counterparts have played about six matches.”

Medeama SC on the hand will use the game as a preparatory ground for the premier league because their Africa campaign will begin in March.

And the Swede pronouncements stated emphatically that his side will win the trophy.

“We have beaten them many times. We will both battle it out but Medeama will win on the day.”

Football fans across the country have been offered free entry into the stadium to support their clubs as they entertain themselves to usher in the new football season.

Super Cup Preview: Clash Of Trophy Winners.