Accra Hearts of Oak head coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi spoke with your authoritative paper, Hearts News, ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Techiman City in the Ghana Premier League.
Read a transcript of the interview he granted the club’s official newspaper, the Hearts News:
On the team news:“Foovi came back yesterday and Soulama joined us a few days back so two players are available. For the injury concerns, nothing changes. Thomas Abbey is out; Yamoah is still out; Samudeen is still out; and we have Selasi also out, he had a minor injury but we took a precaution. He rested today, but it is nothing unusual so he should be available for our next training. Other than that we are healthy.
On the preparations for the Techiman City game:I think we had two sessions yesterday and today; It’s one of the best training sessions we have had so far. We are confident and we are prepared.
On whether the team has lost confidence:No, our confidence is not down at all because we lost one game. Let’s say if we play our best game and then we lost; then I think we will lose confidence. But it is not like we played our best game against AllStars and lost. We had problems but it was not physical problems or mental problems. We had other problems to fix and we fixed it and we are 100% and we are confident.
On the defensive problems from the last game:Well, we conceded three goals but that is something I would like to keep to myself. I am not going to reveal everything to the public. Our players know and we also know [the problem] and it does not exist anymore so we are confident.
On why it would be difficult against Techiman City:Techiman City is a good side; but I think nothing is different. Every team will give a big challenge against Accra Hearts of Oak and you know it’s a big name and everyone wants to win against Hearts of Oak so we have to be on our best game all the time.
On his perfect training methods that has got other teams worried:I think it is not insulting to me [that people are wrongly accusing my side of doping] but I told them that when I first had my breakfast as Kooko (porridge), I felt very energized and I told all the players to drink Kooko so if Kooko is a banned substance, they can all accuse me; but I think it is not.
I am just very sorry for people accusing me [and the team] but I think it is ignorance. Hard training and good programme [is our secret]. We are improving in every training session and so the players are improving in every day.
On what is helping the team to be physically strong:The Polar products are helping us a lot because we can analyze what happens to their heart and their bodies, but that is not the only thing. We observe the players because we have three coaches who are very experienced in coaching; and we put together to make progress.
On his message to the fans:Definitely, the fans should be in Techiman in their numbers. What happened last time was not good for both the fans and us the team. We are both responsible for making the mistakes; but players and coaches must correct their own mistakes. As well as the fans made their mistakes, but I understand that they were unhappy but let’s go back together and try to win the game.
Hearts Coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi On Techiman City Game
The Portuguese, nicknamed, “Port-Alegre Mourinho” has had a torrid time since his appointment as Kenichi Yatsuashi’s replacement.
