Ex-Black Stars Coach Back Medeama To Beat Al Shendy

Former Black Stars Coach, James Kwesi Appiah has backed Medeama SC, to beat Al Shendy on Sunday in the Confederations Cup Competition.

The Ghanaian Premier League side will play the first leg of the their Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Confederation Cup tie against Al Shendy.

The Mauve and Yellows arrived in Sudan on Thursday and Kwesi Appiah, who is currently the head coach of Sudanese top-flight Al Khartoum, has urged the Ghanaian side to defeat their Sudanese counterparts.

“You must psyche yourself up, I believe you can win this game easily,” he said.

“They are not an extraordinary side. You just have to support each other during the game and I believe you can defeat them.”

Ex-Black Stars Coach Back Medeama To Beat Al Shendy

Poor Recruitment Cost Me My Africa Campaign - Kwesi Appiah

Al Khartoum head coach Kwesi Appiah has said the club’s failure to sign the players he recommended after the end of last season cost his failure to guide the team past the first round o CAF Confederation Cup.

The former Black Stars coach led his side to finish third on the Sudanese league log last season and he recommended seven players to augment his squad considering he was going to meet the best clubs in the continent.

The club failed to sign any of the seven players he requested for and rather brought him six players from the second division in the Sudanese league.

Appiah struggled to put up a strong unit to represent the club against Ugandan side Sports Club Villa in two legs in the CAF Confederation Cup and were knocked out of the first round of the competition 1-0 on aggregate over two legs.

And he reckon the poor recruitment caged his ambitions for the year.

“My main ambition was to get the team to the finals but unfortunately we couldn’t make it. After the end of last season, I needed seven new players and they could not get any of them,” the former Kotoko defender to the press .

“They brought players in that you have to bring them to the level that you’ve built already. So all these things reduced our progress.” He noted.

He denied insinuating that the players are not good, but they aren’t up to the premiership level to compete against the best.

“I am not saying the players are not good, but the players they brought were second division players, about six of them, so when you sign second division players, you have to bring them to reach the level of premiership players.

“That aside, they are picking up well,” he said. 

Poor Recruitment Cost Me My Africa Campaign - Kwesi Appiah

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