Final Pre-Roster Tuneup Today

Ghana play against Nice today in a final tuneup prior to the Thursday deadline for submittal of 23-man World Cup rosters to FIFA. Like the recent match against Stuttgart, the Grandmaster will use a lineup of mainly reserve players to determine who should make the trip for the Stars. However, one position that will be closely watched is that of striker.

The Stars have performed weakly on attack all of 2006, and need to improve their attack if they hope to score an upset in Germany. Their strong midfield and goal and their improving backline are seemingly set for Germany, but the attack remains an open question. This weakness was exacerbated in Wurzburg, where the Stars saw two reserve strikers lost for Germany.

Versus Nice, the Stars expect to try low-level English based strikers Junior Agogo and Derek Asamoah to see if they can add punch. In addition, Danish based attacking midfielder Derek Boateng should also see some action. We hope also to see fan favorite Baba Armando participate today. The remainder of the lineup will be similar to what we saw versus Nice, hopefully with a bit more effort.