Turkey Tuneup Today

May 26th, 2006 | by: Robert |

The reunited, fully healthy and high-spirited Black Stars will take the field for an important tuneup tonight in Germany versus Turkey. The Black Stars will have to perform strongly, and as a cohesive group, to shake the malaise that has hung over them seemingly throughout 2006. The good news is that the midfield, absent for much of the year, will be present and playing together, including a healthy Michael Essien.

The friendly, held at Bochum at 8:45 local time tonight, will test the mettle of the Stars against a strong near-qualifier. In fact, the Turks will be looking for vengeance, having missed the World Cup by a mere hair in qualifiers, losing to Switzerland in the playoff on the away goals rule 4-4. This should be a good test of the mettle of the reunited Stars, and we will be watching to see if the long absent attack of the Stars will return

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http://store.worldcupblog.org/kits/ghana/ Wendall

This should be a great test for the Black Stars. And an interesting game for their group counterparts to observe. If Turkey brings their first team it should be a very good indicator of how ready Ghana is.
Joel Dossoumon

Well the malaise seems not to have settled in the Stars Camp with the recent outrageous comments made by head coach Ratomir Djukovic in the German tabloid Bild.
Not satisfied by claiming sole credit for the Stars first time qualification to the world cup, he added insult to injury by proclaiming that: ‘Discipline is the biggest problem with Black Africans. They have none. Africans have a different mentality from Europeans or the South Americans.’
These uncalled for comments of the coach two weeks before the world cup prompted as expected many ghanaians to call for his immediate sack.

The head coach has however denied he made such comments in a telephone conversation with a private radio station in Accra. He said he was misquoted by the Bild.

Hopefully these new developments would not be a distraction for the Black Stars as they remain focussed on the task of qualifying for the second rounds.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2006/south-korea-defeats-bosnia-in-first-of-four-friendlies-today.html South Korea Defeats Bosnia in First of Four Friendlies Today – FIFA World Cup 2006 – World Cup 2006 Blog

[...] Also today, Ghana takes on Turkey. Ghana’s World Cup preparations have been a mess thus far, but today’s match will be the first time since qualifying that the Black Stars have their full compliment of players in place, including midfielder Michael Essien. [...]
Raheel

This friendly , will be more a battle for pride as Turkey will try to regain the respect of the soccer world while the Ghanaians are building towards a successful debut at the World Cup. Snide and pompous remarks from the Coach wil not help matters in the Ghana camp as the Turks will play a hard, physical game , very similar to their own style of play. Anyways, I wish the Black Stars luck for victory and protection from injuries.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2006/czech-republic-defeat-saudi-arabia-in-world-cup-tune-up.html Czech Republic Defeat Saudi Arabia in World Cup Tune Up – FIFA World Cup 2006 – World Cup 2006 Blog

[...] Next up today is a match between Ghana and Turkey. If anyone knows of an online feed for this game, please let me know. Would be a fun one to watch. [...]