Annor Walker on Black Galaxies readiness, friendly against Hearts of Oak, Afriyie Barnie and Danlad Ibrahim

Coach Annor Walker has been updating us on the team’s build up to the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) Algeria 2023 tournament in January next year.

The Black Galaxies have been training at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram for the past two weeks in readiness for the tournament which kicks off on Friday, January 13, 2023.

Ghana will be making her first appearance in 8-years having missed out on the last three editions. The team is housed in Group C and will take on Madagascar on January 15 before playing Sudan (19th) and Morocco (23rd) in the other group C matches.

Here is what Annor Walker said in an interview with ghanafa.org

On camping so far

I think we have been here for the past 10/11 days and we started training and at the weekend we had our first friendly game against a second Division team called New Town FC and won 7-0. We continued our training and today we had another friendly match that we won 4-1.

On flattering score lines and its impact

I am not looking at the results but performance and the game plan that we are strategizing to play. For me it’s working but we are not there yet.

Friendly against Hearts of Oak

We will continue until the final day that we will leave for the tournament. Luckily, we are playing Accra Hearts of Oak on Sunday and as one of the biggest teams in Ghana, I think they will give us a good test. The GFA is working on an International friendly for us but they are not done yet so I decided to play them for now, in place of an International friendly. So, our preparation is on course.

On Afriyie Barnie and Danlad Ibrahim

Barnie and Danlad are already part of the team before they were invited to the Black Stars to travel to Qatar for the World Cup and I am told they are town. But this morning, I heard Danlad is ill and has been admitted at the hospital. So seriously, I am expecting them to report to camp, when Danlad is okay. For Barnie I don’t know about his condition but I am expecting them to join us here so that we can all work together before we move outside Ghana.

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