Ben Fokuo on loss to Morocco, building a team for the future, exposing players through International matches and more: Transcript

Black Starlets coach Ben Fokuo says Monday’s friendly match against Morocco was a useful exercise for his players.

Ghana, on Monday played Morocco in the first of two friendly matches line up for the team in Rabat, an exercise, aimed at building a formidable side for the future as Ghana couldn’t qualify for the U-17 Total Africa Cup of Nations.

The Black Starlets conceded two goals in the early stages of the first half but came back stronger in the second half to reduce the deficit to end the game 2-1.

Ghana will play the Moroccans again on Thursday, February 11, 2021 before returning home on Saturday, February 13, 2021.

Here is what Coach Ben Fokuo told ghananafa.org after the game.

On playing in the cold and being stretched by the Moroccans

I think in the early stages of the game we were surprised by the Moroccans. The team is still young and we are still developing the players for the future. The first half wasn’t the best but I think we improved in the second half. The players were playing in a cold weather for the first time and you could tell from their performance that they aren’t used t the environment.

On the score line and its effect on the team for the future

I am not worried about the score line. At this stage results don’t matter in these kinds of situations. We are looking ahead to the future, player development, team performance, exposure, technical ability and all other ingredients that are needed to make the team better in future.

On importance of the friendly

So, for me, results don’t matter at all. The players needed this tour badly to get exposed to playing abroad and that was the purpose of coming here and its been well achieved here in Morocco.

On team programme ahead of second friendly on Thursday

Tomorrow, we will have a brief recovery training to get those who didn’t play some drills. For those who played today, we will continue with their recovery before we do group training on Wednesday for the second game.

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