The coach of the national Under 20 side, Orlando Wellington says the team’s participation in the South Africa Invitational tournament has been a good learning exercise despite the team crushing out in the early stage.
The Black Satellites on Tuesday night played a goalless drawn game with the young Albiceleste of Argentina and have therefore being eliminated from the ongoing competition.
According to the coach, the level the team reached with their performance can’t be discredited considering the circumstances they played in.
The team travelled without some of their technical team members with particular absentee being their goalkeeper’s trainer. The competition itself was filled with drama as the referee at the centre of the game between Ghana and South Africa is believed to have being unfair in officiating.
Though coach Wellington admits the absence of the goalkeeping trainer affected the team in one way or the other, he says the competition was a good learning curve so the team won’t snivel over the missed opportunity to get farther.
Coach Wellington was speaking on Happy 989 FM on Wednesday morning.
In the game against Argentina on Tuesday night, the Satellites fought bravely and denied the Argentines victory despite getting Prince Baffoe sent off about twenty minutes to full time.
According to the coach Wellington, the red card affected the team’s approach to the game as they resorted to defensive tactics upon realizing that victory had to be by a bigger margin if the team wanted to qualify.
South Africa had beaten Nigeria by a goal to nil earlier and occupied the second spot in the group.
The coach confirmed that the team will be arriving in the country on the 3rd or 4th of June from South Africa.
Benjamin Agyei-Boateng/happyghana.com
