The midfielder caught the eye as Ghana won their tournament opener<\/p>\n
James Akaminko was\u00a0Ghana\u2019s standout player in their\u00a0Wafu Cup of Nations\u00a0opening victory over The Gambia, according to Scorpions skipper Ebrima Sidibeh.<\/p>\n
Joseph Esso scored the only goal of the game as the Black Stars into the quarter-finals of the cup competition, where they will play Burkina Faso in Thies on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhana\u2019s number eight Akaminko really impressed me,\u201d Sidibeh told\u00a0Goal. \u201cHe was so free at the beginning of the game, so he saw a lot of the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, we realised there was no one tracking him, so we had to change things immediately.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn the second half, we changed and we started dominating the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Black Stars\u2019 opener, the team was dominated by players from\u00a0Ashanti Gold\u00a0and\u00a0Hearts of Oak, with\u00a0Asante Kotoko\u00a0players having played\u00a0Etoile du Sahel\u00a0in their Caf\u00a0Champions League\u00a0clash over the weekend.<\/p>\n
However, it remains to be seen whether coach Maxwell Konadu will integrate many of the seven-strong Kotoko contingent into the starting XI.\u2715<\/p>\n
Ghana and Burkina Faso have recent history, with the Stallions having eliminated the Black Stars from 2018 African Nations Championship qualification.<\/p>\n
Burkina Faso also hold a one-goal advantage over Ghana in the ongoing qualification for the 2020 Chan, having defeated the Black Stars 1-0 in Kumasi thanks to Yannick Pougnongo\u2019s 94th-minute winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The midfielder caught the eye as Ghana won their tournament opener James Akaminko was\u00a0Ghana\u2019s standout player in their\u00a0Wafu Cup of Nations\u00a0opening victory over The Gambia, according to Scorpions skipper Ebrima Sidibeh. Joseph Esso scored the only goal of the game as the Black Stars into the quarter-finals of the cup competition, where they will play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":1618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[237,1004],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-gambia-news","tag-james-akaminko"],"yoast_head":"\n