The Black Sharks, the national male beach soccer team Saturday lost their 2024 Beach Soccer African Cup of Nation (AFCON) opener to the host nation, the Pharaohs of Egypt by 6 goals to 3.
The CAF Beach Soccer AFCON, which opened Saturday, is expected to end on October 26, at Hurghada, Egypt.
The first period of the opening match between the Sand Pharaohs and Black Sharks saw Haithan netting the first goal in the 17th minutes with a spectacular strike from about 14 yards to beat the Ghanaian goalie, Nyadedzor.
Haithan further capitalised on a blunder by Nyadedzor to double the lead for Egypt in the 21st minutes after Ghanaian goalkeeper committed a defensive mistake and got punished, right after the commencement of the second period.
Alexander Adjetey, a prolific striker pulled one goal back in the 22nd minutes for Ghana to make it 2-1 before Hassan increased the tally to 3-1 in the 25th minutes for Egypt to end the second period.
Both teams resumed fully prepared and stronger in the third and the final period of the game, which saw Alfred Torsu and Captain Richard Maitey Osai of Ghana heating the woodwork respectively in an attempt to take the lead.
Egyptian Salama further increased the frustration of the Ghanaian defense after scoring the fourth goal in the 26th minutes of the third period with a quicker respond from Alexander Adjetey, who scored a flipflop header in the 29 minutes for Ghana.
Alexander Adjetey, 2015 beach soccer AFCON top scorer with 17 goals further announced his presence in the game for being the first player to score a hat trick after his third goals in the 29th minutes to narrow the scoreline to 5-3.
The game ended 6-3 after Egypt increased the goal margin in the last few minutes of the entire 32 minutes of play.
Mr. Daniel Neequaye Kotey, the Head Coach of Ghana Black Sharks, in a post-match interview, stated that the team will re-strategise to face Morocco in the second group match encounter on Monday, October 21.
“Today is a bad game for us but we have Morocco to contend with on Monday, before wrapping up with the last group match against Tanzania, the boys will fight again and bounce back,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Morocco also defeated Tanzania 4-3 in other group A encounter, which made the two north African countries to lead the table with 3 points each from their first matches respectively.
The defeat means the Black Sharks must regroup and come back stronger and win in their next last two group matches to make it to the semifinals of the continental showpiece.
The Beach Soccer AFCON tournament will continue on Sunday, October 21, with seven times and defending champions Senegal taking on Mauritania at 1400 hours with Mozambique and Malawi locking horns at 1530 hours, respectively, in a group B encounter.
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