Ghana’s Black Satellites will, Monday afternoon, engage their South Africa counterparts in a friendly ahead of their respective opening games at the 2019 Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to kick off this weekend.
Both teams are currently based in Niamey, the capital of host nation Niger – where they are wrapping up preparations for the 8-nation championship.
Ghana, who would have to move to host city Maradi (designated for Group B) later in the week, have already played one friendly since arriving in the West African country last Monday. They were beaten 2-0 by the Niger U-20s.
For South Africa’s Amajita, the game against Satellites, will be their first since landing in Niamey last Thursday and intend to use it to prepare for Saturday’s Group A match against hosts Niger. Burundi and Nigeria are also in the group.
“For us, this friendly is about getting our side to adapt to the conditions they will be playing in this tournament. We chose Ghana because they possess similar characteristics in their play with the countries we will be playing against in our group,” Senong told SAFA’s website.
“Ghana are very strong both physically and technically,” Senong added.” This encounter will help us to assess how far we have come in our preparations, and what are some of the few things we need to address with the players before this tournament kicks off.”
Both Ghana and South Africa have sights on a Fifa World Cup spot and need to reach for the semi-finals to book themselves places at the tournament scheduled for Poland from May 23 to June 15.
