Chris Hughton: Spirit of Black Stars high

Head coach of Ghana’s National Men’s Football Team, Chris Hughton, says the spirit of the Black Stars is just right going into the team’s international friendly game against USA.

The tie kicks off at the Geodis Park in Nashville at 12:30 AM on Wednesday, October 18 and represents the second tie for both countries in the penultimate international break of 2023.

Ghana lost 0-2 to Mexico with USA losing 1-3 to Germany over the weekend in Julian Nagelsmann’s first game in charge as Germany head coach.

Despite the loss, Hughton believes the spirit of the team hasn’t dampened saying in a pregame conference,

“One thing I can guarantee you is that there’s nothing wrong with the spirit of the team…Going right through the (2022 FIFA) World Cup and into the camps that we’ve had the spirit amongst the team has always been very good.”

He added, “In the last couple of games, we’ve played a different system to maybe try to solve some of the problems that we felt we’ve had in creating chances. In the periods of time that we have with the players, we are working as hard as we can to make sure that we have enough good combinations, a good enough way of playing that can put in enough good performances.”

Possible Lineup

Hughton might introduce several alterations to the lineup from the previous friendly on Sunday.

Potential changes include Richard Ofori taking the place of Lawrence Ati-Zigi as the goalkeeper, and Alidu Seidu, Inaki Williams, Jordan Ayew, and Salis Samed stepping in for Kingsley Schindler, Joseph Aidoo, Antoine Semenyo, and Elisha Owusu.

The changes would see Black Stars switch from a 3- back system to a familiar 4-back.

Hughton set his team in a 3-4-3 system against Mexico but could revert to his regular 4-2-3-1 against USA.

The lineup for the team consists of Richard Ofori, Alidu Seidu, Stephan Ambrosius, Nicholas Opoku, Gideon Mensah, Thomas Partey, Salis Samed, Inaki Williams, Kudus Mohammed, Jordan Ayew, and Joseph Paintsil.