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 There is more work to be done- Smith
David Kyei
Posted: 9th April 2008
Asante Kotoko may have qualified to the next stage of the Confederations Cup but the man who partners Bashir Hayford in the technical direction of the team, Johnson Smith says despite the victory, there is more work to be done.
With that knowledge, he has also assured that enough work will be done to seal all loopholes in the team’s set up before the team goes into the next match of the competition which will be once again against a Nigerian side, Dolphins F.C.
These were the expressions of Coach Smith when Kotoko Express sought his opinion about the 4-1 demolition of their 1/16th stage opponents, Wikki Tourists.
According to him, two things were observed about the team that gives him the feeling that with more work, Kotoko will be able to fully transfer her unstoppable form in the Ghanaian league onto the continental stage.
“The two things I observed was that, when we decided to open up like we do in some of our matches, we record higher score lines and secondly, our midfield tends to stutter when one of our players do not find his feet early in the game”
“This trend therefore puts so much pressure on us that any team with an intelligent midfield can easily seize the midfield from us and put us into trouble”.
Stressing more on the good things he observed from the game, he said the players did well by not allowing the talk by Wikki Tourists that they were going to beat us at our own back yard to happen.
“That is the essence of why we always talk about the need to have people who have seen it all in terms of playing at the highest level around the team. I am sure the players knew well ahead of the match that the Nigerians would be using that as a weapon to bring pressure to bear on our players”.
“I am happy that our players listened to the instructions of the technical team and went on the field to do what we had just instructed. They were told to go to the field and technically enjoy themselves,” he said.
One thing that gets Johnson smith going is the fact that all the goals could be described as well-taken ones that were born out of hard work and a determined attitude to succeed.
“Anyone who observed our training sessions noticed that our emphasis for most part of the days preceding the match was to engage the players in shooting exercises, especially from outside the eighteen yard box. I am happy that they transferred the entire regimen into the match and scored those classy goals”.
Having carefully and masterly dealt with any threat that Wikki might have posed, Johnson Smith says work will begin towards the next opponents, Dolphins F.C immediately.
“The match against Dolphins will be far more difficult than the first one because it is going to take a difficult dimension. Having beaten Wikki and the Black Stars also beating Nigeria at the Nations’ Cup, they are going to see this match as an opportunity to exact some revenge from us”.
“It will not be a bad idea on their part but I must say that we are also poised as a team with an agenda to achieve so we will do the right things to get over them”.
For this reason, he says the team is going to step up training with special exercise to meet specific challenges in the set up.
“Not to take anything away from the players, I will like to congratulate them for a job well done but will also like to tell them to cut short the celebrations because there is more work to be done which begins from now”, he concluded.
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