Königsdörffer and Black Stars fall to Cape Verde in AFCON opener
Two years removed from the disastrous Africa Cup of Nations campaign that saw them eliminated in the group phase, the Ghanaian national football team have suffered another set-back in their opening group stage fixture of the current competition.
A dramatic late strike saw Cape Verde's Blue Sharks upset Chris Hughton's Black Stars on Sunday evening in Abidjan. Berlin-native Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer proved ineffective in a start in the ten slot.
A dramatic late strike saw Cape Verde's Blue Sharks upset Chris Hughton's Black Stars on Sunday evening in Abidjan. Berlin-native Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer proved ineffective in a start in the ten slot.
| Ghana National Football Team | Benjamin Mussler CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Ghana fell behind early when Jamiro Monteiro scored the 1-0 in the 17th. The evening proved a particularly bitter one for German club representative Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer of Hamburger SV. The German-Ghanaian's offside position cancelled out an equalizer from Ghana's Majeed Ashimeru in the 36th minute. Ashimeru's lovely distance effort was nullified when Königsdörffer was adjusted to have obstructed keeper Vozinha's field-of-vision.
Königsdörffer was still on the pitch when Jordan Ayew set up Alexander Djiku's actual equalizer off a corner in the 56th, but was yanked for Jordan's more experienced older brother André just four minutes later. As Ghana prepare to rescue their tournament in upcoming group stage matches against Egypt and Mozambique, the Berlin native's continued status as a starter is anything but certain.
