Medeama Sporting Club are eyeing their first victory in the CAF Confederation Cup when they play host to Tanzania’s Young Africans (Yanga) at the Sekondi Stadium at Essipon in their return encounter tomorrow.
The Tarkwa-based club held Young Africans to a 1-1 draw at the Benjamin Nkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam almost a fortnight ago and remain in third position but five points off Group A leaders, TP Mazembe.
However, the Ghanaian side are hoping to map up an effective strategy to snatch their first home win against the Tanzanians to give them a mathematical chance of surviving.
Despite expecting a daunting task, Medeama head coach, Prince Yaw Owusu, remains hopeful his side will channel their recent victories in the Ghana Premier League into tomorrow’s game to force defeat down the throat of the visiting side who arrived in Ghana last Saturday.
“We are poised for the game. We know their strength and we have worked on that. We just hope and pray that we get good results tomorrow” he told the Graphic Sports on telephone yesterday.
Coach Owusu will be counting on key players such as goalkeeper Daniel Agyei, Malik Akowuah, Abass Mohammed, Kwasi Donsu, Benjamin Bature and Bismark Oppong as they battle the Tanzanians for the three points at stake.
The ‘Mauve and Yellows’, as Medeama are also known, have three points after losing and drawing against TP Mazembe and MO Bejaia respectively and are third on the log, while Young Africans are bottom of the group with just a point.
However, Yanga will not be pushovers in tomorrow’s game as their Dutch coach, Hans van Der Pulijm, has good knowledge of the Ghanaian football terrain, having previously managed clubs such as Kpando Heart of Lions and Berekum Chelsea.
On his arrival last Saturday, Coach Pluijm told the media his side were well prepared to give the homesters a run for their money as they also seek to record their first away win in the competition.