CHILE HAPPY WITH DRAW

The Chilean football Federation would have been extremely happy with the 1-1 draw their national team achieved recently against Ghana in a friendly match.

The recently concluded international friendly matches have brought in a number of mixed results. This includes the defeat of the 2006 world champions Italy by the United States national football team.

One can also add the 1-1 draw Chile have achieved with Ghana as well. Even more astonishing is the fact that Chile managed to achieve this draw, despite playing with 10 men for most of the match. Ghana were without the likes of stars like Michael Essien, but still they had a very strong squad.

Hence, the Chilean football Federation is extremely confident of doing good in the World Cup qualifiers that are set to begin in the next few weeks. Ghana were coming on the back of a poor African cup of nations, and hence they need to perform well against Chile in order to begin preparations for the 2013 African cup of nations. As a result, Ghana fielded a very different side of the ones we have been used to in recent seasons. Only six of the starting 11 from the 2012 African cup of nations survived in the match against Chile.

Matias Campos was the man sent off for Chile. It presented Ghana with a great opportunity to win the match, but they could not take advantage of their man advantage against Chile. Chile soon received a penalty 5 minutes after the sending-off. The penalty was duly converted by Fernandez. Mpong had scored the only goal for Ghana earlier in the match. He was coming on as a substitute for Dominic Oduro. Stars like Asamoah Gyan and Michael Essien were missing from the Ghana squad that played in this match against Chile.