Ghana's teenage Black Comets lit up Azerbaijan with 44 goals and eight wins, ending seventh at the first-ever FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival.
Africa has a new crop of stars to watch. Ghana's Black Comets signed off their first-ever FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival in Azerbaijan in seventh place, after winning eight of their 10 matches and scoring 44 goals.
The Ghanaians were ruthless from the first whistle in Group W. They won all five games for a perfect 15 points, scoring 27 goals and conceding only three. Uzbekistan fell 4-1, Myanmar 7-1 and Kazakhstan 2-1, while Guam and the Bahamas were both thrashed 7-0.
The knockout rounds brought no letdown. Ghana edged South Korea 2-1, then beat Mexico 5-2 in the Round of 16. Shamsudeen Sulemana grabbed four goals in that Mexico game, and Abdul Aziz Issah added the other.
The run ended in the quarter-finals. Paraguay held Ghana to a 2-2 draw, then won a dramatic shootout 7-6. A 7-1 loss to Brazil in the fifth-to-eighth-place play-offs followed, but the young Ghanaians bounced back with a win in their final match.
Seventh place at a debut global tournament, with that attacking output, shows the talent coming through in Ghana. Sulemana, Issah and their teammates have put themselves on the radar.
