The next couple of weeks will really be a busy time for Ghana football at the international level. The U-20 team Black Satellites, champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the senior national team Black Stars will all be involved in crucial continental matches over the period.

The Satellites will set the ball rolling with an African championship qualifier against Gambia at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra on Saturday Sept 27. It is the first leg quarter- final encounter and the winner of the two leg series will join two other African teams for automatic qualification to the World Youth championships in Rwanda.

The Satellites, handled by former Black Stars stand-in coach Sellas Tetteh, cruised through this stage with an impressive 6-2 aggregate win over Palancas Negras of Angola. winning the first leg in Accra 5-1 and drawing 1-1 in the return.

In the not too distant past matches between Ghana and Gambia at any level would have been a mere formality with Ghana on top, but the tide suddenly changed in 2005 when Gambia in an interesting twist beat Ghana's U-17 team, Black Starlets, in the Africa Cup final in Banjul to be continental champions at that level.

It was a match full of drama. As the thrilling encounter was heading for a draw a Gambian fan in the full glare of television audience rushed to the filed of play and threw himself into Ghana's goal post. This was when a free kick was being taken against Ghana and before the Ghanaian goalie could accost the intruder from his territory the ball was in the net amidst thunderous ovation from the home crowd. The intruder hilariously stormed out of the posts responding to cheers from a charged home crowd as the Starlets looked on in astonishment.

Ghana protested strongly but in vain and Gambia were awarded the trophy. Perhaps it is this incident that has incensed Coach Sellas Tetteh to map up a strategy that would give Ghana such a resounding victory that would make the second leg a mere formality.

The nation is looking forward to seeing the Starlets put up a good show that would spell good omen for champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko who face Etoile du Sahel from Tunisia, in the CAF Confederations Cup second round match at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Oct 4. Kotoko lost the first round match in Tunisia 2-0. The interesting aspect of Kotoko's group in the series is that all four clubs, El Mirreikh of Sudan, Etoile du Sahel, Kabylie from Algeria and of course Kotoko have six points apiece and are only separated by goal difference.

Mirreikh top the table with a two goal advantage, followed by Etoile who have a nil balance. Kabylie and Kotoko have a goal deficit each but the Algerians have scored one more goal than Kotoko so the Ghanaian champions are bottom of the table. If this pattern of every club winning at home continues it is most likely that goal difference will be the deciding factor in the end. This explains why Kotoko fans were not happy that their idol club conceded a rather cheap goal to Kabylie in the dying minutes of the first leg match in Kumasi when everything had pointed to a neat 3-0 win.

At this stage of the competition it is clear that Kotoko cannot afford to be careless at the rear and be as wasteful with their chances when opponents get tougher and games invariably get tighter. There should be nothing short of victory against Etoile du Sahel.

Kotoko players must be taught to play to the whistle and avoid taking the law into their own hands. What Kwadwo Poku did in Algeria that earned him the red card was childish. He definitely saw from the bench how Stephen Oduro was persistently brutalized by the Algerians that resulted in him taking over.

Having replaced Oduro, Poku should have been sporting enough and not blatantly retaliate when he was rather viciously tackled by that Algerian.Poku's absence would be really felt next week but it is the expectation of fans that the handlers would plan a good strategy to win handsomely.

Anything short of victory would render the last match against Mirreikh uncompetitive and it would be a great wonder if Kotoko could assemble a team worth its salt to travel to Sudan.

The nation is looking forward to a morale boosting game from Kotoko to inspire the Black Stars to secure a place in the next round of 2010 World Cup/Africa Cup with a resounding victory over Lesotho in the final first round group match at the Essipong Sports Stadium in Sekondi on Oct 11.

Incidentally the Black Stars,like Kotoko are in a very tight corner and there should be nothing short of a massive victory. The position is that Libya tops the table with 12 points, followed by Gabon and Ghana with nine points apiece while Lesotho have no point. Gabon are second because of superior goal difference of two. This means if Gabon beats Libya by even a narrow margin of one, Ghana must beat Lesotho by 4-0 or more to top the group, because Ghana and Gabon have the same head-to- head having beaten each other 2-0 at home.

An unlikely victory for Libya will put Ghana in the second spot if Lesotho is beaten and this should be good enough to qualify the Black Stars for the next round of the qualifying series that will see the 20 best teams in Africa vying to catch the eyes of CAF and FIFA. CAF for Angola CAN 2010 and FIFA for South Africa World Cup 2010. It is all getting very interesting.