George Afriyie insists the Black Stars will not underrate Canada in Tuesday’s international friendly despite they not being known as a big football nation.
The Black Stars will be taking on the Canadians in an international friendly in Washington.
The game offers Ghana coach Avram Grant the opportunity to try out some new players following the withdrawal of regulars such as Asamoah Gyan, Andre Ayew, Christian Atsu and Baba Abdul Rahman due to injuries and visa acquisition problems.
Ghana is using the game as a dress-rehearsal for their opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho or Comoros in November.
There are however concerns the Canadians lack the quality to give the Black Stars the test it needs in preparing for future games.
But management committee chief of the side says a lot of quality have been detected in the Canadian team for which they cannot be underrated.
“Having followed football over the years, you don’t underrate a team like Canada,†says George Afriyie.
“At least we are aware that most of their players are playing in Major League Soccer and if we have about four of our own also playing in the Major League Soccer, in what measure would we say that they are a walkover?
“I personally think that we give them respect, we believe that they possess the qualities that we expect and they are going to give us a tough game.
“But trust Ghana, we have our own pedigree and we have our image to protect and we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that we win this game.
“That is not to say that the Canadians a pushovers, not at all. From what we’ve seen, at least, we’ve done a bit research about the team and we know that they have some quality in their team.â€
Canada is currently ranked 104th by FIFA, a staggering 79 places below Ghana.