Black Sharks, the Senior National Beach team of Ghana has intensified their training ahead of the Beach Soccer African Cup of Nation (AFCON) qualifier against the Sand Elephants of Côte D' Ivoire. This, according to the Technical Heads would build a formidable team that would qualify for the upcoming Beach Soccer AFCON to be staged in Cairo, Egypt. Nana Opoku, the Team Manager, in an interaction with GNA Sport, stated that the team had since commenced camping and training ahead of the qualifier. 'All the 16 players called for camping have reported and prepared adequately for the game,' he stated. Nana Opoku stated that the coaches and the technical team would screen the players and four out of the 16 provisional list of players announced earlier would be dropped. He said as part of providing maximum and adequate preparations ahead of the AFCON match, the team had played a friendly game against Keta-based Sunset Sports BSC and Havedzi Beach Soccer Club, where they won 1-0 and lost 4-6 respectively. 'The coaches and the technical team would use the normal training and the friendlies to select the required 12 players for the AFCON game.' Nana Opoku commended all sports enthusiasts and fans for supporting the team in various forms in preparing the team for a successful game. He further urged them to come in their numbers and cheer the team to victory. The winner of the home and away matches would automatically qualify for the beach soccer AFCON. The Black Sharks of Ghana would play first the leg of the qualifier against the Sand Elephants of Cote on Sunday, July 21 at Keta the Emancipation Beach Soccer Arena at 1500 hours. Ghana hoped to qualify for this year's beach soccer AFCON after they lost to Sand Pharaohs of Egypt in the 2022 edition that was held in Morocco. Source: Ghana News Agency