Maidens to make most of U-17 Women’s World Cup - despite inadequate preparations
Ghana's Under-17 female football team, the Black Maidens remain optimistic about having a good tournament at the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup (WWC) in Jordan, despite their low level preparation.
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The Maidens left Accra yesterday for Jordan to round up their preparation for the September 30 to October 21 WWC, with no clear arrangements for international friendly ahead of the competition, but head coach Evans Adotey, refuses to give up and rather believes his charges will give of their best in Jordan.
“Certainly, this is not the kind of preparation we would have wished for, given the teams we will play at the competition in Jordan. However, we have no choice so we will make the most out of the situation and hope that the girls can be self motivated to go all out and go past the group stages which is our primary target.” Adotey, who led the Maidens to a quarter-finals finish in Costa Rica two years ago, said.
“It’s not easy going to the World Cup with such low key preparation, but that is what we have and we hope we can build on it when we arrive in Jordan, though we don’t have any teams lined up yet for the needed trial matches.”
Drawn in Group D against United States of America (USA), Japan and Paraguay. The Maidens play their first game on October 1, against Japan,
the USA on October 4 before their final game against Paraguay on October 8.
And while all these teams have prepared adequately with more than three international friendlies, the Maidens’ preparations have been restricted to playing trial matches in Accra the last being against National Women’s League side, Soccer Intellectuals at Cape Coast which the national team won 6-1.
Cameroun, one of the other two African representative at the U-17 WWC, are the only side that have so far agreed to play the Maidens, but it is unclear if that match will come on as there was no confirmation as at last Monday.
Cameroun will compete in Group B against Venezuela, Germany and Canada.
Nigeria will play in Group C against Brazil, England and North Korea.
