Coach Bashir Hayford is blaming the Black Princesses' 0-3 loss to North Korea on mistakes which have cost them all but a dream quarter-final berth in the ongoing Under-20 Women's World Cup in Canada.
Last Friday, Ghana's Under-20 female football team were thrashed by the 2008 champions in their second Group A match and now have an early exit staring them in their faces.
With the results leaving the Princesses in third place with a negative two goals behind North Korea and Canada, Coach Hayford admits his side are not in a good enough position to be considered favourites for a quarter-final spot.
He has however, refused to give up, saying they still have one more chance. "Winning a game is capitalising on your opponents' mistakes. We made more mistakes than them and we got punished for it. Now, the loss has cost us a relative easy way to progress, but all is not lost," Coach Hayford admitted in a post-match interview.
The Princesses, who won their first game against Canada, were hoping to win or possibly draw against the Koreans to secure their first quarter-final berth at this competition.
Rather, they received a beating from the former champions as they conceded three goals, all from goalkeeping and defensive errors, to dim their chances of making it past the group stage.
From start to finish, the Princesses had no clue to the rugged play of the North Koreans who took the lead as early as in the sixth minute, scored their second in the 78th minute and then crowned it with an injury time penalty in the 94th minute.
Painful as the defeat may be, Coach Hayford admitted his side lost to a better side: "It was a tough game and we lost to the better side. We were dominated the whole match. When you face a good team, you just have to face up to it."
Despite the tight corner that the Princesses find themselves in, Coach Hayford believes they can bounce back and beat Finland if they put their minds to it, promising the technical team was going to work on the players psychologically to be able to win tomorrow's game against Finland and keep their dream on course.
Matters were made worse for the Princesses as hosts, Canada, bounced back from a 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Finland and now perch in second place, pushing the Group A contest for the second spot for quarter-finals down to the wire.
A draw against North Korea will be enough to see them through provided the same result is recorded in the Ghana-Finland game.
However, should the Princesses win by at least 2-0, they will advance to the quarter-finals.
