Maidens prepare for Congo
Ghana’S Under-17 female team, the Black Maidens, have begun preparations towards the qualifying series for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup to be staged in Costa Rica from March 15 to April 5, 2014.
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The Maidens, who won bronze under Coach Masaud Didi Dramani at the last competition in Azerbaijan, are preparing under Coach Evans Adotey.
Coach Adotey, who guided Medeama to an impressive third place in the Premier League in the season just gone by, was the assistant to Coach Dramani and believes he has enough experience to lead the team to another impressive showing.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at the team’s Prampram camp, Coach Adotey said he had screened as many players as he could from the maiden National Women’s League, the various regional leagues, as well as the various schools and regional sports competitions to build a new team.
He also revealed that as many as 11 players from the 2012 squad were still eligible to play and had thus been invited. Players like the team’s top scorer at the 2012 WWC, Jane Ayieyam, goalkeeper Azume Adams, Lily Niber-Lawrence, Samira Abdul Rahman and Gladys Anfobea, are all back in the team.
Coach Adotey said it was unfortunate the team had only four weeks to play Congo in Accra in the first leg of their qualifying campaign on August 18, but was confident they would be ready for the first test.
“I think the players know why they are here and most of them know the stakes. That is half of the job done. The other half will be preparing them technically for the journey ahead,” Coach Adotey said.
This year’s qualifiers have been modified with only two round-robin matches. In the first round, Ghana will play Congo, Botswana play Zambia, Morocco face South Sudan, while Equatorial Guinea play Kenya. The winners will progress to the second round where they will be joined by Nigeria and South Africa. The eventual winners of the home-and-away ties will pick up Africa’s three slots for the Costa Rica tournament.
By Rosalind K. Amoh/Daily Graphic/Ghana
