Ghana Sports News and more
Princesses eye double win over Uganda In 2022 World Cup qualifier
Tomorrow at the Cape Coast Stadium, the Princesses will play Uganda’s Young Crested Cranes in the second leg of the third round of the qualifiers, seeking to win and progress to the fourth and final round.
Advertisement
And the Ghanaians are determined to win and leave nothing to chance as they seek to make a sixth appearance at the Under 20 WWC since their maiden appearance in 2010.
Nothing to chance
Despite the lead, Princesses coach Ben Fokuo is aware of the threat the Ugandans pose and is thus not leaving anything to chance with their preparation and strategy for tomorrow’s game.
He said though they earned a good result in the first leg, they would put in the maximum effort to ensure victory was won in the second leg as well, as that was the only guarantee for their onward progress in the campaign.
“The results from the first leg would make one think that the Ugandans are pushovers. On the contrary, they are not and we will not take them for granted and the only way to beat them is to maintain the focus and work twice as hard as we did in the game in Kitende,” Coach Fokuo said.
He said they have had to work on the team’s finishing and was hopeful that the work done will reflect in their performance on the match day.
“We are still work in progress and as part of our review of our first leg game, we identified our finishing as one needing more work so we have spent time to improve on it and I expect that the results will be reflected in our performance.
“The Ugandans have a disciplined defense and we will have to have a more sharp attack to get past them and get the goals needed to win the game,” he stressed.
Last Wednesday, in a trial game to test review the work done, the Princesses won 8-0 against a women’s Division One side, Combined Forces, with goals from Doris Boaduwaa who netted a hat-trick with Afia Nyarko, Sophia Agyaakwa, Evelyn Badu, Suzzy Dede Teye and Salamatu Abdulai scoring a goal each.
Princesses line up
Coach Fokuo is likely to stick to the winning team that delivered the result in Kitende, but could also make one or two changes particularly, in the forward line as he aims at getting the team to show glimpses of their free-scoring form.
If he sticks to that, then his starting line up would have Konlad, Maa Abena Anima Opoku, Anasthesia Achiaa (captain), Louisa Aniwaa, Susan Duah, Bugre Azumah, Rahama Jafaru, Evelyn Badu, Doris Boaduwaa, Salamatu Abdulai and Grace Anima
Stakes
A win in this game takes the Princesses into the fourth and final round where they would set up a date with the winners of the Tanzania versus Ethiopia encounter.
The first leg of that game played in Zanzibar ended 1-0 in favour of the Tanzanians. Ethiopia also host the second leg tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, Nigeria will host the second leg of their game against Cameroun. The first leg ended goalless.
The winners will go on to play the winners of the Senegal versus Morocco encounter which takes place in Dakar. The two sides played to a 1-1 drawn game in the first leg in Rabat.
The qualifying campaign will select two teams to represent Africa at the 2022 Under-20 WWC to be staged in Costa Rica from August 10 to August 28.