African Games: Princesses coach confident of Ghana’s chances despite slim win against Ethiopia
Head coach of the Black Princesses, Yusif Basigi is hopeful the team will put up a better show in their subsequent matches in the women’s football tournament of the ongoing African Games.
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On Saturday, the Princesses’ hope of opening their campaign with a massive win against Ethiopia in their Group A encounter was shattered as they recorded just a 1-0 victory in the process.
In the initial stages of the game, the Ghanaians struggled to break down a formidable and resilient Ethiopian defence as they toiled in vain to get the opener.
Mukarama Abdulai, Maafia Nyame and Comfort Yeboah who led the attack made frantic efforts to break the deadlock during the first half but they all missed scoring opportunities as the Ethiopians kept frustrating their efforts.
Comfort Owusu scored the only goal of the game in the 59th minute although the Princesses were reduced to 10 players after Abiba Issah was sent off for a bookable offence.
In an interview, coach Basigi admitted that his charges failed to live up to expectation but assured of their resurgence in subsequent matches.
“The Ethiopia that I know are not a bad side so I anticipated that we will have a tough match and I was not surprised that we struggled to beat them, especially in the first half, we were not able to put our passes together.”
“But in the second half, we changed our tactical ploy against them and it worked for us because even though at a point one of our players was out and we played 10 against 11, yet we dominated so in all, it has been a very good game,” he said.
Coach Basigi also blamed their poor performance on injuries in camp which he said forced him to make certain changes to the starting line-up but he maintained that in the ensuing matches, the players “will pick up the rhythm and the game will flow as expected.”
“We had the three maximum points however, we had numerous chances that we couldn’t convert, but I will say that I also had quite a number of injured players – the likes of Wassima Mohammed and Stella Nyamekye were injured so definitely when you are changing the squad it is always like this,” he said.
“As a Ghanaian I know how we feel but at times this is women’s football and at a point in time, you need to take your time and put the pieces together. This is our first game and I know the subsequent matches will be different,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the other Group A fixture, Tanzania and Uganda battled it out in a fiercely contested encounter that ended in a 1-1 draw.
Defending champions, Nigeria also kicked off their title defence on a good note after defeating their Moroccan counterparts 2-0 in Cape Coast last Friday.
The reigning champions wasted asserted their dominance, securing both goals in the first half. Chioma Olise opened the scoring in the 18th minute, followed by Ado Philomena Yina’s strike just before halftime to establish their lead.
Ghana will face Tanzania in their second group game tomorrow while Uganda play Ethiopia also at the Cape Coast Stadium.
