Ampem Darkoa Ladies aim for redemption: Coach promises to turn continental setbacks into strength
Ampem Darkoa Ladies Coach, Nana Joe Adarkwa, has said the team have put their CAF Women's Champions League disappointment behind them and will rather build on the positives of their maiden continental campaign and also learn from their shortcomings.
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The Ghanaian champions finished fourth in the competition after making a good start to the campaign, but they fell short in the third-place playoff, losing to Morocco's AS FAR, a side the Ghanaians had earlier beaten at the group stage.
Despite setbacks in the tournament held in Cote d'Ivoire, Coach Adarkwa said he had seen the value in his players participating at the highest level of women's football in Africa. Sharing his experience with Graphic Sports last Saturday, the coach acknowledged the disappointment of finishing fourth while underlining the crucial lessons learned playing against the continent's best teams.
He highlighted various challenges that affected the team's performance, including a lack of resources, injuries, unavailability of a video analyst, and a fitness coach. He revealed the necessity of taking on additional roles himself, acting as both fitness coach and video analyst, due to the team's limited support staff.
The coach emphasised the impact of financial and infrastructure disparities between the Ghana champions and other competing teams, stating that these factors played a significant role in their loss as their opponents had better-resourced backroom staff, contributing to their overall success.
With the continental competition out of the way, Ampem Darkoa have turned their focus on defending the Malta Guinness Women's Premier League title with several outstanding matches to clear.
“When you look at the other teams you will realise that they have enough backroom staff but we didn’t even have a video analyst to help point out mistakes and correct them and the same as a fitness coach. If we had these professionals in our team, it would have helped us a lot.
“The general experiences I had from the Champions League were that I realised our players lacked fitness and physically they looked tiny compared to the other teams and sadly we had injured players which affected us,” he said.
Reflecting on the team's display, Coach Adarkwa observed a lack of fitness and physical stature among the players compared to other teams, as well as concerns over injuries, particularly affecting star striker Mary Amponsah, who struggled to meet expectations due to injury troubles.
Coach Adarkwa stressed the importance of squad depth and quality on the bench, citing the team's shortcomings in these areas as significant contributing factors to their challenges. He singled out central defender Abena Anoma Opoku as a standout player for her excellent execution of assigned roles.
“The team must be balanced in the sense that the strength on the field must be the same as those on the bench. The bench must have quality so that when a player is injured another one can easily fit in but we lacked quality across departments and it cost us a great deal,” he lamented.
With the continental competition out of the way, Ampem Darkoa have turned their focus on defending the Malta Guinness Women's Premier League title with some outstanding matches to clear.
The coach was, however, skeptical about Ampem Darkoa's chances of reclaiming the local league title this season and making it to the next continental championship due to the many outstanding matches they have to honour at short intervals.
Despite the hurdles, Coach Adarkwa said he was confident in the players' determination and effort, suggesting that winning the league and returning to the continental competition was possible, contingent on their commitment and performance on the field.
FULL TIME.!!!
— Ampem Darkoa Ladies FC 2022/23 MGWPL Champions🥇🏆 (@ampem_fc) November 18, 2023
We miss out of the third place medal, lesson learnt, experience gathered.
Ampem Darkoa is grateful for this platform and all the support from Ghanaians🇬🇭. #Nanamma will be back again🙌🏾.
AS FAR Club 2-0 Ampem Darkoa #NanaMma! 👑💙🤍#EmpowerHerGame pic.twitter.com/oQ2ywkkn44