Ghana seek winning start against Liberia
Ghana’s Under-17 women’s football team, the Black Maidens, begin their campaign for a ticket to this year’s Women’s World Cup (WWC) tournament with an away game against their Liberia counterparts in Monrovia tomorrow.
The Maidens, hoping to make a fifth successive appearance at the competition, left Accra for Monrovia yesterday with a promise of getting a good result.
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Head Coach Baba Nuhu in an interview with the Daily Graphic said while they were confident of a good result, they will not be complacent as they did not know much about the Liberians, but added that they must be good to have qualified from the preliminary round.
Little idea about Liberia
“We don’t have much idea about the Liberia team but I had the chance to watch them in their second leg encounter of the preliminary round against Niger which they won 5-0 and advanced to play against us with a 9-0 aggregate.
“They may not have the pedigree in the women’s game as we do but that will not make us complacent, once they won by a whopping 9-0, it means they are a threat and we will go all out to ensure that we make our experience count.
“We want to be at the India tournament and we have to start well. We have a record of impressing in our qualifiers and we intend to maintain that record,” Coach Nuhu, a former assistant coach of the team who has now been handed the head coach role, told the Daily Graphic.
The squad
In plotting for a good win, he has named a strong 18-team squad for the match, with the leading scorer of the Women Premier League (WPL) Ophelia Serwaa Amponsah leading the charge as they hope to get off to a flying start to avoid any pressure going into the second leg to be played on March 13.
The Maidens players in Liberia are: Farahana Ziblim, Amina Ahamadu, Ayisha Yakubu, Abena Anoma Opoku, Zuleiya Fuseini and Elizabeth Oppong.
Others are Bassira Alhassan, El-Shaddai Acheampong, Tracy Twum, Grace Animah, Ophelia Serwaa Amponsah and Anastasia Achiaa.
The rest are Matilda Blessed Fodu, Sandra Atinga, Juanita Aguadze, Faiza Seidu, Salamatu Abdulai and Constance Serwaa Agyemang.