Black Queens for Ouagadougou

Ghana's senior female football team, the Black Queens, travel to Burkina Faso this week to begin their campaign for a ticket to the 2014 African Women's Championship (AWC) to be staged in Namibia later this year.

The Ghana ladies play their Burkinabe counterparts in the first leg of the first round qualifying matches in Ouagadougou on Saturday and are hopeful of a good result to make the second leg in Accra less tasking.

The Queens who missed out on the last AWC held two years ago, are eager to return to the big African stage and have been preparing towards that feat.

After two months of preparation at Prampram, the Queens last week pitched their training base at Tamale, ostensibly to acclimatise to the harsh conditions likely to be encountered in Ouagadougou.

Coach Yussif Basigi, who heads the technical team of the Queens,  told the Graphic Sports last Sunday that the trip to Tamale had been very       beneficial and the ladies were ready for action.

"The week of training under the harmattan condition has exposed the girls to what they are likely to encounter in Ouagadougou. At this moment, they have been prepared psychologically and have also had a good technical training.

"We don't want to sound overconfident but we are ready to start on a good note and have thus not left anything to chance," Coach Basigi said.

He said missing out on the eighth edition of the AWC two years ago was a painful experience which had affected the team as they had to stay for almost two years without any international action.

"We’ve learnt our lessons from what happened to us during the 2012 qualifiers and we are determined never to trek that road and experience again. We have prepared well for the obviously tough challenge ahead of us," Coach Basigi, who was the assistant during the 2012 campaign, emphasised.

The team will return from their Tamale training camp tomorrow and then travel to Burkina Faso on Thursday for the match on Saturday.

The Queens squad, made up of 18 players and about 10 officials, are expected to make the trip. Other qualifiers to be played this weekend are:

Algeria v Morocco

Egypt v Tunisia

Ethiopia v South SUdan

Burkina Faso v Ghana

Cote d’Ivoire v Mali

Rwanda v Kenya

Nigeria had walkover against Sierra Leone

Guinea Bissau v Senegal

Mozambique v Comoros

Botswana v Zimbabwe

Zambia v Tanzania