Ghana’s Under-20 female football team, Black Princesses, are back home with a 2-2 draw against Ethiopia in the first leg of their final round qualifier for next year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup (WWC).

The Princesses took the lead with an own goal from a Kate Adu direct shot from a cornerkick on the fourth minute, but the Ethiopians equalised and went ahead within 10 minutes with a brace from Loza Abera on the 15th and 22nd minutes, before Rafia Alhassan earned the Ghanaians a crucial away point with an intelligent low grounder.

Accra Hearts of Oak’s winding search for a new coach is ending on a rather surprise  note as the club is reportedly close to signing on a little-known US-trained Japanese trainer by name Kenichi Yatsuhashi.

A source close to Hearts confirmed to the Graphic Sports yesterday that the club’s Board of Director’s settled on the 46-year-old Coach Yatsuhashi at a meeting in Accra last Friday.

The Professional League Board (PLB) Awards Night will honour over 20 individuals, clubs and corporate bodies who excelled in the 2014/15 edition of the First Capital Plus Premier League on Friday at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.

They are, Footballer of the season: Kofi Owusu (Chelsea), Richard Ofori (Wa All Stars), Eric Opoku (Ashantigol); Defender of the Season: Lawrence Lartey (Ashantigold), Baba Mensah (Inter Allies), Ahmed Adams (Kotoko); Goalkeeper of the Season: Muntari Tagoe (Medeama), Richard Ofori (All Stars), Felix Annan (WAFA);

The national rugby team, the Black Eagles, beat their Togolese counterparts 17-0 in an international friendly at the Accra Sports Stadium last Saturday.

The game, which climaxed the 2015 Rugby Festival organised by the Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), saw the Ghanaian team taking total control of the game, making it possible for them to win handsomely.

The national women’s cricket team will depart Accra on Thursday for Banjul, The Gambia, to compete in the North-West Africa female cricket competition.

The championship, in its first edition, will see four countries, namely Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Mali vying for the stakes.

The president of the Past Athletes Association of Ghana (PAAG), Andrew Agbo Kitcher, has outlined a detailed roadmap for athletics next year.
He said the programme, which will be implemented in tandem with the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), is expected to make the sport more popular among the youth.

The Airforce handball team proved their superiority over their Fire Service counterparts when they beat them 32-30 in a keenly-contested match at the Burma Camp court last Wednesday.

McDan Group of Companies has paid $13,000 to ensure the national tennis team, Golden Rackets, take part in the forthcoming Davis Cup tennis tournament in Egypt.
Ghana’s contingent, comprising George Darko and Wisdom Na-Adjrago, who won gold at the recent All Africa Games (AAG), Japheth Bagerbaseh and Pascal Ziyab Alome, are in Morocco for a week’s training tour en route to Egypt to participate in the competition which starts from October 26 to 31.

Golfers Jeff Abeasi, Nik Amarteifio and S.T. Okantey will have the unique chance off teeing off first this morning at 6: 30 a.m. to set the stage for a fierce competition at the Inaugural Open tournament, a two-day medal play to officially open the refurbished Achimota Golf Club.

About 200 golfers are expected to compete in this weekend’s competition which officially ushers Ghana’s premier golf course into a new era following massive refurbishment undertaken by Paul McGinley of McGinley Design to give the course a modern outlook, designed to USPGA standard. Oil giants Tullow Ghana Limited sunk approximately $3 million into the redesign of the 18-hole course, while the club house reconstruction was funded by the club.

Two great Ghanaian football personalities will grace this year’s GFA/PLB First Capital Plus Premier League Awards Night, which comes off at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra on October 30, 2015.

The cream of Ghanaian golfers and some West African rivals will compete for honours this weekend at the country’s premier golf course, Achimota Golf Club, for the inaugural open to officially inaugurate the refurbished course.

About 200 golfers, including players from Togo, Nigeria, Gabon and Senegal will tee off at different times on Saturday and Sunday morning in the two-day medal play.

Some of the leading names in Ghana golf and some of the country’s business titans such as Jeff Abeasi, Sir Sam Jonah, Frank Adu, Mark Cofie, Charles Cofie, Sir Sam Jonah, Osagyefo Amoatia Oforipanin and Felix Owusu-Agyapong.

 The road to next year’s FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea appear to be getting clearer for Ghana’s Black Princesses after they eliminated Equatorial Guinea last weekend to inch closer to the global party.

After dispatching the Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea 3-0 on aggregate, the Princesses will seek another giant-killing feat against Ethiopia in the final round of the continental qualifiers.

South Africa and Nigeria will battle it out for the other slot allotted Africa for the final tournament next year in Papua New Guinea.

Former Inter Allies coach, Paa Kwesi Fabin, says he will not make his services available to any local club for now after parting ways with his former club.

He says he would want to remain committed to the national side for this year so no lucrative offer will bait him to another club for the next one year.

"I want to concentrate on the national side for now and I am not ready to accept any offers from any club for at least one year" the Black Starlets coach told the Graphic Sports via phone yesterday.

Ghana's Black Princesses are expecting a very tough battle in Adis Ababa when they take on their Ethiopian counterparts but they insist they are ready for the challenge as they remain resolute in their pursuit of a ticket to next year’s Under-20 Women's World Cup (WWC).

Tomorrow at the Adis Ababa National Stadium, the Princesses will attempt to clear the first of two final hurdles against the Ethiopians as they clash in the final round of the U-20 WWC qualifiers.

With the stakes so high, the Princesses are taking nothing for granted in this final hurdle, aware that any slip could prove costly in the end.

Yesterday, the team emplaned for Adis Ababa and head coach Masa-Ud Didi Dramani did not mince words when he emphasised the need to play for a good result in this crucial away game.

Embattled Accra Hearts of Oak are likely to clash with arch rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko in this year’s GHALCA Invitational tournament  after it appeared organisers had ‘smuggled’ the Phobians into the competition reserved for the top six Premier League sides.

Hearts are languishing at the 13th position after the Appeals Committee of the Ghana Football Association upheld an appeal by Kotoko over a decision to dock six points from their accumulated points over the fielding of an unqualified player in their league clash in Accra last season.

The decision to maintain Hearts in the inaugural six-club competition, according to the vice chairman of GHALCA, Isaac Koomson, was in conformity with the new regulations of the competition which is now christened GHALCA Invitational tournament.