Black Queens go for gold
Ghana’s Black Queens go in search of gold as they battle the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroun today in the final of the women’s football competition of the All Africa Games at the Masamba Debat Stadium in Brazzaville.
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The Queens played 1-1 draw with the Lionesses in a highly-physical Group encounter last Sunday at the Concorde Sports Complex in Kintele, Brazzaville.
Coach Yusif Basigi’s charges go into their most important match of the competition still lacking sharpness in attack, while their passing game and general co-ordination in midfield occasionally look suspect.
In their two previous games, lead striker Samira Suleman was not very active in the opponents’ goal area, while winger Portia Boakye lacked support when with the ball.
But at the team's training yesterday, Coach Basigi took his charges through drills in accurate passing and target shooting, an indication of his expectation of the players in today’s final.
The Queens have a strong midfield built around Juliet Acheampong, Mercy Myles and Rita Okyere with defenders Janet Egyir and Rosemary Ampem so far living up to the task when they encounter tough attacking forwards.
The Ghanaians will again look up to right winger Hillia Mantenn Kobblah, who has lived up to expectation in this tournament, to be a mouthful for the Camerounian defenders as she did in their group clash.
Coach Basigi told the Graphic Sports, Cameroun were “a familiar foe" and winning against them would be much easier, having drawn against them in four previous encounters this year.
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Needless to say, Ghana scored first in all the four encounters before the Lionesses came back to equalise and play a drawn game.
"We are going to look at that and tighten our defence when we score this time around", he noted, adding it was about time they buried the Lionesses ghost which has haunted them and deprived them of an Olympics final in Rio.
The coach is expected to field the side that beat Cote d'Ivoire and with no changes as there had been no injury alarm.
But Ghana must be wary of forwards Akaba Edoa and Ngoni Mani. The former scored the equaliser in the two sides last encounter.
In all, the Queens are expected to meet a side who are physically stronger and expected to provide the toughest opposition of all their previous encounters.