We must improve goal-scoring — Princesses coach

THE Black Princesses Head Coach, Yussif Basigi, has stressed the urgent need for his team to improve their goal-scoring abilities if Ghana is to advance to the knockout stage of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Colombia.

Following a narrow 2-1 defeat to Austria in their opening Group E match on Monday, Basigi is convinced that rediscovering their scoring touch is essential to keeping their World Cup dreams alive.

The loss has placed the Princesses in a challenging position, in the light of the upcoming must-win clashes against Japan on Thursday, and then New Zealand.

Crucial matches

Japan currently tops the group after a dominant 7-0 victory over New Zealand at the Estadio Metropolitano de Techo in Bogota. In their match against Austria, the Princesses found themselves trailing with a goal in each half before Captain Stella Nyamekye's late strike in the 90th minute offered a glimmer of hope, but it was too little too late.

With Japan’s impressive start, Coach Basigi knows that his side must be clinical in front of goal to stand a chance against the free-scoring Asian side.

“We didn’t utilise many of our goal-scoring chances, which was unfortunate. I think this is where we have to polish very well so that we will be back in contention, Coach Basigi remarked in a post-match interview.

"The second-half performance was very good. If we had started the first half like the way we did in the second half, it would have been super but we started slowly.”

Scoring struggles

The Princesses' struggle with goal-scoring has been a recurring issue in recent matches leading up to the World Cup. Early this year, Basigi led the team to a gold medal at the 13th African Games, with a dramatic 2-1 comeback against defending champions, Nigeria.

They averaged 1.8 goals per match (nine goals in five games) during the tournament. In their World Cup warm up matches, the Princesses managed a goalless draw with Mexico and a 2-2 draw with South Korea. 

Following last Monday’s defeat, Basigi underscored the importance of securing positive results in the remaining group stage matches to avoid an early exit, citing scoring difficulties as a significant concern and vowing to address them.

“Now, we have no other option than to go all out in the remaining two games.”

This marks Ghana’s seventh consecutive appearance at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, but the Princesses have a poor record of never advancing beyond the group stage, with just one win in their last 10 matches at the global tournament.