Ghana's Queens poised for victory

The dream of the National Women's team, the Black Queens of Ghana, to make it to China for the fourth Women's World Cup in 2003 would be decided in two weeks during the African championship.

The Queens leave for South Africa on Wednesday, November eight to join seven other nations to vie for continental honours in the African Women's Cup (AWC) starting from November 11 to 25.

The Queens are poised for victory, notwithstanding the difficult times they went through during their preparations as stated by their coach PSK Paha. "Our 13 weeks stay at the Winneba Sports College could not be termed a pleasant one, in that we had to cope without our allowances for almost seven weeks".

"The ladies are therefore to be praised for their tolerance and support despite the countless problems they faced during their stay at the College", he added. Coach PSK Paha said the ladies have been very co-operative, accommodating and sacrificial because in football circles, there are so many things that should go into a team to make it perform.

"The ladies have made the best out of a very bad situation, sometimes there was no money but the college used its money to feed us".

He regretted GFA's inability to send the team to undertake international tours to give them more exposure and toughen them for the tournament, despite their firm promise. Some of the ladies interviewed by the GNA before their departure said they hoped to do their best in spite of the difficulties they encountered.

Dr Julia Derban, team doctor, said the ladies were in excellent condition to perform to the best of their ability. The Queens are in a tough group with Nigeria, Cameroon and Morocco, and they are the only team, which has not had any international exposure since they returned from USA 1999.

The other group includes South Africa, Reunion, Zimbabwe and Uganda. Even though the Ghana Football Association promised them some international friendlies with some of the West African countries, they never materialised.

Consequently, the ladies had to pitch their strength against, some men's teams and other colts teams. Nevertheless, the coach maintains that adequate preparations have been made and hoped they would achieve good results.