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Soccer News of Monday, 17 September 2007

Source: GNA

"Our coaches have no antidote" - Chairman

(From Veronica Commey, GNA Special Correspondent in Shanghia, China. Courtesy Ministry of Education, Science and Sports)

Shanghia, China, Sept 17, GNA - Fred Crentsil, Chairman of the Management Committee of Ghana's Black Queens has said the team's coaches have no antidote to their opponents' ingenuity during games.

The Queens lost all two Group C games played so far at the FIFA Women's World Cup underway in China and the Chairman insists the players cannot be blamed alone.

He told GNA Sports in Shanghia that: "I believe our coaches have not been able to find the antidote to deal with the tactics of the teams we have played against so far."

The Queens lost 1-4 to a highly improved Australian side and 0-4 to an ordinary Canadian side three days on.

"When you ask them (the coaches) after the game why we played that poor, all they say is the opponents were taller than our girls. But my argument is that even though people like the Chinese and Japanese and others are often petit, they still manage to strategies well and win against some teams with taller players than themselves." Crentsil reckoned with GNA Sports' assertion that Ghana did not present the best team at the competition that pieces the world's best 16 from around the globe together but insisted "I however believe one cannot blame the girls alone because it was the technical bench that selected the players."

Both Australia and Canada had the upper hand in their respective games with their coaches confirming in post match interviews that they scouted the Ghanaians just after the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) finished drawing the 16 teams in Wuhan, China last April.

Even though Ghana had no such experience, Crentsil told GNA Sports "as an administrator there was nothing I could do in that direction because it is the duty of the technical team to request for all that. "For instance when they told us they needed the tape for the Canada/Norway game in the group opener, we provided it and they told us they had watched it."

The Queens, making a third appearance at the event that is in its fifth edition has fared beyond poor in their two games and must come fighting against inform Norway, tipped by pundits to get to the round of eight.

Ironically, both Crentsil and head coach Paha have now seen that the team, regarded as a force in the women's game in Africa has not yet matured to the World Cup standard.

"We were swayed by what happened during the African Women Championship," apparently referring to the team's performance that fetched them silver at the last competition held in Warri, Delta States, Nigeria last November.

The Queens have already exited the competition with Wednesday's meeting with Norway reduced to a mere formality.