Black Queens of Ghana: games, stats and latest news
The Black Queens of Ghana are planning to make history as they prepare to make their 12th appearance at this year’s African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON). In their first Group A game of the AWCON, the Queens will face Algeria at the Accra Sports Stadium before meeting Mali and Cameroon. The competition which is scheduled to run from November 17th to December 1st will see Ghana showcase their skills as three-time runners up since the tournament began in 1991. Read on to learn more about this year’s Black Queens news, their game schedules, their various prominent games statistics and their squad.
With all the preparation and extensive training, the Queens hope to go very far in the tournament and eventually win the trophy.
Black Queens of Ghana latest news
There is immense hype surrounding their 12th appearance at the AWCON, and for that reason, you definitely want to know black queens latest news.
Black queen fans will be happy to know that coach Bashir Hayford has finally announced his final squad. The selected team of 21 players will compete in the 2018 Women’s National Cup. Notably, both Priscilla Hagan and Sandra Owusu-Ansah have been ruled out of the list due to injuries.
The top players in the list include experienced goalkeeper Patricia Mantley, and midfielder Cynthia Adobea. Defenders Faustina Ampah, and Linda Eshun, as well as forwards Sherrifatu Sumaila and Portia Boakye are also part of the team.
On Sunday 11th November, the Black Queens Ghana beat Banyana Banyana of South Africa 1-0; a goal which was scored in the 21st minute of the game by Samira Suleman. This friendly match was the last warm-up game for the queens. This last game was meant to prepare the team for the 2018 Africa Cup of Nation and also to showcase the refurbished Accra stadium.
The win was a much-needed welcome after the team suffered a loss to Zambia and a draw with Kenya. In the pre-AWCON friendly match played in Lusaka, the black queens suffered a 3-2 defeat to Zambia. In the match, Elizabeth Addo and Portia Boakye were the goal scorers for the Ghanaian side.
After losing to Zambia, the Ghana women’s team went on to have a pre-2018 AWCON friendly game where they drew 1-1 with Harambee Starlets of Kenya in a match that was played at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. During the match, the Kenyan team drew first blood in the 15th minute. Later on, Linda Eshun scored an equalizer for Ghana during the second half of the game.
Here's a summary of the Black Queen's previous fixtures and scores:
What to expect in the upcoming AWCON 2018 games
If experience and good coaching is anything to go by, then it safe to say that the Black Queens Ghana team stand a chance to win this year’s AWCON trophy. This team will be making history as the third team to host the tournament after Equatorial Guinea and Super Falcons.
Both Super Falcons of Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea have hosted and won. Following this trend, the Black Queens who are hosting this year have a good chance of winning the trophy. While Ghana has been preparing to host the tournament, other strong contenders that also have their eyes on the AWCON 2018 trophy include: Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria and Cameroon.
The Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) will kick off on Saturday 17th with an opener between Algeria and the Black Queens of Ghana. The Ghana team will be joined by other seven African teams who will compete for the AWCON trophy. These seven teams include Nigeria, Mali, Zambia, Cameroon, South Africa, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea.
A simple look at Black Queens images shows a team that has embarked on playing with other strong local African teams as part of the preparations for the AWCON games. Each qualifying team needs to give their best because after the tournament, the first top three teams will play in the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
The next Ghana game will be on 20th, and their opponents will be Mali after which the Queens will battle against Cameroon on 23rd November. Other Group A matches that you can expect to see will be between Mali and Cameroon. Super Falcons will also be defending their title by playing against South Africa.
Nine interesting facts about Black Queens of Ghana
- The Ghana women’s national football team nicknamed the Black Queens have been dominating the female football in Africa. The Black Queens boast of being runners-up on three occasions: 1998, 2002 and 2006. In the 2015 All African games, the team also won the gold medals when they beat Cameroon. This year’s tournament will act as a platform for the team to win their first at home continental competition.
- Black Queens in Africa had their biggest win in July 2004 when they faced Guinea and beat them 13-0. The match which was held in Conakry was a new goal scoring record in African female football. During the Ghana match, Adjoa Bayor, Akue Anokyewaa and Florence Okoe managed to score three goals each.
- While Black Queens can boast of having 3 FIFA women’s world cup appearances, their first qualification was in 1999. Their next world cup appearance was in 2003 and then in 2007. During the 1998 African Women’s Champion, Nigeria won, and Ghana was the runner-up. After the tournament both Ghana and Nigeria became qualifiers for the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
- In the African Women’s Championship, the Black Queens have qualified ten times. Their first qualification was in 1991 where they lost to super falcons of Nigeria 5-1. While Nigeria has maintained a firm hold on African women football, Ghana continues to make progress. A good example of the progress is when Black Queens was ranked 12th and Nigeria 15th in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
- The biggest defeat for this women team was in 2016 when they lost 11-0 to Germany. This humiliating defeat occurred at the Paderborn stadium where the Black Queens played a friendly with German. This was in the preparation for the Africa Women’s Championship.
- The Ghana women’s national team most notable players are Alberta Sackey who won 2002 African Women player of the year and Adjoa Bayor who was crowned the 2003 African Women Player of the Year. Alberta who plays as a striker was such a dominating force in the women football that she was the captain of Ghana’s national team. She was also praised by coaches for bringing both extensive soccer skills and leadership to the team.
- The former Black Queens player, Adjoa Bayor has high hopes in the current team. The coach believes that the ladies are capable of winning the 2018 African women’s championship. Bayor’s exemplary performance during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2003 where she played as a midfielder enabled her to win the title for Africa’s best player.
- The Black Queens have been trained by very experienced coaches including Basher Hayford and Mas-Ud Didi Dramani. Basher Hayford, the current head coach of Black Queens, has extensive experience in football. He was the former coach of Ghana's male Under 17 team and is also the former Asante Kotoko coach.
- Before Basher, Mas-Ud Didi Dramani was the head coach for the black queeens. Didi brought extensive experience to the girls team as he was a CAF elite coaching instructor and a captain of professional club real Tamale. He also played for Ghana up to Olympic level. After Didi resigned in January 2018, Mercy Tagoe-Quarcoo was promoted from assistant to head coach.
For many years, the Black Queens of Ghana have had a firm grip on African female football. It looks like they can beat other African teams to become 2018 AWCON winners. It is not a guarantee that they will automatically win. However, the preparations they have made beforehand will provide the skill they need to battle for the coveted AWCON trophy.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
