You don’t often see two teams make a league in Ghana their own in recent times as both Hasaacas Ladies and Ampem Darkoa Ladies have done in the Malta Guinness Ghana Women’s Premier League.
On Friday, May 12, it will be the third consecutive time the pair are meeting in the final playoff of Ghana’s women’s top-flight league after meeting in 2021 and 2022 respectively. During the past meetings at this stage, there has been a win each for the two clubs.
In 2021, the Hasmal Ladies sealed victory with a 4-0 thumping of their opponents at the Accra Sports Stadium and went ahead to represent Ghana at the maiden edition of the CAF Women’s Champions League, where they finished second, losing to Mamelodi Sundowns in the final.
A year later, Ampem Darkoa played for revenge, and while they didn’t get the same scoreline, they earned bragging rights after winning 5-3 on penalties to become champions. Their route to playing in the CAF Champions League was, however, cut short as they failed to win the Wafu Zone B qualification.
Another season and we are at the same spot again; Ampem Darkoa up against Hasaacas Ladies for the coveted trophy.
It is worth knowing that it wasn’t an easy pass for both teams en route to reaching the final. They both needed wins on the final day of the zonal league to secure a place in the last two.
Though Hasaacas Ladies were better in the Southern Zone, they almost lost out to Faith Ladies, who were winners of the 2022 Women’s Super Cup, a curtain-raiser to a new season.
What do the statistics say?
In their zonal games, the Sekondi-based club won 12 out of the 18 games they played, losing three and drawing the other three. While scored a whopping 38 goals, they only conceded 13 with their top scorer, Doris Boaduwaa scoring nine of those 38 goals.
Ampem Darkoa, on the other hand, managed nine wins and four draws, losing five games out of 18. They were superior in terms of goals as they netted 46 times while conceding 21. Mary Amponsah was 16 times on the scoresheet for the club, just one shy of the league’s top scorer, Princess Owusu.
All-time meetings
In all competitions, this will be the fifth meeting in the last three years between these two with Hasaacas Ladies being the superior side. They have three wins including a win in the Women’s FA Cup final and beating them in the semi-finals of the 2021 Women’s Super Cup in addition to the league final win in 2021.
Ampem Darkoa Ladies have two wins from last season, after doing the double over the Hasmal Ladies in Accra and Kumasi respectively.
The two coaches spoke to the media on Thursday ahead of what promises to be an intriguing encounter at the Dr Kwame Kyei Sports Complex in Kumasi with kickoff set for 16:00 GMT.
“We’ll console ourselves with the trophy tomorrow, we wanted a double and it didn’t happen,” Yusif Basigi said.
Joe Nana Adarkwa was also confident of victory for his side at the end of the game.
So, the question: who wins the 2022/23 Malta Guinness Ghana Women’s Premier League?