Black Princesses coach, Yussif Basigi, has expressed his commitment to ensuring the team progresses beyond the group stage in the upcoming U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Ghana’s U-20 women’s national team is preparing for its seventh consecutive appearance at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Despite their consistent participation, the team has never advanced past the first round. Their best performance was in 2012 when they were eliminated in the group stage despite earning six points.
Basigi, who coached the team in the 2018 edition where they finished third in their group, reflected on the challenges they faced at that time.
“In my case, it was unfortunate the time we went for the World Cup in 2018; that was the time of the expose – the Normalisation Committee period but things were not normalised. I wouldn’t say that is an excuse though,” he said during the team’s Media Day at the Cape Coast Stadium on Monday, July 22.
The team has been training in Cape Coast for the past three weeks in preparation for the tournament. Basigi emphasized their determination to succeed this time around.
“This time, we are motivated to go again and make a mark because we are all looking forward to breaking that jinx. We have made the girls aware just as we the technical staff are aware,” he continued.
“We don’t need anybody to task us to do that job. We know how difficult it is. It’s a herculean task but we will do all that we can to go beyond the group stage before we think of any other thing.”
With the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams from 16, Basigi is hopeful this will be the year Ghana finally advances beyond the first round.
The U-20 Women’s World Cup will take place in Colombia later this year, with Ghana placed in Group E alongside Austria, New Zealand, and Japan.
Source: Adomonline
