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The Black Maidens began preparations for their final group match on Thursday morning after coach Evans Adotey gave his players a day’s rest on Wednesday.
The National U-17 team came from a goal down to beat USA 2-1 in their second group D game played at the King Abdullah Stadium on Tuesday.
Captain Sandra Owusu Ansah and Gifty Acheampong were the goalscorers for Black Maidens as they recorded their first victory in the competition after a 5-0 defeat to Japan in the opening game.
The team will have a double training session on Thursday and on Friday morning before they have their final training session at the Al Hassan Stadium, venue for Saturday’s must-win game.
Gifty Acheampong who got the equalizer for Ghana in the game against USA, remains confident that the Black Maidens will go all out on Saturday and beat Paraguay to boost their chances of making it to the next stage of the competition.
” Am confident we are going to transfer everything we are thought by our coaches n training into the game on Saturday because that’s exactly what we did on Tuesday and it worked”, the Immigration Ladies forward told Ghanafa.org.
Describing her goal against USA, Gifty said that: “I saw the cross and I knew if I drop back I could reach the ball and that’s why I positioned myself well for the goal
“Personally, my performance improved in the second group match because I learnt a lot from the game against Japan and I was determined to help the team win against USA”, She added.
Adizatu Kubrah Mustapha who was named as best player for the game against USA also thanked her team mates for their collective effort in the game against USA.
“I was surprised when I was named as the best player but I give thanks to my team mates and the technical team for the training we have been having since we got here which impacted in the game”.
“We came into the game with the believe that we will win the match so even when we went down as early as the 5th we never gave up and kept to the tactical instructions we had been given which resulted in the equalizer and the penalty which led to the winning goal” the Black Maidens deputy captain intimated.
Team captain Sandra Owusu Ansah revealed how the players had meetings after their heavy defeat to Japan and how they were motivated by the management committee chairman and the technical team.
” After the losing to Japan we the players had a meeting and told ourselves that at all cost we must beat USA else we will go back home with humiliation. Personally I didn’t want my name to be mentioned as they captain of a team that got knocked out in the group stage.”
“When we lost by 5 goals all the players were down but when we returned to the hotel, our coaches psyched us to forget the defeat and focus on the next match against USA and that helped us a lot”, Sandra said in her interview with GFA’s official website.
” In the game when we went down as early as the 5th minute, I was telling my team mates not to give up and fight for a win”
Sandra got the winning goal for the Black Maidens after Ghana was awarded an 84th minute penalty and she also explained what motivated her to pick the ball and score.
“I don’t really like playing penalties but before picking the ball I knew I will score so I went into the spot kick with confidence and I managed to score and give us the win”, She added.
The charismatic captain of the team called on Ghanaians to support the team in their game against Paraguay and was confident that they will do everything to bring smiles on the faces of all their fans in the final group game.
Kick off time for the final group D match against Paraguay is 19:15pm (4:15pm Ghana Time).
