Black Princess success escalates Hayford's hope

Accra, Oct 24, GNA - The performance of Ghana's U-19 female soccer team, the Black Princess in their maiden international friendly has escalated coach Bashiri Hayford's hope for the women's game. Coach Hayford supervised a 2-1 win over the South Africans on Sunday after both teams had earlier drawn one all in their first game played last Friday with the belief that the future looks bright as far as women soccer is concerned in the country.

He told the GNA Sports in Accra that, "the signs are bright with the level of performance exhibited in the past two weeks since we began camping".

The coach underscored the need to stick to team building exercises like long camping and to engage in more local and friendlies to improve upon the quality required for achieving the desired results. Ghana's Black Queens are considered among the frontiers in the women's game on the continent and the former Heart of Lions coach is optimistic Ghana has what it takes to maintain that pedigree with more effort and support.

"Most of the girls have the potential for us to build a winsome team and I think about three months intensive camping can even work wonders for the team".

Coach Hayford told the GNA Sports he was conclusive on promoting about 11 players of the Princess team to the Queens after careful observation.

"About 11 of the girls are ripe for the senior team and would be promoted as soon as possible to enable them adjust adequately before international assignments".

The South Africans' twice played the Princess on Friday and Sunday in their major international assignment, which serves as preparatory grounds for the technical handlers of both teams. The Ghanaians would honour the return encounter in December. Like her opposite number, the South African coach, Sheryl Botes described the games as useful towards her quest of raising a formidable team capable of taking the continent by storm as soon as possible. She told the GNA Sports "the games gave me an idea about the players, most of whom I was watching for the first time. It also provided me the opportunity to see how best they respond under pressure, their mental toughness" and all the things that makes a solid team tick. The coach believes the South Africans have the potentials of a great team and envisaged exposure would be decisive in that direction.