Black Queens suffered from poor officiating – Mercy Myles

Captain of Ghana’s Black Queens, Mercy Myles says their inability to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio was as a result of poor officiating in their penultimate qualifier against Cameroon.

The Queens failed to qualify for the Games after drawing 2-2 with Cameroon in the second leg of their qualifier played at the Accra Sports stadium on Saturday, August 1.

The result meant, the Queens, who played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Yaoundé, got eliminated on the Away Goals Rule after an aggregate 3-3 over the two legs.

Ghana elimination also means, this is the second successive time that Cameroon has denied the Queens of an Olympic Games qualification.

The Phenomenon is disturbing, especially because the latest setback also means Ghana has failed to qualify for Olympic Games football (both men and women) for the last 12 years.

The last time Ghana participated in Olympic Games football dates back to Athens 2004.

Mercy Myles who is captain of the Queens says, she and her teammates did everything possible to qualify but were undone by poor officiating.

“The referee was not good to us. We did everything to qualify but the referee was determined to frustrate us. We are sad and distraught after failing to qualify but you cannot say we didn’t try. We did, unfortunately the referee had other ideas.”

The Black Queens were pegged back twice in both halves by the Cameroonians after taking the lead on each occasion.

Ghana started the game on a strong note as they threatened the Cameroonian goal area in the early minutes.

The Cameroonians however got back into the game after the first 20 minutes.

Ghana however shot into the lead through Samira Suleymane from close range in the 16th minute after the Cameroonian goalkeeper failed to grab a ball from a corner kick. However the Queens were unable to hold on to the lead and conceded the equalizer from the Cameroonians on the stroke of halftime through Madeleine Mane Ngono.

The second half started with the Black Queens threatening the Lionesses and deservedly took the lead again through Portia Boakye in the 48th minute.

The Cameroonians however broke Ghanaian hearts 5 minutes to full time through substitute Agnes Marie Nkada to take the score to 2-2.

Cameroon will face Cote D’Ivoire next qualifying round.