By: Nana Kwame Bediako
It is match day at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Johannesburg as the Black Queens of Ghana cross path with Namibia in the second leg of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The Queen’s boast of a 3-1 advantage heading into Tuesday 5th December, 2023 tie from the first leg played in Accra on Friday 1st December, 2023 with Doris Boaduwaa netting a brace.
A win today will qualify Ghana to next year’s tournament in Morocco and the Queen’s are hoping to make it to Morocco after missing out on the last edition in 2022.
In a lead up to today’s important game, renowned female sports journalist and host of the Studio 5 show on GTV Sports+, Gloria Peprah spoke about the total transformation and total makeover the Black Queens have gone through since Nora Hauptle took charge.
She believes that the Queens shouldn’t be complacent heading into the tournament as she believes they’re going to need a win in order to qualify and cautioned them against the big sides like South Africa ,Nigeria ,Equatorial Guinea among others who will be a tough test for them if they’re able to qualify
“The girls are very confident than ever before, so qualifying for the next WAFCON will be more achievable this time”; said Gloria Peprah.
she also called on the Black Queens to have a different approach and style of play heading into next year’s continental event in Morocco.
The seasoned sports broadcaster emphasized on how the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) learnt from their abysmal showing in the just ended World Cup in Australia & New Zealand as a result of them lacking the requisite approach to catch up with pace by bringing in new players to solidify the team which contributed to their shocking exit in the World Cup despite winning the titles back to back in 2015 and 2019 respectively.
This incident according to her has forced the USA to learn from their recent mistakes and an embarrassing Women’s World Cup by appointing Chelsea Women’s team coach, Emma Hayes to take over the affairs of the USWNT in order to restructure the national team by breathing new life into it and it is incumbent on the Black Queens to take a cue from the USA which she has firm believe that it is going to help the team.