WAFU B U-17 Girls Cup: Joe Nana Adarkwa eyes title defence with Black Maidens

Ghana’s U-17 female national football team, the Black Maidens, are feeling confident ahead of their upcoming match against Burkina Faso in the WAFU Zone B U-17 Girls Cup tournament. The team will also be participating in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco next month, using this Côte d’Ivoire tournament as a vital part of their preparation.

Head coach Joe Nana Adarkwa expressed his team's determination to successfully defend their title from last year, which they secured by defeating Nigeria’s Flamingos in an exciting final at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence in Prampram. Adarkwa emphasized that the primary goal is to use the tournament to evaluate his players and fine-tune the squad ahead of the World Cup.

"We are here to compete for the World Cup. We are going to use this tournament to assess our players, prepare them, and go into the World Cup, and hopefully that will give us a good result," he stated. Despite the focus on preparation, Adarkwa insisted that the Black Maidens are determined to defend their title, vowing to compete with the best teams like Nigeria and the others in the tournament.

He also highlighted the importance of having a well-balanced squad, ensuring that every department has been strengthened to enable Ghana to compete at the highest level. The team's confidence is further boosted by their status as defending champions, with Adarkwa believing that their triumph last year has already lifted the team's spirits ahead of the tournament.

"Everything is high because we are defending champions. The last one that we played in Ghana, we won it, so the spirit is already high. We are here to defend it."