Adotey Eyes Final Spot In FIFA Women’s U17 World Cup

Head coach of the Black Maidens, Evans Adotey, says reaching the final of this year’s U-17 Women’s World Cup is the only target he has for the team.

The Maidens are making their 6th straight appearance at the tournament and they have a bronze medal from the 2012 edition in Azerbaijan to show for their efforts.

But Adotey wants the team to go a few steps better than then and play in the final of the competition.

“We won bronze in 2012 and in 2014, we made the quarterfinals. We got to the same stage in the 2016 edition played in Jordan but this year, we want to take part in the finals.”

The Maidens will begin their campaign on Tuesday (10pm Ghana time) against hosts Uruguay and Adotey is expecting a tough tie despite helping Ghana to get a huge victory over the Uruguayans six years ago.

“I do not have any idea of this Uruguayan team. All I know is from our last meeting in 2012 where Ghana won 5-0. I was the assistant coach for that team. But the previous victory does not mean I will get an easy match on Tuesday. I only want the team to be steady and avoid defeat in our first match of the tournament.”

Ghana lost its final preparatory match to Cameroon and some observers have flagged the result as a sign of concern but team captain, Mukarama Abdullai, says that result should not give Uruguay any false hopes.

“Losing to Cameroon was surprising to me. We were not expecting to that reverse but we have worked on our mistakes. The Uruguayans should not be happy at all.”

Ghana’s group A path begins with a match against Uruguay on November 13 with the second match against Finland on November 16. The final group game against New Zealand comes off on November 20.