Soccer News of Sunday, 21 July 2002

Source: GNA

Final Selection for Black Queens to Come Out Soon

Coach P.S.K. Paha, technical director of the national women soccer team the Black Queens, said on Thursday that the final selection for his team ahead of the African championship slated for Nigeria would be out in September.

Coach Paha told GNA Sports in an interview that, having been in camp for only three weeks, it would be prudent to allow much time for the best individual football stars to emerge so that a good national side would be selected.

"Most of our senior players have left us and there is the need to replace them during the period and obviously that would need a bit of time".

The coach said so far the team was being taken through a series of exercises apart from tactical training and endurance.

When asked whether the team would engage in trial matches, the coach said his side was having problems with teams to play adding that unlike the men who have a lot of teams to play, "we have none since there are less female teams around and they are not playing competitive soccer either".

He however said they were negotiating to play a combination of U-12 and U-17 teams in Accra. He said these two sides are well composed and was optimistic that playing them would go a long way to put them in splendid form before their final game against the winner of Senegal and Guinea in October.

He was impressed about the Ghana Football Association's commitment and sensitivity to their needs so far. 'The GFA is doing very well and we hope things continue that way."