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Words backed by strong will; a case of Black Maidens win over USA

The Black Maidens’ win over their counterparts from the USA on Tuesday afternoon in the ongoing U17 Women’s World Cup has proven words can be stronger when backed by strong will.

The West Africans had suffered a humiliating 5-0 to Japan in their opening game on Saturday while the USA who the Maidens were going to face in their next game on the other hand had defeated Paraguay 6-1 in the other group game.

After the game on Saturday, a very firm and resolute Coach of the Ghanaian side, Evans Adottey was full of confidence that his side will win against the USA.

Although historically the US team has not fared well in this particular tournament, they had won convincingly in their opening game and that was threatening enough but the words of Adottey after the game was full of promise to right the wrong in his first game.

“Yes, we have suffered a bad defeat. But I promise you: we will come back. And we will come back stronger. We will win against USA”, Coach Adottey said after the Japan game.

His words had real impact on the day as they came back, stronger, to win on the day as the Black Maidens came back from a goal down to defeat USA.

Frankie Tagliaferri gave the Americans the lead in the 5th minute while Gifty Acheampong and Captain Sandra Owusu Ansah gave the Africans the winner on the day with goals on 63rd and 84th minute.

Coach Adottey said his team had been psyching themselves and was happy with the mental strength of his side and their fighting spirit during game on Tuesday.

He explained after the game was motivated to win based on the knowledge that they will be eliminated from the competition with a defeat on the day, “What motivated them more than anything, I think, was knowing: lose today and we’re out. And I must say that, when we went down 1-0, I was really happy with the mental strength I saw in my players. The fighting spirit really came up in them today. I said to them at half-time, ‘We are going to score here.’ The goal had been coming. And even when we equalized, I was shouting from the side: ‘Please – we can win here!'”.

Coach Evans Adottey’s managed to make good the promise he made prior to the game against Paraguay and hopefully it will transcend to their game against Paraguay on Saturday in the final group game.

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