Black Princesses offer different threat to U-20s

In November last year, Uganda U-20 women’s team had what turned out to be timely reality check when they lost 3-2 to Ethiopia in the finals of the age group’s Cecafa tournament at Fufa Technical Centre – Njeru.

The team was so sure of themselves as they had lost just one game in 20 appearances since they were at U-17 level. 

That was an U-17 World Cup qualifier in which they lost 2-1 to Tanzania in Dar-es-Salaam. But they quickly overturned that result with a 5-0 win at home.

Last month, the experience against Ethiopia helped them oust South Africa from the third round of the World Cup qualifiers – with a 1-0 home win and a 0-0 draw in Johannesburg.

“South Africa have the name so that was a good test in many ways. 
First beating them at home and then having to protect that narrow lead away from here was not an easy task.

That has built the mental strength of the players and I believe they can go through any situation now,” coach Ayub Khalifa said.

Khalifa’s words will put to test as they play Ghana, in the fourth round of the World Cup qualifiers, a side that has players that participated in the first Caf Women’s Champions League in Cairo and a country that has qualified for all U-20 World Cups since 2010.

“We know of their experience at this level but at the end of the day, these are the teams you have to beat to get to the World Cup.

You cannot start worrying about their experience but you instead use it to motivate your players to play better,” Khalifa added.

The Ghanaians were expected to arrive yesterday for the first leg of the qualifiers due Saturday at St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende.