The Black Queens of Ghana have lived up to their reputation in the 2024 CAF Women’s AFCON as dark horses. Prior to the start of the tournament, the hitherto heavyweight of the continent superior to all but Nigeria for much of the first two decades of top level female football in Africa, were tagged as dark horses for this year’s tournament.
The tag was apt considering more nations were better than Ghana aside Ghana’s National Women’s Football Team’s failure to qualify from the group stages of the continental championship since 2016, missing out on qualifying to compete in the tournament altogether for the 2022 edition was a major factor also.
Heading into the tournament, a semifinal appearance wasn’t expected for Ghana but the competition’s staggered system of qualification via the inclusion of third best placed teams across the group phase meant that the Black Queens could make it to the quarterfinals and the semifinals if it bagged a favourable draw hence the dark horse tag.
All the permutations played out the exact way leading to a quite surprising turn of events for the Black Queens. For reference sake, one of the better teams in the tournament, Zambia [coached by Ghana’s immediate past head trainer Nora Hauptle] run into the best team at the competition, Nigeria, and got kicked out in an emphatic fashion.
The semifinal stage though is where the “lucky breaks” for the Black Queens seemingly end since Ghana needs to deal with a handful of disadvantages heading into their semifinal game against Morocco. For starters, the Black Queens are less fresh than their Moroccan counterparts after playing this past Saturday while Morocco dispatched Mali a day prior.
Morocco’s 3-1 win over Mali was delivered after regulation time while Ghana had to plough through a demanding 90 minutes of regulation time plus 30 minutes of extra time to win 4-2 on penalties over Algeria in the quarterfinals.
There is also the tiny issue of the Queens having to fly out from Berkane to Rabat to honour the game while Morocco get to stay put at the location of their straightforward win over Mali. On top of all that, Ghana is playing against the host nation and would have to deal with the very demanding Moroccan crowd who will press the game officials for every call.
Sticking with the theme of dealing with disadvantages, Ghana’s head coach Kim Lars Bjorkegren has dealt well handling the odds stacked against him. After taking over a team [and quite frankly Ghana too] that adored Nora Hauptle with few chances to work with the team mere weeks before the start of the AFCON, Bjorkegren had a tough job to pull off.
Despite the slow start, things at least on the tactical side are beginning to pick up and it all came to a head for the Swede in Ghana’s win over Algeria.
While execution on the players’ part was a problem and it has been for a long while, the tactical setup from Bjorkegren was perfect as he brilliantly managed to fix the wildly talented Stella Nyamekye and Princess Marfo into the setup while having Doris Boaduwaa and top performer Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah in the setup but not sacrificing the defensive shape by playing a 3-4-1-2 setup.
In all four games the Black Queens have played in the tournament, Bjorkegren has changed personnel and tactical setups but against Algeria, it is clear that he stumbled into a good situation that should get better with more practice time in training.
Aside yanking off Boaduwaa who hasn’t had a great tournament at all from the starting lineup and replacing her with Adubea who, though equally wasteful, is a faster player and better suited for the high press than Boaduwaa, nothing should change in the lineup Bjorkegren deployed against Algeria for the upcoming Morocco task.
Nigeria are heading to the Women’s AFCON final with the chance to extend their record number of title wins from nine to 10 if their performances in the tournament are anything to go by. The physicality, athleticism and sheer quality of the Nigerians sees them edge defending champions South Africa in their semifinal contest particularly in executing set pieces as the West Africans did against Zambia en route to their big win.
Ghana’s Black Queens should follow the same playbook of delivering the goods on set pieces to stand the chance of beating Morocco. Armed with speedy forwards in depth in Boaduwaa, Boye-Hlorkah, Evelyn Badu, Adubea, Marfo and the brilliant Comfort Yeboah from the wing back position, Ghana’s best path to scoring goals and an upset win lies in drawing free kicks while counter attacking and making utmost use of those set pieces when they come.
Nigeria scored twice against Zambia by utilizing their size and discipline to stay onside and added another in route one fashion with a long ball from goalkeeper Chiama Nnadozie leading to Chinwendu Ihezuo’s fine finish.
Ghana finished second at the Women’s AFCON in 1998, 2002 and 2006 in the Golden Era for the Black Queens behind legends like Alberta Sackey, Florence Okoe, Adjoa Bayor and Mercy Tagoe now Mercy Tagoe-Quarcoo and stands on the edge of a shock return to the pinnacle of African women’s football near two decades later.
Though his influence on the rise has been questioned and often associated to the work of his predecessor Nora Hauptle, Kim Lars Bjorkegren is showing signs of turning the stacked odds against him into a career defining moment of glory and a momentous feat for Ghana that is sure to change women’s football in Ghana forever.
