Going into their first tournament appearance at U-20 level, Ghana prefer to stick to the underdogs tag but with a steely determination.

Ghana are holed in a tough group when the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup kicks off in July.

A place in Group D with the defending champions, the United States, Korea Republic and Switzerland presents the Black Princesses with an exciting but challenging tournament debut.

Coming up against such nations, James Kuuku Dadzie, a former captain of the Black Stars and coach of the Ghana team warns against expecting too much.

“Our group is a tough introduction especially when you consider the Americans are champions and the Koreans have done so well in women’s football lately,” says Kuuku Dadzie.

“We don’t know much about Switzerland, but we saw their boys win the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria last year. This is a country catching up in football and I think on paper all three are ahead of us in terms of their chances.”

Despite the opportunity to pit their strengths against these good sides, the Black Princesses according to their coach are not laying down before the fight.

“I believe we can have the better of our opponents with the right kind of preparation,” the coach adds.

For Kuuku Dadzie, Ghana's preparations in the run up to the tournament will be most crucial to their progress.

“I think we can do well with good physical conditioning and with technical ability. We have better natural technique and we are working on developing that even more. The other key will be to psyche up the group. This is also very important to our chances, to have the girls feeling confident,” he says.

“Obviously we are awaiting the ultimate prize but we will take it in steps as the tournament progresses. We’ll be able to adjust our plans during the competition as we go from match to match.”

The competition kicks off July 13, just two days after the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and runs to August 1.