Ghana Coach Ben Fokuo met the media on Tuesday ahead of the Black Princess opening match against the United States of America on Thursday. Ghana have been in San Jose for the past one week to put final touches to their preparations for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup which kicked off on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. The Black Princesses will take on the USA in a Group D opener before battling Japan and the Netherlands in the other matches.

He talked about preparations and expectations for the tournament. Read on for the full transcript.

On how it feels to play at World Cup

We are very happy to participate in this world cup, we started preparations right after we gained qualification to our 6th consecutive world cup. We are drawn in a tough group and so we had to prepare well and we are ready for our first game which is very important. I am happy about the arrangements for the world cup and we are ready to participate.

On composition of Ghana squad

We put together young players coming from the U-17 team to make sure we prepare them to this level. They have been performing well and we are making sure they do their best knowing we play our first game against USA, which is a very strong side. We are training hard and hope the team gets to the level we want to be before our opener against USA.

On Ghana’s opponents

Our other opponents are good sides and we will take it game after game and go pass the group stage. Our first game is very important and we need to do our best to get a good result.

On working to go pass Group stage

We haven’t made it pass the group stage and we need to work on that in our sixth appearance and I know the players and technical team are working hard to make sure we at least, progress from the group stage.

The Black Princesses will open their world cup campaign against the United State of America on Thursday, August 11 at the Estadio Alejandro Morera at 17:00 GMT.

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