The Black Princesses of Ghana will kick start their campaign at the ongoing 10th edition of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.

Ghana will take on USA in the opening Group D match at exactly 17:00 hours GMT on Thursday, August 11, 2022.

The tournament will see 16 nations vying for the ultimate with 32 matches played across 19 days.

The opening day fixture ended in a huge upset as Germany succumbed to a 1-0 loss to Colombia. New Zealand drew 1-1 with Mexico in the second game.

The Ghana aim

Ghana’s U-20 women’s team will be making a historic sixth consecutive appearance at the global showpiece.

The Black Princesses will however play without skipper Evelyn Badu who sustained an injury at training. After today’s game against the USA, Ghana will take on Japan and the Netherlands in the subsequent Group D matches.

Having failed to go past the group stage in all previous five attempts, the team is keen to overcome that hurdle and advance to the knockout stages of this year’s edition.

“We were far from the competition but here we are very close to the tournament and we have to let the players know that we are close to the World so we have to psych them,” head coach of the side, Ben Fokuo said following their friendly game against France.

On the players’ side, Mukarama Abdulai, who is the general captain of the team, has urged Ghanaians to throw their support behind the team.

“[They] should keep pushing their support behind us. They should always put their prayers behind us [because] we need it. Without them, we can’t do it alone,” she added.

How Ghana qualified for the World Cup

The Black Princesses booked their ticket to the tournament after beating Ethiopia 2-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday, March 27, in the final game of the qualifiers.

En route to qualifying, Fokuo’s side beat Zambia, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Northern Ladies’ Salamatu Abdulai was the top scorer in the qualifiers after netting six times in six games.

The African challenge

Hoisting the flag of Africa will be two west African countries: Nigeria and Ghana.

Nigeria’s U20 girls, Falconets have been drawn to face France and Canada in the group stage of this year’s FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.

Nigeria is among four countries to have played in all previous nine editions of the U-20 Women’s World Cup, along with Germany, Brazil and USA.

Nigeria have also finished as runners-up on two occasions – 2010 and 2014.

Key superstar tournament alumnae

The U-20 Women’s World Cup has seen the development stages of some of the world’s best stars in the past.

Brazil’s Marta first made a name for herself on the world stage at Canada 2002, when the then 16-year-old scored six goals to take Brazil to a surprise fourth-place finish at the U-19 Women’s World Championship in Canada. It was the start of an incredible career.