Queens Off To Abuja

A twenty-six member contingent of Ghana’s senior women’s football team, the Black Queens, left Accra for Abuja yesterday for its Olympic Games qualifier against Nigeria on Saturday. The team, made up of 18 players and eight officials, said they were hopeful of returning with the ticket to the Olympic Games, having secured the ticket to the African Women’s Championships against Cote d’Ivoire just last weekend. In a pre-departure interview, caretaker coach Abdul Gamel Mumuni said the team intended to pick Africa’s sole ticket to the 2008 Beijing Games and will be going all out to secure the points needed. Captain Adjoa Bayor told the Daily Graphic they were going to Abuja to extract their pound of flesh from their arch-rivals, the Super Falcons. “Remember how they painfully ended our Olympic dream on February 14, 2004, at the Ohene Djan Stadium in aarca? This time around, it is our turn to make the Nigerians have a taste of how it feels like to lose,” captain Adjoa Bayor said. The Queens, who lead the qualifying table with nine points after two wins against South Africa and a crucial home win against Nigeria, need only a draw from Saturday’s crunch match to qualify. However, reports from Abuja indicate that the Nigerians are equally bent on qualifying, and officials have thus declared a free gate for the 60,000-seater capacity Abuja National Stadium, intended to create an intimidating atmosphere. The media have also intensified their hype of the match all in an effort to get the stands filled to capacity.