The Black Maidens of Ghana have failed to make it to the next stage of the FIFA under 17 women World Cup in Uruguay after a 4-2 penalty shoot-out loss to Mexico in the quarter finals on Sunday. The match had ended 2-2 after Ghana was pegged back twice by the Mexicans.
After a goalless first half, Ghana broke the deadlock through Captain Mukarama Abdulai who headed home the game’s opener in the 46th minute. Mexico equalized when the Ghanaian defence gave away a penalty on 61minutes. The Mexican captain Nicole Perez made no mistake from the spot to send the ball home to make it 1-1.
Substitute Suzzy Dede Teye made it 2-1 for Ghana on 75minutes after being assisted by Mukarama Abdulai. Ghana thought they had the advantage but it lasted only 7minutes. The Mexican captain Nicole Perez again deceived the Ghanaian goalkeeper by sending her free kick right at her and she failed to deal with it. The score then became 2-2 after 82minutes of play.
This proved to be the final score and the match was then to be decided on the lottery of penalty shoot-outs.
Ghana’s penalty voodoo showed its ugly head when only Mukarama Abdulai and Suzzy Dede Teye converted their kicks, the rest short straight at the Mexican goalkeeper who saved them all.
Ghana therefore crash out of the competition after emerging as the best team in the group matches winning three out of three in the group stages. The team had topped all the statistics during the group phase.
However, there were positives to take away from this tournament with Mukarama Abdulai becoming Ghana’s highest scorer at the games with her 7th goal of the competition. It is the hope of Ghanaians that she goes on to emerge as the top scorer of the tournament.
The Mexican captain Nicole Perez was voted the player of the match.
