Ghana Black Queens coach Nora Hauptle met the press yesterday, Monday 10/07/2023 ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic game qualifiers. Ghana will meet Guinea in a two-legged tie in their bid to qualify for the next Olympic games.
Nora believes that she has enough preparations, good materials and quality players to enable Ghana to qualify for the upcoming Olympic games in Paris.
“We are very happy and proud to start in the Olympic qualifications. We started our mission volta and said, we want to turn towards success again. It is a Portuguese world, which means to turn around.
“So we started the first steps of the mission Volta in February with some international games against Benin. And then in April, two games against Senegal until now we can say we are unbeaten because nobody scored against us so the players did a good job”. she told the press.
“You wanna build some pressure now on me? [Laughs] -No, look, for me, pressure is a privilege because we put a lot of pressure on us ourselves to deliver. We want to go and qualify for the Olympics. Of course, we recognize that our U-23 men could not qualify, and I feel sorry for them. We would take this challenge and uh, face it.
“We had a week of pre-camp and training here at the stadium. At the moment over 70 players are playing abroad from the Black Queens and we are still partial scouting.
“So we did a cutdown after the first week and had a friendly game against under-15 boys. They were very physical but we put them l in the tactical way like we expect Guinea to play. That was a very good game last Saturday. Now we start fresh and focused with our 20-plus three Keepers towards Guinea.
“Yes. I was in Kumasi of course, always scouting and looking out for our top talents in the domestic league. I’m a lot around in the league and have visited already Tamale, Kumasi, and Takoradi, so I know Ghana pretty well after half a year.
“I’m very satisfied of course, that we won the WAFU Zone B and the U 20 cup. We had Last week four of the players of the squad joined the Black Queens. I’m an educator also and I like to work with young talents and when they continue to work like this, then our future looks bright in Ghana.
“Yes. When you look at the draw, I mean of course you also saw a bit of the draw. I think the first steps are very makeable. Somehow we going to face Zambia and Morocco. They are part of the World Cup which is beginning in two weeks. So it will not be an easy route but am pretty convinced with the quality of players we have and a lot of matches, we have the chance to qualify.
“We are trying to create good cohesion in the team but also each individual needs to perform and fulfil the role we demand of them. We ask for absolute support from the team so we can deliver”. she concluded.
