The national senior women's team, the Black Queens, gave soccer fans a lot to cheer about on Friday (Farmers Day) with a good performance when they defeated Namibia 3-1 in a 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations final round first leg qualifier at the Accra Sports Stadium.
In front of an encouraging crowd, the Queens dominated both halves of the game and kept the visitors under intense pressure but finding the back of the net proved a difficulty.
In the end, Doris Boaduwaa grabbed a brace while, Portia Boakye also scored to give the Black Queens a healthy 3-0 lead.
However, a miscommunication between Ghana's goalkeeper and a defender saw the latter head into her own goal to reduce the deficit for the visitors.
With a compact defence and a clear game plan to catch the Ghanaians on the counter, the Namibians stayed resolute at the back and thwarted the efforts of the Black Queens who switched play from one side to the other in an attempt to break the Namibian rear.
But the Queens remained patient and knocked the ball around until the 26th minute when a pass cut the Namibian defence open with the defenders caught ball watching.
The ball found a lurking Doris Boaduwaa, who wasted no time to tap the ball home for the opener, throwing the stadium agog.
From that moment, the Namibians attempted to play and managed to threaten the Black Queens area on a few times but the Queens defence dealt with them.
They were pegged back by the Captain of the team, Portia, who put her name on the score sheet on the 37th minute when her corner kick went straight into the net.
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The Namibians came from the break attempting a 'damage control' but the Queens kept pushing to make their second leg even more comfortable.
That goal came again through Boaduwaa to seal the win for the host.
However, a calamitous header from the team captain, Boakye, in an apparent miscommunication with goalkeeper, Cynthia Konlan, ended up giving the Namibians an own goal.
With the deficit reduced, the Black Queens pushed forward again to restore the three-goal advantage which did came but was ruled offside.
Meanwhile the Black Queens have left Accra for the second match against the Namibians tomorrow at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa.
The winner of the two legs will qualify for the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco.
