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Sampson urges Ghana to learn from Ecuador defeat ahead of South Korea clash
Ghana U-20 women’s coach Charles Sampson has called on his players to learn from their mistakes after their opening defeat to Ecuador at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The Black Princesses suffered a 3-0 loss to the South Americans, with Rosa Flores producing a standout performance, scoring a spectacular long-range effort before setting up Domenica Arboldeda for Ecuador’s second goal.
Arboldeda added her second with 20 minutes remaining to complete a convincing debut victory for Ecuador.
Sampson admitted Ghana were punished for defending naively, particularly when Ecuador found spaces between the lines.
“At this level, it is very difficult if you defend a bit naively. I think we were on them in the beginning and then the two times they came into our box, they could play a penetrating pass in between [our lines] and they scored the two goals,” Sampson said.
The coach was particularly disappointed with the manner in which the goals were conceded, including Flores’ remarkable effort from distance.
“Those goals were difficult to take, especially the first one from a long distance. We just have to accept it, we have two more games and we have to work on ourselves now.”
Ghana must now quickly regroup ahead of their second Group match against South Korea.
Ecuador lead the group, while France and South Korea have one point each. Ghana are bottom without a point and need a positive result against South Korea to keep their hopes of progressing alive.
The Black Princesses are making their eighth appearance at the U-20 Women’s World Cup and are yet to reach the knockout stage. They have also suffered consecutive group-stage exits in recent editions.
With two matches remaining, Sampson knows Ghana have little room for error as they look to keep their campaign alive and avoid another early exit from the competition.
Source:Fiilasports/ghanasoccernet
