Colombia 2024: We will do everything in our power to go beyond the group stage – Basigi

Head coach of Ghana Women’s U-20, Yussif Basigi, says the team is motivated for another World Cup campaign looking to go beyond the group stage.

The Black Princesses are set for a seventh successive appearance at the FIFA U-20 World Cup with this year’s edition set to be staged in Colombia.

In all the previous six attempts, Ghana has failed to go past the first round of the competition with the closest they have come being the 2012 edition where they still went out from the group stage despite boasting six points.

Basigi was the team’s head coach in the 2018 edition as they finished third in their group.

“In my case, it was unfortunate the time we went for the World Cup in 2018; that was the time of the expose – the Normalisation Committee period but things were not normalised. I wouldn’t say that is an excuse though,” he said during the team’s Media Day at the Cape Coast Stadium on Monday, July 22.

The team has been training in Cape Coast for the past three weeks as part of their preparation for the tournament.

Quizzed on what he hopes to do differently after returning to the post, the Hasaacas Ladies boss says the team is well aware of the task ahead.

“This time, we are motivated to go again and make a mark because we are all looking forward to breaking that jinx. We have made the girls aware just as we the technical staff are aware,” he continued.

“We don’t need anybody to task us to do that job. We know how difficult it is. It’s a very herculean task but we will do all that we can to go beyond the group stage before we think of any other thing.”

With the expansion of the competition to 24 teams from 16, Yussif Basigi will be hoping to guide Ghana past the first round for the first time.

Ghana are pitted in Group E where they will face Austria, New Zealand and Japan.