Coach Freeman Amponsah was in a triumphant mood when he met the media team of Berry Ladies FC after our 1-0 win over Faith Ladies FC to grab the bronze medal.
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The boss masterminded our 3-0 first game victory, and this victory lifted us into a 3rd place win at the just ended Women’s Premiere Super Cup, going into the commencement of the 2023/2024 season.
After the game he was asked about the victory, the latest on Jafaru Rahama and the new player’s contributions. Here’s a full transcript:
on the win:
“A great feeling obviously, you could sense it’s been so many months after our loss with the same team at the 2022/2023 season and today we have beaten, in my opinion without a question of a doubt one of the best team in the women’s premiere league, and we’ve done it in a great way. There were moments we had to suffer, but when you watched the game well, at some moments we showed real determination, desire and belief to beat them. I am really happy.”
on sending a statement after ending the 2022/2023 League on 4th Position:
‘Certainly, sends a message to this new built team. We keep believing in what we are doing and I must admit they are a fantastic group of players. The way they try, the understanding, the chemistry that they have between them you can sense it. I was still proud of them when we lost our previous game, and I am really proud again today as well to be part of this team.”
on controlling emotions in big games:
“Yes, especially because there were moments that were constantly in question and I was asking questions and provoking them on the touchline. The berry fans want you to go and go and go, and it’s what they do, the fans do that on our social media pages and physically and if we don’t go, they will be on us. We have to understand emotionally it’s not easy, it’s not easy to chase 15, 20 passes and you have to be able to do that regardless. We have to therefore manage emotions on the pitch, emotions from opponents and convert those emotions into hunger to play and that is what they did. ”
on the atmosphere in the dressing room at full-time:
They were all dancing and super happy. We are about to commence the 2023/2024 league so yes; they have built confidence now. The mood is always much better, and the ones who were not involved are going to have train harder because we have league and FA Cup to play.
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on the hard work in training paying off:
“The players have to stand up there and execute against Faith Ladies FC players that are top quality. We gave them something in the first two minutes with the corner and they almost scored a goal, you cannot give them anything, they can still earn it because they are top quality and can produce those moments in any moment. We have discussed a lot about that, it is stressful because they change constantly, the spaces, rotations, they are constantly threatening you in certain areas and you have to be really really aware of what they are doing to try to match it up, and with the ball as well, because they are provoking you with certain things. It’s what we demanded to do and what we needed to do, and we did it better in the second half, we did it much better and I think it was really helpful.”
on if today’s result has lifted a psychological barrier against top teams:
I don’t know if it was a barrier. Obviously, it’s something that we needed to go through. To beat them, first of all, you have to lose against them. We have to lose probably the way we lost last season, because we lost in two different ways though last season, we were the better team in the first half and then we conceded the goals. But this Berry team showed a real maturity today, and that maturity comes from experiences and sometimes you need that to become a better team.
on Christabel’s involvement as an attacker in our winning goal:
I just told her that! I said Christabel, you know that you need to make your mark. After they changed her through squad rotation on the field to the other side, and we made the changes straight away without the opponents knowing, and then we saw her as a left winger chasing the ball and pressing their defends. To be fair, the subs were excellent as well. They were involved in the goal, but they brought so much physicality, energy and quality to the team.
on whether Jafaru Rahama will be joining up in next season:
No and yes, but I really don’t know yet. We are praying she comes early because we need her looking at the impact she made at the end of last season. Anything can happen and I know management of Berry Ladies FC are taking care of that.
on our defensive display and keeping a clean sheet:
I was thinking about that in the 92nd minute, saying that we haven’t had that many [clean sheets] last season, and against one of the best teams in Ghana, we managed to do it. The application and the love that we had today for defending was what we needed, was in every player and it was a necessity. If you concede against them, you know afterwards it’s extremely difficult to come back and it would come back to hunt us. So, it was really important and i must admit we have the best defenders now in Women’s Football.
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Copyright 2023 Berry Ladies Football Club. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.berryladiesfcgh.com as the source.
