Ghana Women's National Football Team / World Championships

Ghana

World Cup record scorer :	Alberta Sackey (2)
World Cup record player:	Adjoa Bayor and Memunatu Sulemana (9 each)
Rank :	22nd
Balance sheet
9 World Cup games 1 win 1 draw 7 losses 6:30 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Ghana 1: 1 Australia Foxborough ( USA ); June 20, 1999
Biggest World Cup victory Ghana 2: 1 Australia Portland ( USA ); September 28, 2003
Biggest World Cup defeat Ghana 7-0 China Portland ( USA ); June 23, 1999
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	3 ( first : 1999 )
Best results	Preliminary round 1999 , 2003 , 2007
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of November 2018 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Ghanaian national soccer team for women at world championships . Ghana was the second African team to qualify for a total of three women's World Cup finals, but never made it through the group stage. Ghana ranks 22nd in the all-time table . The Ghanaians were able to qualify for a World Cup finals ahead of their male colleagues , which only managed to do so at the 2006 World Cup .

The national team at world championships

Overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1991	People's Republic of China	not qualified				In the quarter-finals of the 1991 women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria failed
1995	Sweden	not qualified				In the African Cup of Women 1995 in the semifinals of Nigeria failed
1999	United States	Preliminary round	Australia , China , Sweden	13.	Emmanuel Afrani	Eliminated as fourth in the group
2003	United States	Preliminary round	China , Russia , Australia	12.	Okay aryee	First win in a World Cup game, eliminated in third place in the group
2007	People's Republic of China	Preliminary round	Australia , Canada , Norway	15th	Isaac Paha	Eliminated as fourth in the group
2011	Germany	not qualified				At the 2010 African Football Championship for women , Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon failed, but they also failed to qualify.
2015	Canada	not qualified				At the 2014 African Cup of Nations for women , Cameroon and South Africa failed, but they also failed to qualify.
2019	France	not qualified				At the Africa Cup of Women 2018 failed to Cameroon and Mali , of which only Cameroon could qualify.

statistics

(Information incl. 2019: eight world championships)

• not participated: never (0%)
• not qualified: five times (62.5%)
• qualified: three times (37.5%)
  • Preliminary round: three times (37.5%; 1999, 2003 and 2007)

The tournaments

World Cup 1991 in the People's Republic of China

Only one African team was able to qualify for the first women's World Cup . Ghana failed at the African Cup of Nations in 1991 , which was considered to be qualifying for the World Cup in the quarterfinals, the first round against the Nigerians with 1: 5 and 1: 2. Nigeria was then able to qualify as the first African team and the first unofficial African champion for the women for the World Cup and then repeated this success in all subsequent qualifications.

World Cup 1995 in Sweden

Four years later, Ghana would face Guinea in the first round of the African Cup, but they withdrew. The semi-finals were reached without a fight. Again the Nigerians were the opponents and Ghana lost both games again, this time with 0: 3 and 0: 2. In doing so, they not only missed qualifying for the World Cup, but also the first women's football tournament at the 1996 Olympic Games .

World Cup 1999 in the USA

For the third world championship, for which the Africans received another starting place after increasing the field of participants to 16 teams, Ghana could then also qualify. Now the first official African Championship in 1998 served as qualification, which was now played in tournament form in Nigeria . Ghana initially qualified for this with two wins (11-0 and 8-0) against Guinea. In the preliminary round South Africa were defeated 4-0 and Cameroon 3-1. The third group opponent Mozambique had withdrawn. As group winners, the semi-final against the Democratic Republic of the Congo was reached. With a 4-1 win after extra time, Ghana became the second African team to qualify for the World Cup. In the final they lost 2-0 to Nigeria.

In the USA, Australia faced Ghana’s first World Cup game on June 20, 1999 in Foxborough . After a goalless 73 minutes, Australia took the lead in the 74th minute, but two minutes later Nana Gyamfuah equalized with the first World Cup goal for Ghana, and it stayed until the end. The second game was followed by a 7-0 draw against China and finally a 2-0 draw against Sweden . Ghana was eliminated as the bottom of the group and also missed the women's soccer tournament at the 2000 Olympic Games , for which, in addition to hosts Australia, only the seven best teams from the World Cup were qualified.

2003 World Cup in the USA

The 2003 World Cup should actually take place again in the People's Republic of China . Because of the SARS epidemic, the tournament was moved to the USA at short notice. This was the second time that the World Cup took place in the USA. For the 2002 African Cup of Nations , which again served as qualification , Ghana had to qualify by playing two games against Senegal . This was easily achieved with two wins: 3-0 and 3-1. Ghana survived the group stage without conceding a goal and after a 2-0 opening win against Mali they also won a game against Nigeria (1-0) for the first time, as well as 3-0 against Ethiopia . Thus, Ghana reached the semi-finals against Cameroon as group winners, in which the first goals conceded had to be accepted. After a varied course, Ghana prevailed 3-2 in extra time. In the final, however, Nigeria was able to take revenge for its defeat in the preliminary round and again become African champions with 2-0 against Ghana. Ghana was also allowed to go to the World Cup again.

In the USA they met China in the first group game and lost 1-0. A 2-0 win then followed against Russia . This meant that Ghana had no chance of reaching the quarter-finals before the last game against Australia. However, Australia was able to reach the quarter-finals with a victory and a simultaneous defeat by China against Russia. However, Ghana were already 2-0 up after 39 minutes with two goals from Alberta Sackey , Australia only succeeded in the connection through Heather Garriock . Russia also lost to China. Ghana was eliminated third in the group, Australia last.

World Cup 2007 in the People's Republic of China

Four years later the World Cup took place in the People's Republic of China for the second time . For the 2006 African Cup of Nations , which again served as a qualification and again took place in Nigeria - as Gabon withdrew as host, Ghana should qualify with two games against the Republic of the Congo. Since this did not take place, Ghana was qualified without a fight. In the group stage they won three wins against Mali (1-0), Cameroon (2-1) and the Republic of Congo (3-1). With that Ghana stood as group winners in the semi-finals. Here South Africa was defeated 1-0 and reached the World Cup finals. In the final there was another clash with Nigeria and again the final was lost, but narrowly 0: 1. Both drove back to the World Cup.

At the finals, Australia, four years earlier, was the last group opponent, this time the first opponent and with 4-1 the Australians were able to return the favor for the defeat four years earlier. After a 0: 4 against Canada , a 2: 7 against former world champions Norway followed . With this, Ghana was eliminated as the bottom of the group and said goodbye to the World Cup for at least 12 years.

World Cup 2011 in Germany

Ghana could not qualify for the World Cup in Germany . At the African Cup of Nations 2010 , which again served as a qualification, Ghana was eliminated in the group stage. Previously, Ghana had qualified with two wins (1-0 and 3-0) against Senegal. In the group stage, however, only a 2-1 win against Algeria was possible . Against Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea they lost (1: 2 and 1: 3). Equatorial Guinea was then able to qualify for the World Cup for the first time after winning the championship in 2008 , but had to surrender the title to Nigeria again.

2015 World Cup in Canada

Four years later, Ghana even had to qualify through two qualifying rounds for the 2014 African Championship , which again served as a World Cup qualifier . In the first round Burkina Faso was eliminated with two 3-0 victories, in the second round then Ethiopia with 2-0 and 3-0. By increasing the field of participants to 24 teams, the Africans had received another starting place, so that the game for 3rd place was more important and the qualification seemed easier. In the final round, however, the first game against Algeria was lost 1-0. After a 1-1 draw against South Africa, Cameroon, which had already qualified for the semi-finals, was defeated 1-0, but since the South Africans with equal points had won 5-1 against Algeria, they reached the semi-finals and Ghana with the better goal difference dropped out. After a semi-final defeat against Nigeria, South Africa also lost the game for third place against Ivory Coast , which, like Cameroon, qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

World Cup 2019 in France

Qualification for the third World Cup in Europe took place via the 2018 African Football Championship for women , which took place in Ghana from November 17 to December 1, 2018 . As hosts, Ghana was automatically qualified for this, but could not use the home advantage. In their first game against Algeria they won 1-0, but then they lost 2-1 to Mali and only scored 1-1 against Cameroon, which meant that the Ghanaians were eliminated in third place. Due to the non-qualification for the World Cup finals, the team fell one place in the all-time table .

Games

Ghana have played nine World Cup games so far, one of which has been won, seven lost and one has ended in a draw. Ghana never played in the opening game, never played against the hosts, defending champions and eventual world champions. Ghana always played against Australia and twice against the People's Republic of China. All other games are unique, but against each opponent there was the highest defeat in a World Cup game.

Ghana has played against teams from all other confederations except South America, but only played against the Asian and Oceania champions.

Most of the games played Adjoa Bayor and Memunatu Sulemana , who were used in all nine games. Alberta Sackey (2) scored the most goals .

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent	venue		occasion	Remarks
1	06/20/1999	1: 1	Australia	Foxborough ( USA )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Australia
2	06/23/1999	0: 7	China	Portland ( USA )	*	Preliminary round
3	06/26/1999	0: 2	Sweden	Chicago ( USA )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Sweden
4th	09/21/2003	0: 1	People's Republic of China	Carson ( USA )	*	Preliminary round
5	09/25/2003	0: 3	Russia	Carson ( USA )	*	Preliminary round	First game counted by FIFA against Russia
6th	09/28/2003	2: 1	Australia	Portland ( USA )	*	Preliminary round
7th	09/12/2007	1: 4	Australia	Hangzhou ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round
8th	09/15/2007	0: 4	Canada	Hangzhou ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round
9	09/20/2007	2: 7	Norway	Hangzhou ( CHN )	*	Preliminary round	First game against Norway

Note: Teams in bold were champions of their confederation at the time of the match.

The win against Australia is also the highest against Australia.

The Ghanaian team suffered their biggest defeats at a World Cup tournament against these teams:

•  Australia 1: 4 (2007, preliminary round) - only defeat against Australia
•  People's Republic of China 0: 7 (1999, preliminary round)
•  Canada 0-4 (2007, preliminary round) - only loss to Canada
•  Norway 2: 7 (2007, preliminary round) - only game against Norway
•  Russia 0: 3 (2003, preliminary round)
•  Sweden 0-2 (1999, preliminary round) - only game against Sweden

Records

• Alberta Sackey scored the 400th World Cup goal on September 28, 2003 in a 2-1 win against Australia.

Negative records

• The longest series without a goal of their own: Ghana (1999–2003), Japan (1991–2005), Nigeria (1991–1995 and 2007–2011) and North Korea (2007–2011) with 4 games each.
• Biggest defeat at a World Cup tournament: 1999 in the USA - Ghana against the People's Republic of China 0: 7 in the preliminary round
• Ghana, Argentina, Mexico and New Zealand are the only teams with more than two appearances that were always eliminated in the preliminary round, but Ghana is best placed among them.

See also

• Ghanaian national soccer team / world championships

Web links

• FIFA Women's World Cup ^TM

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} In some statistics, e.g. B. FIFA is named Boston as the venue.
2. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games, see Statistical Kit FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 ™ ( Memento of January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), page 46
3. ↑ fifa.com: "Olympic Football Tournament Atlanta Women 1996"
4. ↑ fifa.com: "Statistical Overview: Records & Milestones"