Black Queens’ Coach Kim Lars Bjorkegren faced the media after our international friendly against England at St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton on Tuesday.
The Swede, who guided us to a bronze medal feat at the recent Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, was full of praise for the team, saying that the Queens displayed top-quality performance against arguably the best team in the world.
Kim Lars also touched on the blend of young players who will blossom with time, the quality of Cynthia Konlan, and the build-up to the next TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
On the loss to England
As a coach you always want to win, of course, but at the same time, we need to have in our mind that right now we are 67 in the ranking and we played against England that is potentially right now the best team in the World, and we did it in an away game. We were standing up; we were fighting for 90 minutes, and I think that we can be really proud how we performed in the game. How hard the girls worked and overall, I am really happy.
On beefing up the team
We need to remember that we are working for Ghana, it means that we can’t sign new players. We need to have a Ghanaian player in the team. So, it’s not so easy but I do think that we have a huge potential is huge.
On having a good mix of young players
We saw Abigail Kim came in, and then we have Mary Amponsah who didn’t play today but she is young, really a good player. Give her one, two years and she will be there as well. But of course, you always want to ask for a little bit more. Sometimes we need a little bit more punch. We know that our strength in this team is that we have a hardworking group – a group without any big weaknesses, I will say. You can see it in the opposite way that we don’t have this massive world class player but at the same time, like I said our strength is our depth.
On Cynthia Konlan
We heard actually that no one really has picked her yet. I know that there had been interest from both England and US. I mean we are talking about a quality goalkeeper, she is young, she is tall, she is really fast, she really moves quick and, she is an amazing girl. I think at least now someone should offer her a good contract.
On countdown to the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations
Its almost five months or so to the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations so of course we need to watch some players. We are very happy with our squad right now. We are feeling that for every camp we are moving in the right direction. We are doing better and better and better and I think that almost all people can see that as well. We are taking good steps. But we always want to be better so we are going to take a look at the details, what can we improve, what can we do better in a football way. But also like I said to watch players both in Ghana in the local market and also abroad.
