The Black Queens of Ghana put up a great display on Wednesday, September 20 at Kigali Pele Stadium as they walloped Rwanda 7-0 in a 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifier. ALSO READ: WAFCON 2024 qualifiers: Rampant Ghana put seven past Rwanda in Kigali In reality, the Black Queens are miles ahead in terms of women's football on the continent having been at WAFCON 10 times, reaching the finals on three occasions (1999, 2003, 2007), and also being at the World Cup thrice. The Black Queens did not reach this status overnight. It has been years of struggle that paid off. The Black Queens, when they started, were often being thrashed 8:0 by countries like Nigeria. ALSO READ: My players panicked from the onset- nyinawumuntu The reason for that abysmal output in the early years was that the players had no international experience. Most of them were raw talents in the local league who needed foreign exposure to be well-equipped. The 7-0 defeat to Ghana is no big news as the Black Queens team, under Swiss tactician Nora Hauptle, had played six games until September 20, and scored a whopping 24 goals without conceding any. They recorded victories over Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, and others. This is a Black Queens team with as many as 19 out of the 23 players called for the game playing in big leagues in Europe and America. For the Rwandan team, there is only one foreign player in the person of Florence Imanizabayo who plays for Kampala Queens in Uganda. There is, clearly, a vast difference in terms of quality. Psychological effects are part of football and a team can even be defeated before it steps on the field. As coach Grace Nyinawumuntu stated, the Rwandan players were even scared on seeing the Ghanaian players warm up. There would have not been any stage fright if the Rwandan players had international exposure; playing in big stadiums and playing against renowned players week in and week out. Players in the Rwandan team such as Libelle Nibagwire, Usanase Zawadi, Kayitesi Alodie, and others, are great individual talents who just need international exposure at club level to get to the top. If many of the Rwandan players are able to move to Europe and America or join big female clubs on the African continent, it won't be long before the country beats others by the same margin they suffered at the hands of Ghana.
