The Bakatue Women’s Gala Competition 2011

 By Saul Sebag-Montefiore

As the Edina Baktue festival reached its climax the women’s football gala competition commenced. Women’s football is considered by many to be worthless, boring and ridiculous; however, this gala competition definitely showed these opinions to be terrible misconceptions and was a fantastic advert for the value of women’s football.  



Soccer Internationals strike at goal

The match itself was a close, tough, physical battle between the Bafana Ladies and Ghana’s second best girls team at U17 level, Soccer Intellectuals. The players put everything they had into their performance and as a result merciless, crunching challenges occurred all over the pitch.

The Soccer Intellectuals bossed the first half with their skipper and star player, Mary, sailing down the left flank like a fishing boat effortlessly cutting through water with smooth unbridled ease. The Intellectuals missed a penalty early on before converting a well-worked goal to give them a deserved 1-0 lead to take into halftime. The Bafana ladies were never out of the match and possession between the two sides was almost equal because neither team’s passing and movement was at a level that would allow them to avoid the tough tackles that were coming thick and fast. However, they did not make much of an impact in the first-half as they did not create any noteworthy opportunities.



Soccer Intellectuals 

In the second-half Bafana Ladies came out with all vuvuzelas blazing after an inspiring team talk from manager, Jerry John Mensah. The tide had turned and Bafana Ladies’ quick start to the second half switched the momentum back into their favour. The woman of the match, Milicent Mensah, playing a major role in this as she single-handily seized the centre of the park with a gargantuan, Viera-like performance. Mensah was the rock of her team; repeatedly winning the ball and distributing it with finesse - she was the major catalyst for Bafana’s spirited reaction. Bafana Ladies equalised within five minutes of the restart and continued to pile pressure onto the Soccer Intellectuals’ crumbling defence. However, the Intellectuals made some carefully calculated counter-attacks, one of these resulted in a shot being cleared off the line by the Bafana defence that was slowly growing in confidence.

Bafana Ladies

Although, after Bafana’s impressive fight-back, the quality and national experience of the Intellectuals started to show as they found their way back into the game. Towards the end of the match there was a 10 minute spell of pressure from the Soccer Intellectuals which ended in a freak goal from 18 yards that bounced beyond the wrong footed Bafana defence and static goalkeeper into the bottom right hand corner. This turned out to be the winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the Soccer Intellectuals. Both sides deserve as much credit as the other in a tightly fought battle between two competitive teams.

After the match both managers’ Mensah and Botse expressed their pleasure at the competitiveness of the game and congratulated each other sportingly. Bafana Ladies manager, Mensah stated, ‘We wish to aid the growth of the women’s game and change people’s perceptions of the women’s game in Ghana’. He then went on to point out that for the women’s game to flourish better funding is needed as he pointed sadly at the scruffy, battered ball and dusty uneven pitch that the match was played on. Botse echoed these statements and emphasised the need for investment in women’s football to improve coaching and equipment. The Bakatue Ladies’ Gala was a positive event and hopefully will help to raise the status of women’s football in Ghana.