Ghana U-20 women's head coach Charles Sampson has urged his players to learn from their mistakes and quickly regroup after suffering a disappointing defeat to Ecuador at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
The Black Princesses were beaten 3-0 by the South Americans in their opening Group match, with Rosa Flores inspiring Ecuador to a convincing victory.
Flores produced a moment of individual brilliance when she unleashed a spectacular long-range effort to open the scoring before turning provider for Domenica Arboldeda, who converted Ecuador's second goal.
Arboldeda later completed her brace with 20 minutes remaining to seal a comfortable opening-day victory for Ecuador.
Sampson admitted Ghana were punished for being too naive defensively, particularly when Ecuador exploited spaces between the lines.
“At this level, it is very difficult if you defend a bit naively. I think we were on them in the beginning and then the two times they came into our box, they could play a penetrating pass in between [our lines] and they scored the two goals,” Sampson said.
The Ghana coach was especially disappointed by the manner in which his team conceded, including Flores' stunning strike from distance.
“Those goals were difficult to take, especially the first one from a long distance. We just have to accept it, we have two more games and we have to work on ourselves now,” he added.
The Black Princesses must now put the defeat behind them and turn their attention to their second Group fixture against South Korea.
Ecuador currently sit at the top of the group, while France and South Korea have one point each. Ghana are bottom without a point and will need a positive result against South Korea to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive.
The Black Princesses are making their eighth appearance at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup but are yet to progress beyond the group stage. Ghana have also endured consecutive early exits in recent editions of the tournament.
With two matches remaining, Sampson and his players have little margin for error. They will need to respond quickly against South Korea if they are to revive their campaign and avoid another premature departure from the competition.
