By S. Siapha Mulbah
Determine Girls Football Club have embarked on a repeat of last season’s heroics, in the Upper Women’s League categories, by retaining their Super Cup trophy.
The Upper Women League Champions won another Super Cup Final against the winner of the 2022/2023 Lower Women’s League Champions, Shaita Angels Football Club, who have been promoted to the Upper League for the 2023/2024 season.
Mabinty Camara and Mbassey Daboe scored for the Champions in a 2-1 win, with Cynthia Weah getting the consolation goal for the Angels.
The girls at the club have won the Upper League and the Super Cup three times in a row, in the last three seasons, along with the LFA/Orange Cup two times, making them the current most decorated female club in the country.
The 2021-2022 league season ended rewardingly for the girls as they won the Upper Women’s League Championship, the Orange Cup, and the LFA/Orange Cup. Their exploits have not just been limited to home soil, as the team managed to qualify as Top Dogs of the West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone ‘A’, booking a space to the group stage of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Champions League in Morocco.
With the winning of the 2022 Orange Cup on August 24, at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, against Ambassadors Football Club, Determine Girls got their double championship and entered the new football season with zeal, aiming to add new accolades.
Before Sunday’s encounter, Determine Girls’ Gambia Captain, Ruggy Joof, labeled their opponents, Shaita Angels, as underdogs, to face them not only in the Super Cup Final, but also the entire season. She promised her supporters and the club that the players were engaging the match as what could be considered as a “must win” clash to them.
‘’My impression of the game tomorrow is a must win game because we are going all out,’’ Joof told a pre-match conference last Saturday.
Speaking to the LFA Media department ahead of the game, the Gambian professional footballer predicted that the game could be a repeat of the 2023 Knock-out final 5 months ago, in which Determine Girls beat the then lower league side 2-1, a prediction which ultimately came true.
Joof said, “If you look at the team right now, they have signed a lot of players but signing a lot of players is not a threat to us. We also have lots of good players and experience in our team, but with that being the case, we will not overlook them.”
