FIFA Women's World Cup: Nigeria & Ghana

The FIFA Women's World Cup is now underway in China.

The heavy favorites remain the Unites States, with teams such as Sweden, China, Norway and Germany not far behind.

Africa sent two representatives to China in hopes of winning the gold, Nigeria and Ghana.

Courtesy of Fifa.com, here are team capsule looks at both squads.

I've included the first few paragraphs. For more, please click the link at the bottom of the paragraphs ...

Nigeria
Nigeria has long dominated the women's football scene in Africa, but they now have their sights set on making their mark on the global stage.

The Super Falcons were crowned African champions for a fifth time last November, keeping up their monopoly of the continental game, but they have not been able to translate that dominance into success at the FIFA Women's World Cup or the Olympic Women's Football Tournament.

It has also not been through a lack of exposure because Nigeria are perennial competitors in all of the top events. They have been to every FIFA Women's World Cup since 1991, but only once managed to finish in the top eight. For more, please
go here!

Ghana
This year sees Ghana's Black Queens head to the FIFA Women's World Cup for a third successive time, but still very much in the role of Africa's second force.

With Nigeria maintaining their stranglehold on African women's football, Ghana's ambitions in China will be to escape from the shadow of their fellow west Africans and establish their credentials at the highest level of the women's game. Ghana have, in truth, already made some progress towards achieving that goal by finishing higher than Nigeria at the last FIFA Women's World Cup in the USA in 2003, where the Black Queens were 12th and Nigeria second from last in 15th place.

Ghana will go to China with plenty of experience, both on the field and in the dugout, where a former coach of the men's side, Isaac Paha, takes charge of the team. Paha also captained Ghana in his playing days. On the playing side, the team that qualified for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup includes almost half of the squad that competed in the USA four years ago. For more, please go here!

Good luck to Ghana and Nigeria on their journey in China and the 2007 Women's World Cup!