Nigeria’s senior women national team, the Super Falcons, were in devastating form as they defeated an Iceland team, UMF Selfoss, 6-1 in a friendly game. Striker Courtney Dike, within 19 minutes, recorded a hat trick, while Umotong bagged a brace in the encounter decided at the Pinatar Arena in Murcia on Friday evening.
The team is currently on a tour in Spain as part of efforts of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to prepare the ladies for FIFA Women’s World Cup billed for France later in June. We are aware Nigeria has been to the tournament seven times and the forthcoming edition is the country’s 8th appearance. Super Falcons’ best result at the global stage was the quarterfinal appearance at the USA ’99 tournament when Brazil defeated the Falcons 3-2. We believe this is commendable because till date, the men’s senior national team, the Super Eagles, are yet to feature in the last eight stage of FIFA World Cup. In the past years, keen followers of women’s football have been worried about why Nigeria will do well in Africa only to fumble at the global stage.
The experience of appearing at the World Cup over the years is yet to count for the Falcons but for the forthcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, the NFF has been working hard to make the Falcons do better.
We recall that the first step taken was the employment of Thomas Dennerby as manager of the team. Dennerby is a former handler of the Sweden national team. So far, the impact of the experienced coach is yet to manifest in concrete terms. For example, it was a surprise that Nigeria lost 1-0 to South Africa last year at the AWCON group stage, only to again struggle before beating the Bayana Bayana via penalties in the final. So far, the team has played France in an international friendly and also took part in two invitational women’s football tournaments. In January, the Falcons played two matches at the China Tournament in Meizhou and four matches at the Cyprus Women’s Cup in February. Nigeria placed sixth in China and emerged third in Cyprus.
This month, the Falcons have played two matches in Spain, including a high profile clash with the Canada Women National Team. Falcons will also feature in WAFU Cup and the Austria Invitational event before entering camp for the World Cup proper. Nigeria will compete for honours alongside Norway, Korea Republic and tournament hosts, France, in the group stage of the 8th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals, taking place between June 7 and July 7.
We charge the technical crew to inject more talented young players who can run with the ball and also strong to cope with modern developments in the game. For now, there is a blend of young and old, but the better percentage tilts towards the old rather than the other way. At the AWCON tournament in Cameroon last year, South Africa, Mali and some other teams paraded very young players and they generally did well. We make bold to say that Nigeria will have to embrace the youth football initiative by bringing in quality players from the age-grade cadre to make the senior national team stronger.
The impact of Rasheedat Ajibade who just joined the senior rank is already being felt in a big way. However, we commend the leadership of NFF for the current investment in the Falcons. The preparation of the team so far is the best in the history of women’s football in the country. The Super Eagles cannot also boast of a better preparation for a tournament.
During the week, Dennerby said the team was left with no other choice than to perform well in France. He showered praises on the Federation and we expect the players to also double their efforts to make the efforts of the NFF count at the women’s mundial. NFF has done so well such that there will be no excuses for the team over the preparation for the competition. We believe this is the best preparation any Nigerian football team has had in readiness for a major tournament.
We therefore expect Asisat Oshoala, Onome Ebi, Rasheedat Ajibade, Tochukwu Oluechi, Ngozi Okobi, Courtney Dike and others to raise their game to justify the huge investment of the federation on their preparations. Women’s football has indeed come of age just as the former FIFA boss, Sepp Blatter, predicted a few years back. Despite winning the African title in Cameroon last year, the Falcons were not convincing and we expect Dennerby and his team to use the series of friendlies and invitational tournaments to rebuild the team. Nigeria must make a strong presence in France and also be stronger to maintain its leadership position on the continent in subsequent tournaments.
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