Nigeria’s U-17 girls, the Flamingos say they foresee an interesting encounter when they tackle United States of America in Navi Mumbai in one of the quarter finals matches of this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals.
The Flamingos lost narrowly, 1-2, to another powerhouse of women’s football, Germany in their first match of the competition but have since overcome stage-fright and were worthy 4-0 and 2-1 winners over New Zealand and Chile respectively.
Navi Mumbai, a planned ultra-modern city that is only 25 kilometres from the Indian capital city of Mumbai, is the venue for this titanic clash set for the Dr. DY Patil Stadium as from 12 noon Nigeria time on Friday.
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Nigeria, who would be aiming to break their quarterfinal jinx at this competition, are up against USA for the first time at this level and this encounter is an opportunity for the West Africans to make history.
Having failed to reach the semi-finals in six previous editions, the Nigerians set out to achieve the impossible, ending the country’s 14-year wait for a last-four berth on their fourth quarterfinal appearance.
The Americans will hope to reach the semis for the first time since 2008 when they finished as runners-up at the inaugural edition in New Zealand.
Impossible is nothing, really. On 25th July 2010, in Augsburg, Nigeria’s U20 girls, Falconets came from behind to defeat USA on penalties in one of the quarter-final matches of the 2010 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Germany. The match ended 1-1 and the Falconets went on to win 4-2 after a penalty shootout.
53 Comments
Opeyemi Ajakaiye I predict will score her first goal in that match, the players should be advised to play smart in the first half, don’t expose everything and come out smoking in the second half knowing the possibility of a long stretch of a game.
Management of fatique will be crucial I that game and I advocate shooting from the wings should be tried cos we play from the wings.
This is my patriotic suggestion, while wishing the girls and Nigeria the best of luck.
The coach will not listen to that talk. He makes little to no substitutions in his matches thus far. A leopard will not change its spots
One player the Nigerian team should be wary about is Onyeka Gamero….She is one of the dangerous players in that U S team….Watch out for that name.
My advice to the coach is to play high press football ( don’t give the US space to play) mark them closely they are tall and strong, do not allow them to head the ball in the box 18, use your speed that’s the advantage you have over them use it very well, and be very fast, then do counter attacks.
secondly the players need to shoot from outside the box 18, as it is difficult for other teams to enter the US box 18.
Please take not of this advice and use it very well, I pray for Nigeria to win. Ameen
Our girls are just running and kicking the ball around aimlessly
I’m not sure these girls will be able to defend this lead for 90 mins but I hope they do….The onslaught from the Americans has been scary lol
If not for Var, I don’t see any clear chance that we have created…
That was a soft penalty,it wasn’t a penalty in my view i could be wrong though.
I thought as much too…..Seems like it was on the line.
The line is part of the penalty box. Any infringement on the penaltybox line is a penalty
Gotcha…
When you have no tactics and just rely on strength….You get exposed possesion is almost 70-30… Onyeka Gamero with the assist..
Nigeria scored and went on the defensive as usual when playing against strong opposition.We allowed them a come back,we started playing after we conceded.
To be fair and honest the Americans expectedly are the better side,though we are not far behind,what we need is to be confident,come with an attitude the Nigerian spirit fighting for every ball and not leaving too much space for their opponents to pile pressure on them.
It looks very much a game for the Americans but it’s not a given we could still nick it let’s see how the second half unfolds
This is a very poor team. It will be a very big upset and miracle of they (Nigeria) get anything out of this game.
Corruption,failure to plan, mal-administration smelling everywhere in our country at the moment. The present U-23 saga is also another disaster waiting to happen
Nah bro let’s be honest this u17 squad camped for a while……This is purely tactical/technical deficiency. The team has been together for close to a year and all through the qualifiers.
I think the state of the pitch is affecting the play of both teams. But truth is that we played virtually nothing on this first half and I doubt if we could get anything out of this match but maybe the coach and his team will prove me wrong in the second half
Abi na because they are coached by Yoruba man or 90 percent are Yoruba players and not ibo. Abeg carry your yeye comment from here. No one is interested. Were you not part of those that said they wouldn’t go far.
This goalkeeper is useless
My fear has always been when the tournament gets to the knockout stages when the difference between 2 teams will be the information given to the players from the technical bench.
Talent has cancelled out talent now and something extra is needed for a breakthrough
Unfortunately, our much-deified 1994 squad 4-4-2 is being decimated without breaking sweat once again and our coach simply has no answers to it….no Plan B.
This flirtation that some of our national teams have with 4-4-2 formation is perplexing o…. Does it have anything to do with the NFF’s technical director?
After watching that free table soccer coaching course Eguavoen put out there, and being one of the highly self-exalted “94 squad member” who seem to want to assume the position of soccer omniscience in Nigerian football of late, I wont be surprised if everyone who wants to get employed under his leadership of the NFF technical department is forced to kow-tow along with his philosophy
Free Table Soccer Coaching Course…. Goodness me! 🙂
…but why is it so difficult for our girls to make 5 complete passes
I can’t believe VAR decision actually went Nigeria’s way… I thought there was this intergalactic conspiracy against Nigerian national teams…
Well done to the Flamingos so far, they are holding their own.
Bankole’s substitution has made a difference.
Go go Flamingos, you got this.
Watching how the flamingoes are playing today is making my eyes aches. This definitely is not what philosophers saw before calling football a beautiful game.
At least they are showing grit, athleticism and crude efficiency. But, class, quality and finesse are sorely lacking in our game.
In times past, even when we are losing, we have displayed a measure poise and neat touches.
Anyways good luck to the young ladies.
Highly rated Goalkeeper Faith Omilana sadly had an off day in the most important game of her life at this level.
Yea, I have to give it to the girls for showing so much grit and brute strength in the face of the adversity of a tactically clueless bench.
We barely worked our way through the Americans from defence to midfield to attacked the whole 90 minutes.
Onto Penalties now….Give us this day o Lord….!!!
They did well in this second half…. They have tried. Whatever the outcome of the shootout is, they tried their best.
Is this substitute Gk well warmed-up at all…???
Wonder shall never end, i never ever give this girls chance to make it past USA. I did not even bother to follow them up again. But all the same a good news and glimpse of hope that something good may still happen to our football before the end of the year.
My word of advice is for them to keep improving and who knows they might just lift the trophy.
I dey fear for Ajakaiye penalty ohh
This our new golie dey run from line ooo. If she save any penalty it wi have to be retaken. She needs atleast one foot on d line
Wow, you read my thoughts. Rather than force a replay of the penalty that USA missed, our goalkeeper was just warned not to do it again….
To make matters worse, USA’s penalty save was cancelled out for the same thing and Nigeria scored after initially missing…..
Dr Drey, correct me if I am wrong but the Nigerian goalkeeper left her line before the penalty kick that USA missed.
Another decision gone Nigeria’s way?
A huge let off for us.
Though a sound argument could be made for the fact that the GK actually didn’t make the save. So she didnt gain any advantage of narrowing down the angle by stepping off her lines.
Of course…..
Lol… Folorunsho!!! Lacked confidence from her walk till the penalty
I saw that too……While I would like to commend the girls for a good job especially in the second half…. Luck was on our side today.
Omo!!!! I no fit shout… Who born dem!!! Worth waking up early to watch this match.
We made it o! We made it?
People wen say US go beat us una see am?
Bring on Colombia or tanzania. We are semi finalist. Congrats girls u all have made d naysayers eat humble pie. Those who counted u out b4 a ball was kicked can now eat dia words. Good job girls. Go thete and beat Colombia/tanzania.
Like me. Their luck shone brightest. Lower number of goal attempts, corners, possession, improbable defending etc. They broke the quarter final jinx
Oyaaaaaaa make una come out o. USA is more this and that. Make una come ooooo. Yoruba coach don carry us go semi finals
We are always lucky against USA, which is good lol, I remember the under 20, we won via penalty and Esther Sunday was asked to retake her penalty.. We finally made history at this level lol
O yea…Thats true.
A case of deja vu…?
Is this a sign that we will at least play in the showpiece game come next week…?
Can I dare say we matched our opponents today girl for girl??? They had possession, we had spirit. They had charisma, we had poise. They had supremacy, we stooped to conquer!!!
I feel bad for the Onyeka Gamero girl, she and the US captain are true ballers. We made our own luck today. The goal d americans scored was a defected goal but tgat being said the americans played a good game but e defended resolutely which was what gave us the win today. Possession don’t always win games and d americans found dat out today. The emotional interview of the onyeka girl touched me tho. Big congrats to the girls again, we are all proud of u and regatdless of what happens next u all have put smiles on millions of nigerian faces today. 9ja never say die quality still lives. Kudos girls.
A Big Congratulations to your Nigeria and a job well done by our girls.
Please take NOTE You would have won the match earlier than this if you have been shooting from outside the box 18.
In your next match try shooting from outside the box 18.
Congratulations!!!!!!!
That was a tough watch and truth be told, the better team lost but that’s the round leather game sometimes! Anyways congrats to the young ladies for advancing
In the words of the late veteran sports journalists, “we wumbled and fumbled to the semis” we won but we didn’t deserve it, gods of soccer was on our side today. 2 huge decisions went our way and that decides the outcome. The first is the penalty which is very debatable and the penalty loss on the part of Americans that saw our goalkeeper leaving her lines early.
That being said, no matter the way we won against The Americans, we should be grateful. However, we have a very poor bench. There was a time in the first half when the coach was yelling at Folorunsho to “decide” meaning there is no match role or playing pattern, it is the player that will decide whatever she likes with the ball on the pitch. It was there that I lost the little remaining hope I have in the coach.
Our girls are too jittery, afraid and lacks confidence, I guess this is coming from too many bashing from the coach that erodes any confident in our girls, they don’t have the freedom to express their talents on the pitch.
We can see how Usani lost it completely and burst into huge cry immediately she lost that penalty, even when she was asked to retake it and scores, she still can’t control her emotions. The coach should trend softly on this girls, they are just kids.
Anyways, whatever happens from now on, this girls has tried their best, it is the bench that need a sound technical inputs going forward.
Thank you God. I am very excited today that our Flamingo won against US.
Both teams were under intense pressure but we give the glory to God almighty in the end.
Now, where is Edoman? It is very clear that you more American than Nigerian and I am deeply happy that God has done it for us while Flamingo have putting you in your place lol.
Next time, you need to believe that impossible is nothing if you believe in God, hard work and never say never Nigeria spirit. That is for you my lovely friend Edoman and for those that didn’t believe in our Flamingos.
For we that really believe we can achieve anything if we put God first and hard and never say die Nigeria spirit, congratulations to us all.
Who do not like better thing? Absolutely no body kę. I am very proud of our young ladies. Africans are proud of you Nigeria. God bless Africa. God bless Nigeria. Hmmm. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Today, most if not all the right calls went Nigeria’s way. Not as if Nigeria was lucky. But like someone earlier said, “we made our luck today.” We got penalty through VAR (right decision that could have or has been overlooked in other instances though). We got a replay of our missed penalty (right call again). So, if in other instances, the right calls don’t favor us, I’m hoping and believing we will also have a large heart to accept the outcome of such call.
Sometimes, you have to play ugly to win. Nigeria didn’t play beautifully today. But we were not outclassed either. The margin was narrow in favor of USA. But as earlier said, we made our luck and won.
Did anyone notice that the coach played more conservative – the team was more cautious and defended solidly. This was one of the ways they made their own luck. They didn’t allow USA to overrun them. Again, the pitch was a factor in the way the team played today. Hopefully, next match they will have a good pitch and give a better display and at the same time win and get to the final. I think this team can do it.