Nigeria’s Flamingos got their Group D campaign at the 2025 FIFA U-17 women’s World Cup off to a poor start following a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Canada on Sunday in Morocco.
A brace from Julia Amireh and a goal each from Gabriela Istocki and Melisa Kekic handed Canada the big win. Queen Joseph drew Flamingos level.
Canada got off to a very good start as Istocki opened the scoring just two minutes into the encounter.
Azeezat Oduntan went close for the Flamingos on 15 minutes but failed to find the target.
The Flamingos eventually drew level in the 30th minute thanks to Joseph.
Also Read: WAFCON 2026Q: We Can Upset Super Falcons — Benin Coach Ouzerou
Istocki almost restored Canada’s lead nine minutes after the Flamingos equalised but she missed the target.
Early in the second half the Nigerian team had two quick opportunities on 50 and 54 minutes but failed to score.
Some minutes later there was a VAR review for a possible penalty for Canada but it was not given.
But in the 73rd minute Kekic gave Canada a 2-1 lead while Amireh made it 3-1 with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
Amireh got on the score sheet again for her second goal to make it 4-1 in the 84th minute.
The Flamingos will hope to bounce back from the disappointing defeat against Canada when they face France in their second game on Wednesday, October 22.
The French began their campaign on a positive note thanks to a 4-2 win against Samoa.
By James Agberebi
23 Comments
People should stop calling this nothing good Team a Nigerian Team.. Rather call Bankole Olowookere’s Team. Samoa with their performance against France will even beat this Bankole’s Team i bet you
Abeg where is CHIDI HARMONY and PEACE EFFIONG ?
I wondering the same?????
Oya, Gusau, reappoint the coach to try again for the next tournament, like you always do. Or, like another of your favorite past times, promote him to the next age-grade team. The only NFF admin/president that retains coaches who failed at a competition to try again at least in the next 3 competitions with the same results over and over again.
Or was it not this same coach and his U17 girls that kept shooting from outside 18 and had no football intelligence to work the ball into the 6-yard box? They were easily dispatched by teams that applied brains once they got to the 18-yard box. All those “Try a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box” will only work with African opponents with little coaching input.
Even against Canada yesterday. The coach watched how the Nigerian girls played in the first half and came out with a tactics that completely outfoxed olowookere in the second half. The same thing happened in the last tonament against USA. Our problem is not materials…it is the skillmanship to fashion out the needed result. Morocco u20 just won the world cup. The same team that Nigeria u20 outplayed in the African tonament. Instead of strengthening the team ahead the world cup..the coach ended up weakening it. Nigeria matter dey tire person.
Let’s put blame where it is deserved. The Nigerian U20 team coach, Zubairu, did not deliberately “weakened” the team for the World Cup from the one that won Bronze at Afcon, and played a goalless draw with Morocco u20 in their group in Egypt. What happened was that the foreign teams they were playing for refused to release them to Nigeria for the WC tournament in Chile and so the Coach had to look for alternative, available u20 boys to plug the hole left.
Hahahaha…..what an excuse……LMAOoo.
Did Olowokere also didnt secure release of his players from foreign clubs…..?? LMAOooo
One would think half the u20 team was not released by their European clubs…….LMAooo, whereas the only notable names who missed the world cup due to club engagements were the Hoffenhiem duo of Emmanuel Chuwku and Precious Benjamin.
The Morrocans too had 2 players withheld by their clubs and another 2missing out of the WC due to injuries, but they never got weaker nor declined in the quality of their performance.
So look for a better excuse to defend the sub-par level of competence of Zubairu. If you are a good coach, you are a good coach….even if you overhaul your entire squad, your quality and inputs on the team will still show.
We’ve had situations where 60-80% of our U17 teams were wipped out by failed MRI results in time past, a typical case was the 2009 set and the 2019 set, yet the team did not become worse or more clueless than before.
Dear Lord,
First, I am grateful you brought Waldrum the way of the Super Falcons who left them with the everlasting impression they were whiskers away of crushing the future World cup finalists. If not, it is better imagined the kind of players with ball sense that would have corrupted our senior female team (since we would have most likely run with one of the idle home based coach that will always be subservient to the malodorous fragrance from their paymaster, NFF, who wastes taxpayers money in turn).
You made that American convinced a few girls, properly schooled in the art of the game to stay with us, even if many are near 30 now, so they can give us a semblance of evolving female football in the country.
Second, I have just watched one of the most reckless matches of our female under 17 team. Not only is the squad to nepotism-inspired, how they capitulated from scoring 44 goals without reply in the first 10 matches and suddenly conceding 11 in the subsequent 3 matches, reminds me of the heyday of “miracle centres” but in this case, in the reverse.
Tonight’s game was our 29th match in 8 world cup editions (W14 D7 L8) and yet we still played like a team on the continent that may never smell the world cup until the roster is expanded to accommodate more African teams. But, it was an eyesore and a performance, unforgiven.
Since the under 17 WWC is every year until 2029, since talented players are only used in this age grade team to qualify for world cup competitions AND THEN DISCARDED for riffraff lists by the NFF and our listless and spineless coaches who rather stomach incompetent players foisted on them (most times, they are even bereft of modern tactics because CAF has not forced us to only use FIFA A licensed coach badges) rather than resign to expose the oddity of NFF in their choices, MAY NIGERIA NO LONGER QUALIFY FOR THE NEXT EDITIONS.
It is better NFF perpetually loses the REMUNERATION that CAF and FIFA give them because we qualify for these competitions: competitions that they use the voiceless sweat and blood of the mainly skilled ones and push through their nitwits and godfather-soulless, toothless, spineless, uncooked, talentless human beings on the world stage for perennial ridicule.
Lord, other African nations need a snippet of the money NFF has frittered away from grants got from qualifications. Let Nigeria decrease for a while and let another take its place because it is impossible for academics scattered all over 36 states to prop up these mediocres that are supposed to be our next falcons.
My heart is heavy because this team tonight are ultimately doomed to crash out at the end of the final match WITHOUT KEEPING A CLEAN SHEET to boot. It will be a disgrace at this level.
It is very good that the coach will no longer be recycled in the near future and may it give his replacements sense to defy NFF when they next try to trivialize the sweat of champions for their cronies to be battered on the world stage.
Are the so-called “several talents abound in Nigeria” fluke? Nations will still win trophies at these levels we are disgracing the nation up and down. How can you redeem our football from the demonic helm of affairs at glasshouse?
Our “70 years in slavery” should have come to an end. Our football is already in coma at nearly all levels.
Please Father, there is a higher chance of more nepotism in future qualifiers with the devils at glasshouse. If NFF wants the great players to keep helping us qualify for competitions and in turn discard them when the job is done for propaganda and unskilled players because they have influential backers, DISAPPOINT THEIR EXPECTATION GOING FORWARD.
Let the slave ride on horseback and the king walk on foot because of mismanaged fortunes.
Aha, we now need foreign coaches for our age grade teams as it stands meanwhile the home ones are eyeing higher positions to distribute more mediocrity. Tueh!
Amen
I hope the foolish identity thief who claimed Zubairu’s U20s were playing “good football” is watching Morocco tear Argentina apart with the perfect definition of “good, educated football” both technically and tactically.
One would mistake this Moroccan team for Spain.
While Morocco is harnessing its diasporans (male and female, players and coaches) to the hilt, some nicompoops like Tony K and (fake) Coache are fooling themselves with false hopes in their poorly trained local coaches and horribly groomed local players.
A round of applause for you all. You are truly what should be referred to as epitomes of patriotism.
dr drey? lool
What a complete idiot. You are a shameful old man and breeze don blow wella, fowl yansh don expose gbaragaja!
Lmaaooo! Is it any wonder that you are hated unilaterally on CSN? It’s because everyone can see you for what what you really are – a jobless, myopic and idiotic old man hahaha.
Don’t go and find good retirement home, be camping on CSN arguing with your grandchildren lool
You will continue barking and pissing in the wind as you have always done – never have you been relevant, notorious,? maybe but relevant? Never. Effing car washer man slave mentality, lunatic. SMH
At least I am not an identity thief….!!!
Hahahaha! Good one @Dr Drey. Chop knuckle a beg.
Hahahaha son of sam aka Woke geriatric sucking up to his dad mr dr dre lool, not surprised at all, pls clarify for those interested, which appendage are you currently sucking?? hehehehe, everyone knows that birds of a feather always flock together – oya flock on lmaaoo!
Mr dr dre lmaaooo! just look at your life now on CSN hehehe, you have become a thing of widespread ridicule (as you should btw) lol, and now you have run out of any juice that you might have had, you have now joined sly & co on the CSN “moniker” patrol looool!! and you lot now have a houseboy to be your cheerleader the warped wasteman – son of sam chai! You couldn’t even make this **** up hehehehehe
Watching Morocco vs Argentina now ,Morocco is ahead by two nill ,what a team and what a play from Morocco. We need to sit up in this country, humble ourselves to know for a fact that we are home and dry in term of promising players. Our youths now are either creating content or doing yahoo,none of them are interested in soccer because they can’t exercise patience and the few that are skillful are poor and so neglected by coaches who prefer money over talents hunt.
Bring Siasia to coach U20 and let Amunike train U17 .let Yobo also go to under age with these people in charge they can raise a very good team for us in the next 5 years
Big up.Way to go
Are you referring to same Joseph Yobo that the NFF forced on Rohr as assurance in 2020, retained the assistant position even after Rohr was fired till 2022 when himself and head coach eguavoen could not qualify us for the WC. One would expect him to have gone out for some refresher coaching programme or at least understudy some of this top coaches. Not sure he has done any of this and you want him to manage our NT? I think Utaka shd be consider for such position and probably sia1 considering his track record as a coach.
This team just collapsed after scoring the equalizer. They pressed the Canadians after conceding. They just gave up fighting.
I had said I will never respond to your stupidity and negativity reports as it concern Nigerian football teams and their handlers but you seem to spread unmitigated dark clouds on CSN day and night, seeking validity for falsehood and stupidity.
Someone who cannot see that the Normalisation/Equalisation rule is fair comparator for playoffs teams in unequal groups but see it as Nigeria “bribing” CAF for favours, despite explanations and research releases to buttress all facts I presented earlier by @Deo, is not worth my time in back and forth nonsensical exchanges!
Very good at shifting sands and digressing from the focus of arguments to “hoodwink” the gullible! Did you see me mention Olowekere and the u17 women’s coach name anywhere in my comment above?
Which coach on earth anywhere will take a “weakened” side to WC tournament, excluding his strongest squad from an Afcon where he won a bronze medal, if his hands were not tied and forced to do so?
You think you are smart but you are a big dunce, parading a fake “Dr” Drey! You can’t reason like someone with even a college degree or certificate, let alone a PhD holder, that you claim and seek validity only in. CSN.
So it was only Hoffeinheim in Germany that refused to release their players- Emmanuel Chukwu and Precious Benjamin as you claimed? How about the Striker from Stade Rein in France Hafiz Ibrahim, whose club also refused to release because the period for the World Cup is not in FIFA official Calender? About 4 other players including Devine Olise etal had injuries and Coach Zubairu had to look for alternatives to fill the gaps at the World Cup.
I would be the last to say our Nigerian Coaches have no shortcomings but I won’t agree that they are worst than their South African, Ghanaian or Beninous ones at all levels as that nincompoop “Dr” would falsely mislead!
You should learn to respond to my stupidty, so that the world can really tell is the stupid one between you and I.
Shameless Liar.
I thought I requested you go and copy and paste where I ever called all Nigerian coaches Idiots, but you disappered like fart on a windy night instead, only to rear your ugly face here with silly excuses for failure……..LMAOooo
Facts and bare truth has become “negativity” to charlatans like you. People like you, who hate the truth and want to patch up imminent disaster with motar, are the reason Nigerian football is in the sorry state that it is now.
I am sure if you are given the chance, you would come here and tell us all that Mamelodi Sundowns never creamated Remo Stars on their own turf (without even leaving their lowest gear)
According to Sunday Oliseh, those who are 30 and below can be forgiven for celebrating Nigeria qualifying (albeit controversially) for a series of playoff tournaments in order to qualify for the World cup, but it will be a shame for anyone above 30 who does so. But can you shame the shameless……absolutely NO.
Your local clubs and national teams are faltering left, right and centre with horrible and heartbreaking performance, and results that betray the proud footballing history we once carried around with raised shoulders across Africa, both at club and national team levels, but to stupid idiots like you, all is well…..nothing is wrong. This are as they are supposed to be. Status quo should be maintained.
This season, Nigeria will definitely not feature in the CAF women’s champions league, We will definitely not feature in the CAF confederations cup, 1 representative in the CAF Champions league is already eliminated after 1 leg, while the 2nd isnt gauranteed to win in the 2nd leg. We also will definitely not feature in the CAF U17 AFCON and of course, our SE couldnt secure automatic qualification for the WC. I am very sure all these sound like music to your ears.
May your life turn out the way Nigerian football at club and age grade level has turned out in the last 5 years………say Amen to that prayer if you are sure of yourself….!!!
For someone who cannot see the unfairness and undue advantage of not playing the playoffs matches simulatenously, for someone who cannot see the wickedness in subtracting 6 hard won points from team who have no business with another team elsewhere that withdrew from the qualifiers when a simple walk over would have achieved the same end goals, you must be the most stupid idiot on the planet.
No wonder you cannot make any sense when ever your gutters burst open. I am very sure you just dump a heapload of shit here hoping it will make sense to someone. Otherwise who in his right senses come to defend the nonsense we’ve been painfully forced to watch from our U20 and U17 women, when even the NFF has done away with Zubairu and will surely do away with Olowokere should the flamingoes lose their next match against France….??? Who does that except a mediocre who is not a tad better than an imbecile….???
If not that you do not have any shame, neither do you have common sense, I would have refered you to the morrocans and all they are doing in their football of recent and judge is they’ve been doing anything different from what this same Dr.Drey has been advocating for on CSN for years now.
Of course, I will mention Olowokere because you are too stupid to realize that first, this article present another disgraceful outing by a nigerian underaged team badly and poorly tutored by another local coach which makes it analogous to the Zubairu whom you are cooking up all sorts of silly and dumb excuses to exonerate of his own lack of competence at the global stage. But ofcourse, common sense isnt common, so I dont expect a lout like you to see a nexus between the 2 cases and how unitelligent your excuses are………..LMAOooo
You even went on to ask a stupid question “…..Which coach on earth anywhere will take a “weakened” side to WC tournament….?” I’ll tell you one, Aliyu Zubairu. Yes, his WC team was way weaker than his AFCON team, zero improvements from GK to Attack. Even the GK who was good enough for a CHAN callup after an outstanding AFCON flopped spectacularly at the world cup. The fact that you never even noticed the team was weaken and worse at the world cup shows how badly you lack insight and clear sense of reasoning.
Like I have said before and will say again, 10000 of you cannot undo what has been done before your life had a meaning. If its easy to just add “Dr” to one’s name, please add it to yours, lets see how your life pans out afterwards…..LMAoooo.
Continue cooking up excuses for failure…….it only shows how much of a low life you are. Nigeria and Zubairu must have been the only ones who encountered obstacles in their preparations for the world cup.
I have asked you to tell us 4 Nigerian coaches coaching at any level on the African continent and I will list 10 from South Africa……..up till now your have not been able to mention even 1…….not a single name……..but you are going around bitting trees praising failures and and claiming the nicompoop Dr is misleading people…….LMAOooo
Who is the fool misleading people now……….LMAOOoooo……WHo is the nicompoop…..???
Once again, May your life turn out the way Nigerian football at club and age grade level has turned out in the last 5 years and may you struggle for success in life the way Nigerian teams are currently struggling for success………say Amen to that prayer if you are so sure local coaches are doing so well they are even better than European coaches……..LMAOooo.
Useless idiot..!!!
The question remains.
When will this degenerate of a board we call our FA resign?! When Gusua and his incompetent team bite the bullet and step down?! They are simply failures.
One wonders what the NSC led by Dikko has been doing.
No initiatives.
No new programs.
Deplorable stadia all over the place.
Failed league (both male and female).
Disgraceful coaches, administrators and Management.
Age grade development stalled.
Diaspora recruitment drive stagnated.
So, of what use is Dikko?
It’s a pity the word accountability is not found in the Nigerian dictionary.
Pathetic leadership.
Mr Hush, why are you going around saying things are not alright with Nigerian football…..?
You are just spreading unmitigated dark clouds on CSN, seeking validity for falsehood and stupidity.
You must be an unpatriotic Nigeria.
You cant continue to go around misleading people that the leadership of our football is pathetic.
Please mind your behavior on this forum. It is becoming unbecoming of you to just paint our football in bad light at a time everything is going on well.
We will not feature in the CAF women’s champions league, We will not feature in the CAF confederations cup, we will likely not feature in the CAF Champions league. We will not feature in the CAF U17 AFCON, We did not secure automatic qualification for the WC. Most of our local coaches are not even qualified to sit on the bench during CAF tournaments……..What other evidence of progress do you want to see….??
Is it beacuse Morrocco is now succeeding on the global stage at all levels the rest of us will not rest….???
Please mind the things you say on this forum.
CSN is becoming toxic. The insults is becoming filthy disgusting to behold. This is not right this is not the way to go. This is a wrong settings!!!! CSN moderator you can do better. Sports is for unity and not for satanic agenda. People should come here and read to edify and not leave with filth.
lol@ Dr Drey
Don’t mind the NFF’s apologist. I can’t imagine people so satisfied with failure that they lost all forms of logic.
How can you claim to be a patriot and love your country whereas embracing the failures and inept leadership?