Nigeria’s Flamingos missed the chance to qualify for a first-ever final at U-17 World Cup level after losing on penalties to Colombia in Wednesday’s semi-finals in India, Completesports.com reports.
With both teams failing to score after 90 minutes of football, the game went into penalties with the Colombians winning 6-5.
Omamuzo Edafe, who netted the winner against USA, had the opportunity to replicate the feat again when she stepped up to take the decisive kick to make it 5-4 after the Colombians missed their third kick.
Also Read: Torino Offer Aina New Two- Year Contract
It was not to be as her effort came off the foot of the post.
The shootout then went into sudden death and with Colombia ahead 6-5, Comfort Folorunsho saw her attempt parried away by the opponent’s keeper.
Flamingos will now meet either Germany or Spain in the third-place play-off billed for Sunday, 30 October.
By James Agberebi
35 Comments
Very intelligent backroom and players. How can you have strikers and they are running away from taking penalties?
Modern football is played mostly with the brain,that how Nigeria with 2 minutes to go couldnt frustrate Argentina at the last world cup
Our girls played their best though wasn’t good enough. We are on other important matters for now and we are coming to sports comment section. Details later.
Football is to be played not to be prayed Emilokan/Agbado/Cassava Coach and Team.
I agree with you on our teams, like most African teams, resorting to prayers instead of thinking and playing effectively on the field as if they only are entitled to God’s help than other competitors. Overall I think Colombia girls deserved their victory. The coach and our girls were inept and hopeless on the pitch. They were only lucky to avoid defeat ay the qtr final. The USA team was better than them in that match.
I do not however toe your ethnic bigotry line of castigating the coach and players because of their tribe. There were Delta, Rivers, Efik, Ebira and Ibibio girls on the field as well as Yorubas. The coach have to work with what is available to him
@Tony, I was the one who argued the exclusion of Sebastin & co from this Team since she’s still on the age limit, probably due to sentiment. No one will deny the Thema of some region always dominating the Naija soccer in the past. Low and behold, put a check on the current Naija soccer team lists from Super Eagles – current U-17men/women and ask yourself why we were lacking behind. We could keep on deceiving ourselves and the negative results will be always achieved.
you are very correct!!
All good things come from above!! Stop hating on PRAYERS!
What u don’t know is this, behind every OBJECT, there’s a SPIRIT and if people worships the round leather and loved it more than their dear lives, then u have to Indy that, there’s definitely going to be a SPIRIT behind football that’s why we don’t say PRAYERS against the mere object(round leather) but rather the spirit behind the ball!
Prayers is keen in football and maybe u haven’t been friends/close to footballers before and hence I ll forgive ur ignorance on prayers in football!!
I had the privileged to be closer to a lot of Ghanaian footballers from Michael essien, Sulley muntari, tony yeboah etc and some of our local players and when they recount their stories on the field of play, u ll be mesmerized!
Do u think that Messi doesn’t have any spiritual protection from all the preying eyes of both spectators and players?
U are very naive my brother because if u aren’t, u wldnt speak against prayers in football!
Even a body smell from certain players on the field can affect ur performances! Some players can see other players like GIANTS on the field whiles others loses vision and their eyes BLURRED OUT!
U have no idea of what u saying and always remember this dude, we aren’t fighting against fresh and blood but against principalities in higher places and FOOTBALL STADIUMS are higher places!!
Behind every object, there’s a SPIRIT and that’s why we don’t prayed against the object but rather the spirit behind it!
Well done girls. This is the beginning. Many of you are moving to greater things, by His grace
The constant long throws were the first pointer that the bench was crooked. All through the tourney. How can young girls not be allowed to “express” themselves in knockout matches?
The same set of players played 90 minutes in 5 matches because we had no substitute? They would definitely be leggy and tired.
I wonder if we had a physio. All our penalties were played to the right.
I hope the next u17 would be eye-catching. These ones rode their luck too far.
And since it is the same squad for the playoff, with their legginess and shattered confidence, no hope
JUST WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE LAST NIGERIA PLAYER WHO TOOK THE PENALITY
Colombia won the match base on higher energy and motivation.
This is where football psychology/science comes in.
Beyond kicking the ball the with leg, the mind has to follow as well.
As usual, we pray when we suppose to be playing.
The Columbisns did not win on penalties! They beat Nigeria in every department of the game,thanks to the Nigerian coach who had no strategic concep.
Always been like that since the knockout phase began. No plan B to tame such opposition.
The Colombians were more motivated and psyche than the Nigerian girls.
This is were football Science and psychology comes in…
It is not only kicking the ball with leg…
The last player that played penalty already missed it before playing it.
African backroom needs to be tutored properly.
And why was Ajakaye on the bench? The Columbians must have been happy to see that.During the breaks all 4 Nigerian assistsnt coaches were screaming their own separate, tactical instructions to the Flsmingoes. Does that not show a lack of discipline at the management level, and disrespect for the chief coach who then resorted to prayers.
the body language of the coach was suspect from the beginning. did not motivate the players like he as been doing all thro the competition. some how i feel the penalTy last taker should have been well informed on how hard she should have played the ball.even wen edafe lost her penalty the coach did not motivate his players rather he sat down far away on the bench. well for me they are heroines and they still deserve to be appreciated well.
I think we should praise some of those girls they did very well… Our goalkeeper is very good, same with the defense.. if we had a good bench to compliment these wonderful players we could have gotten into the final… Probably the coach didn’t remember he needed a good bench that can replace the tired first 12..
He just reminded me of Stephen Keshi, who took his boys to the world cup and forgot he needed a good bench.. a coach that is scared of substituting his first team even when tired.. pls Nigerian coaches should not smell the super eagles or the main female coach..
My take from the game. I’m a bit disappointed with the result, but truth be told the better side won. The Nigerian team is filled with a lot of potential future stars if our football culture will allow them to grow. That is my candid fear. Once again, like it has been most time, we got to where our might can take us to in terms of coaching. The Nigerian coach is not a bad coach, and kudos to him for this achievement of first time to get to the semifinals, but a much technically and tactically rich coach would have done better. Do we have a pool of them in our system? I say no. The NFF, under the new president, must think of how to develop our coaches, even down to the club sides. That way we can begin to see better representatives in football.
I wonder why a team of 18 players or more, the bench can boast of good substitute. How do you plan to a competition depending on only about 12 or 13 players? Again, coaching problem. In modern day football, players are chosen to take penalty after you have observed them train for it. But I’m sure you heard the commentator saying that the coach throws the option open to the girls despite their level of low experience. No wonder none of them was willing to come out after Edafe missed that crucial one. Lastly I don’t think the reserve goalkeeper is that good in penalty. The one she caught was on a stroke of good luck. The Nigerian team started very well but started fading of when the Columbians quickly organised themselves and started dictating the pace of the game. The second half was even worse for our girls. They were all over the pitch, not organised at all. We were lucky to get this far, but you need to be very good for your luck to take you far like the Real Madrid team that won last season UEFA champions league.
No doubt we have a future with this girls and the upcoming ones. So our girls need to keep improving…. More tournaments ahead!
My few takes from this match are, the Colombians are more tactically good than us and their coach instructions was more modern in styles. They pass well, dribble and Connected accurately. That speaks well from their exposure, some of them had played in the U20 before now…. Unlike our girls who payed more of the long balls, counterattack like pattern.
Let hope for better days… God bless Nigeria.
If only edefe had scored her penalty.. I hate penalties!! It is very unpredictable.. that wonderful defender who kept Colombia 90mins is that the one that will feel she let her team down..
These local coaches should forthwith jettison their fixation on “1994 sqaud 442” nonsense.
A child that was born in 1994 should be close to achieving every life milestone by now. That’s how long ago 1994 is.
Football today is not being played the same way as it was in 2012, which is 10 years ago….not to talk of 30 years ago.
How can a coach go into an entire tournament with only 1 tactical strategy…? When it takes at least 3 to win a game at the highest level.
Yes, 1 can get you out of the group stage, but subsequently you have to overhaul it as it must have been studied and decoded. The knockout stages are played more from the bench than on the field, that is why this team that was quite sleek in the group stages became aimless runners who couldnt muster at least a good shot on target in 180 minutes………sounds more like one dullard of a technical director and his Super Eagles team of recent memory.
What’s happening to the No9s of our female teams, missing goals and shying away from penalty. She’s a playmaker not a finisher and this was the biggest undoing. Like I said the previous day I will not criticise the girls regardless of any results since they made it all the way here. But Mr Coach Our regular goalie would have done a better job and the Ajankaye girl has no character for shying away from responsibility after missing sitters in the match.
I disagree with you on the goalkeeper. That goalkeeper gave you the opportunity to seal the game within the first five kicks, you squandered it and here you are postulating on who would have been a better penalty stopper between the substitute and regular goalkeeper. The gal that took that last kick should not have taken it, it should have been given to another player with just little confidence as scoring it would have ended the match
It is not about assembling over aged players to bully kids. I still feel for the Americans. Now let the real kids have some fun and enjoy their game
What nonsense are you saying. Please if you have nothing meaningful to say, just clip your fingers and go wank yourself to sleep. How will you call those girls overaged. Have you seen the Germans and other teams in the tournament.
Iranu, abeg when is Napoli playing their champions league game o jare.
Before Naija go send person early to the grave through High BP. Lol!
20.00 hours (8 pm) Nigerian time
After all said and done, the Columbians paraded a FULL INTERNATIONAL at U17. 6 others played at the last U20. Be honest and fair in your comments and analysis.
Coache you’re very right that is why Sebastian should have made this team. The best team won and deservedly qualified, it will be disgusting to see us win a trophy with these sort of football that players can not pass ball well and kick and follow waiting for penalty to prey on ball playing opponents. I will be rooting for Colombia against Germany. I like the Colombian players honestly speaking and they deserved to move onto the next round.
Even when Africa parade grannies as teenagers, they still get beaten. Afrca is a whole different continent. They say if you go to bed at night with itchy anus, you wake up in the morning with smelly fingers. Let us begin to play fair, the white man does it and gets good results
Watched the game and I’m short of wor… sentences
All this enemies of progress from Ghana! hardly will your country ever reached Nigeria level in football,you can cry foul as you like,nothing for you guys; you will keep seeing Naija making waves. Keep crying,i dnt blame you guys.
Ghana equaled your all time record in the world cup when they made their first appearance. On their second appearance they got a superior record at the world cup than Nigeria. In afcon Ghana has superior record than Nigeria. A Ghanaian is the all time leading or top African goal scorer in the world cup. Ghana has many African best player awards than Nigeria
I hate Ghana with passion useless people nonsense country they don’t know how to play football they will lose all their matches in this world cup and they will not go past 1st round.