The Super Falcons ended their participation at the Cyprus Women’s Cup on a positive note following a 3-0 win against Thailand at the Tassos Markou Stadium, Paralimni on Wednesday, reports Completesports.com.
The reigning African champions finished the competition in seventh position following the win against the Asians.
Barcelona Ladies of Spain star forward Asisat Oshoala put the Super Falcons ahead in the 23rd minute following an assist by Francis Ordega.
Cyprus Cup: Super Falcons Edge Slovakia In 7-Goal Thriller
It took the West Africans only five minutes before they could double their lead with Chinaza Uchendu setting up captain of the side Onome Ebi for the second goal.
Thomas Dennerby’s ladies were unable to increase their lead before the half time break as the Thailand’s defence curtailed them.
Anan Imo scored Nigeria’s third goal of the game 16 minutes before regulation time after she was teed up by Oshoala.
The Super Falcons finished the competition with two wins and two defeats from four games.
They lost to Austria and Belgium 4-1 and 1-0 respectively. Their other win aside from today’s victory against Thailand was the 4-3 success against Slovakia.
The super Falcons used the invitational tournament to prepare for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France in June.
They will face hosts France, Norway and Korea Republic in the first round of the World Cup.
By Adeboye Amosu
8 Comments
Great experience for the girls. If not for the dubious ref, it would have been a similar margin against Slovakia. They have another international window first week of April, let’s see what the NFF has in store for them.
I don’t think they can make it looking at at the group
A very bad way of encourage our female national team.
Our Super Falcons of Nigeria brought the total number of victories, during Dennerby’s reign, to 9 wins out of 14 games with today’s emphatic and morale boosting 3:0 victory against a decent Thailand side who sit comfortably 10 places above our ladies in the FIFA rankings.
In fact, since the Swede took over, this is the first time in 4 attempts that they have defeated a team ranked above them in FIFA rankings having previously failed against France, China and Belgium.
The Asians came to this game having scored more goals than the Super Falcons in this tournament thus far with 6 to their name; Nigeria came to the match with 5 goals of theirs.
However, it was our ladies who were hungrier for goals as Onome Ebi, who is the only active member of the Falcons team to the 2003 World Cup (16 years ago), made it 2:0 for Nigeria in 28 minutes after Oshoala had scored the opening goal 5 minutes earlier.
And they were not finished yet.
Anam Amo, the 19 year old Nasarawa Amazons striker, added spice to the Falcon’s jollof rice with a 74 minute strike that was worth its weight in gold, giving the Falcons a comfortable 3:0 win.
Oshoala, scorer of the 1st goal, is now the undisputed highest goal scorer of coach Dennerby’s reign with 7 goals closely followed by the duo of Rita Chikwelu and Desire Oparanozie with 6 goals each.
Make no mistake about it, this Super Falcons outfit have firepower.
Since the African Cup of nations in December, to which the general consensus among fans is that the Falcons “struggled”, they have now won 3 matches and have lost 3, scoring 12 goals while conceding 12.
Basically, they have been stable and consistent. All they have to do is maintain this momentum, build on what their strengths while neutralising identified weaknesses.
Adisboy has said it all. With Fifa friendly window to open in April, the NFF should not rest on their laurels. They should organise more matches for these lovely ladies.
France, their toughest group stage opponents, have 4 more matches lined up between now and their opening world cup match against Norway on 12 June.
The NFF is doing well, the coach is doing well, the ladies are doing well but more needs to be done as these ladies have it in them to do us proud at the world cup.
Arranging a few more matches will surely be a step in the right direction.
I think the major problem of Derneby’s Falcon is the absence of a main striker. Although she’s the most decorated member of the team, Asisat thrives more as a supporting striker.
For the past couple of years, our reliable number 9 has been Desire Oparanozie (although she isn’t the most lethal of strikers in the mould of Martha). But she’s recently lost shape and I suspect that was why she was left out of this tournament. She was mostly to blame for our sole loss at the last AWCON to SA.
If Desire doesn’t get in shape soon, Derneby should look at grooming another killer number 9 from the pool of Courtney Dike, Iwendu, Ihezuo, Anam Imoh, Ajibade etc to partner Oshoala upfront. These ones are currently comfortable playing behind the main striker.
Ini Umotong for me should leading our attack in absence of Desire. Apart from being a carbon copy of Oparanozie both in terms of physique and ability, she is has a better technique and eye for goals that the others. Not much has been heard of Courtney Dike of late. The last time we heard of her, we was bagging her degree in economics or so. We can’t ascertain her fitness or readiness for d mundial yet. I hope she gets invited for subsequent test matches. I have long given up on ihezuo. I really don’t know on what basis she still gets invitations to the team. Anna IMO just burst into the scene and she’s already breezing past ihezuo in terms of being pivotal for the team. I learn Toni Payne has switched her allegiance to Nigeria. I hope the ex USA youth teamer will get her approval from FIFA soonest, in time to be ready for the world cup.
The Super Falcons performed slightly better than expected. They beat the one team they were expected to beat: Slovakia who are ranked below Nigeria in the women’s FIFA rankings.
They also beat the team just ahead of them, Thailand. Of the 12 teams, Nigeria is ranked 8th and Thailand is ranked 7th. So by taking 7th spot we can say there is progress.
The top two in the three groups are ranked one to six in the FIFA rankings of the teams in the tournament. The three bottom teams are ranked lowest.
Apparently,what Dennerby needs is time.We shouldn’t expect so much from him in the mundial because of the tough group we find ourselves,unfortunately.He seems to be gradually building a new and formidable team for us which can hold its own against any opposition in the nearest future.