Nigeria’s Super Falcons thrashed Icelandic Women’s topflight side UMF Selfoss 6-1 in a friendly encounter on Friday, at the Pinatar Arena, Murcia Completesports.com reports.
Courtney Dike (hat-trick), Ini Umotong (brace ) and Uchenna Kanu were on target for the Super Falcons in the game, while Reimus Magda scored Selfoss only goal of the encounter.
The Super Falcons started the game brightly and nearly scored the game’s opening goal a minute before the half hour mark but Ngozi Okobi ‘ s effort from Kanu’s cross went wide.
Reimus Magda put the Icelandic club in front in the 31st minute.
Super Falcons goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie denied Selfoss from a promising attack their second of the game three minutes later.
Josephine Chukwunonye came close to equalising for Nigeria in the 37th minute but his effort went inches wide.
Kanu restored parity for Super Falcons three minutes before the break.
Thomas Dennerby’s ladies took the lead for the first time in the game through Courtney Dike three minutes before the hour mark.
Brighton & Hove Albion forward Umotong got Falcons’ third of the game in the 62nd minute following a pass from Ogonna Chukwudi.
Umotong got her second of the game seven minutes later.
Dike took over the show with two more goals in the 72nd and 76th minutes respectively.
The African champions will face Canada in their next friendly game next week Monday at the same venue.
By Adeboye Amosu
12 Comments
Nice one!
Kudos to the entire team. This is work in progress, waiting to see Super Falcons on Monday against Canadian ladies.
God bless Nigeria.
Super Falcons vs. UMF Selfoss FC review
In her return back to the Super Falcons fold after missing out on a place in the 2018 Afcon squad, Courtney Dike, whose brother scored that superb header against Italy in a pre-2014 world cup friendly, was undoubtedly the star of the show as her hat-trick stood out when the Super Falcons demolished UMF Selfoss 6:1 in an unofficial friendly match yesterday in Spain.
The NFF, coach Dennerby and the Super Falcons are all singing from the same preparatory hymn book as they follow up on this preparatory match with a high profile (official) friendly against Canada; who only yesterday defeated mighty England.
Here are my observations regarding the match against UMF Selfoss:
– As I predicted in a recent contribution, Ugonna Chukwudi – who missed recent assignments in Cyprus – was rewarded for her consistency in club football in Sweden with an invitation to this round of friendlies and she walked straight into the match-day squad to dictate proceedings from the heart of the midfield.
– Dike’s hat-trick must have been what the doctor ordered as this was a statement of intent that she is not ready to miss out on the second major tournament in a row.
– Oparanozie is facing perhaps the greatest challenge to her position as the de facto number 9 as others are stepping up to deliver the goods goalscoring-wise. The France-based forward, who incidentally is the second highest goal scorer of Dennerby’s reign with 6 goals (excluding wafu tournaments), last found the back of the net for the Falcon on 24th of November 2018 against Equatorial Guinea. Since that match, other players have combined to score at least 16 goals for the Falcons!
– Ini Umotong’s experience in the English women’s league coupled with her robust style, link up play and eye for goal will be crucial for the Falcons in France.
– The Super Falcons have now refused to concede any goal in the second half of 2 consecutive matches.
– Under coach Dennerby, the Super Falcons have never come from behind to win any match. Hopefully, doing exactly that against the ladies for Iceland yesterday, having gone 1 goal down to win 6:1, will be a sign of good things to come.
Coming from behind to win any match shows strength of character and resourcefulness; attributes the Falcons will need to have in their toolkit in order to navigate tricky assignments to come.
Correction
***Ogonna Chukudi***
.
For me,
The average age of the Falcons remain a source of mild concern (particularly the defence).
For the current list released, the average ages (rounded up) of each department are as follows:
Goalkeeping: 26 years
Defence: 30 years
Midfield: 27 years
Attack: 22 years
Overall team average:26 years.
At the end of, as a lover of experience over youthful exuberance, I can have no complaints about the overall average age of this team which is 26 years.
However, I still vividly remember how our ladies laboured badly against Cameroon in the final of the 2016 Africa Cup of nations. I think they fatigued too quickly and only managed to triumph in that encounter, 1:0, because of their vast experience, exposure and superior quality .
Also,a massive 16 out of the 21 goals that the Falcons have conceded thus far under Dennerby (exluding wafu tournaments) have come in the second half of matches.
That, to me, points to second-half fatigue brought about by an ageing defence-line.
I do hope this fatigue factor is addressed as Dr Drey pointed out: a good exercise regime can help boost the ladies fitness level which will aid them in combating fatigue (regardless of how old they are)
I do wish he is right!
Happy to see Courtney dike back to the team. Please is the Rivers angels striker who scored her team’s only goal in the federations cup final with ibom angels included in the super falcon’s team?
SPY MISSON – 007 deo bond
Deo is on a self-appointed spy mission to covertly check on the activities on the opponents of the Super Falcons – South Korea, Norway and France – to see how they are stepping up their preparations ahead of commencement of hostilities at the world Cup in France in June.
From the comfort of my armchair with my state-of-art laptop I was able to carry out my reconnaissance mission and these are my findings thus far:
South Korea (14th position on FIFA ranking): it continues to baffle why South Korea have not played any African side recently in their preparatory matches. Are they not aware of that the Super Falcons present a difference sort of challenge to European and South American opponents?
In any event, the Korean ladies lost 3:2 to Iceland ladies (22 position on FIFA rankings) yesterday. This was the Taeguk Ladies’ (South Korea) first international match at home since November 2015. It was also their first international duel against Iceland (whom they face again next week).
Form guide: The Taeguk ladies have won 7 out of their 11 games. So, in deo’s league table, they have 21 points from 11 games.
Norway (12th position on FIFA rating): Equally shocking to me is the fact that Norway ladies haven’t played any African side since they knew they will be facing the undisputed, immortal and immutable queens of African football on 8 June at the World Cup.
Are they taking our ladies for granted or do they have an ace up their sleeves?
In any event, Norway women made light work of their Polish counterparts (28 in FIFA rankings) in a friendly match yesterday with a 3:0 emphatic scoreline.
Form guide: The Scandinavian ladies now have 8 victories from their last 11 matches. So, in deo’s league table, they have 24 points from 11 matches.
France: Now, here is a team that appears not to be taking the Super Falcons’ threat with a pinch of salt.
After demolishing Dennerby’s ladies 8:0 (spelling D-e-n-n-e-r-b-y; an 8 letter word, in the process) in a friendly last year, they followed this up with a 6:0 annihilation of Cameroon (spelling the first name of Cameroon’s then coach in the process: J-o-s-e-p-h) on 9 October 2018.
The French ladies, who defeated Japan 3:1 in a friendly played on 4 April 2019, are runaway favourites to qualify from this group and perhaps go all the way to at least the semi-finals on home soil.
Form Guide: The Le blues ladies are on fire! They have only lost 1 game – a slim 1:0 loss to Germany – in their last 11 matches (including emphatic victories against Nigeria and Cameroon as I have already mention). Others have been victories.
So, on deo’s league table, they have 30 points out of a possible 33.
** The Super Falcons have 7 wins and 4 losses from our last 11 official matches giving us 21 points from a possible 33 on my league table ***
Superb reconnaissance mission @ Deo. Not only are you the ‘de facto’ team captain of CSN, you’re also proving to be a master at sting operations. Great job @ 007-and a half Deo-Bond.
I’ve always been sure of one thing….that Coach Dennerby knows what he is doing. Unfortunately, we have some of the least patient fans in the world as Nigerians.
Thanks Dr Drey; much appreciated.
@deo. From the look of things we seems to be on par with South Korea and Norway, with Norway having a narrow edge over Korea and The SuperFalcons. I’m having a feeling that we can beat Korea and possibly get a draw against Norway which will really be difficult. However, if they can achieve those results they can scale through the group.
AY, I hope they achieve those results in the first 2 matches ’cause if they don’t, we may well find ourselves in exactly the same situation we were 12 months ago (in Russia) when we need a win against a powerhouse in our last group stage match to proceed.
We all know what happened then…..