Nigeria’s Super Falcons fell to a 2-1 defeat against Canada in a pre – World Cup friendly encounter at the Pinatar Arena, Murcia on Monday, reports Completesports.com.
Canada, who are ranked fifth in the world dominated the opening exchanges but it was the African champions that took the lead three minutes before the half hour mark courtesy of a fine strike by Desire Oparanozie.
Talented winger Uchenna Kanu dribbled past two Canadian players before setting up Oparanozie who calmly slotted the ball into the net.
The goal rattled the Canadians and they fought hard to get back into the game immediately but they were unable to find a breakthrough in the remaining part of the first half.
The North Americans levelled scores three minutes after the break through Beckie Janine.
Substitute Sophie Schmidt scored the winning goal for Canada in the 53rd minute with her well placed header going past Tochukwu Oluehi.
The Canadians are now unbeaten in their last six games .
The Super Falcons who defeated Icelandic Women’s topflight side UMF Selfoss 6-1 in a friendly encounter last week Friday will now focus their attention on the WAFU Women’s tournament as they continue their build-up ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France
Thomas Dennerby’s ladies will face hosts France, Norway and Korea Republic in Group A at the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer.
By Adeboye Amosu
18 Comments
They can only win against minnows as we know. World Cup is not for minnows so let’s dream on
The result is not a bad one and am very proud of this team. It’s a work in progress and we still have close to 2 months of preparation to finalize our strategy and game plan. Some of the old ladies are no longer fit for 90min game plan but it’s left to the coach to decide who will be starters and those that will be on the bench.
I have no doubt in my mind, this team will be the best ever super falcons.
God bless Nigeria.
God bless super falcons.
God bless coach Dennerby and his team.
There has been cherry news coming from this team. Players soany Marchesa, list to all teams to reckon with and win only three to minnow s even coming from continental camping and competition.
As bad a team and worse.
This will be another same old story.
What what these foreign dudes or ballmen gotta to bring to our national teams.
Canada is a strong side. This result is not too bad. Hopefully, the team is on an upward trajectory. I think they will spring a major surprise in the world cup.
The team seems to still have problems with second half
There has been no cheery news coming from this team. Played so many matches, lost to all the teams to reckon with and won only three to minnows even after coming from oragamises and continental campings and competitions.
This is a bad a team. Not Glas fault, but coaching. The coaching team has nothing to offer
This outing will be another same old story.
What have these foreign dudes or ballmen gotta to bring to our national teams that our local ones do not have?
Damning
Fantastic Result for Falcons
Make no mistake about it: nobody wants their team to lose. However, if we look at the 2:1 slim defeat of the Super Falcons today against mighty Canada – who only last week defeated She-Believes Champions England 1:0 – from the lens of a broader perspective, you will gree with me that this slim defeat to Canada is a development to be celebrated.
Why, I hear you ask?
It wasn’t that long ago – 6 April 2018 to be precise – that our Super Falcons were mauled by a top 5 rated Fifa team France 8:0. Although the ladies hadn’t played a lot of football before that match, there was nonetheless outrage from fans who (rightly) condemned the heavy score-line.
But the NFF and coach Dennerby pleaded with us to be patient with them. With time, they implied, we will once again have a Super Falcons that the nation will be proud of; and how well have they kept their promise!
From conceding 8:0 to France (5th on FIFA rankings at the time), they scored 1 goal and conceded only 2 today against Canada (presently rated 5th by FIFA, incidentally).
Meaning they conceded a massive 75% less number of goals than they conceded just 12 month ago against a similarly rated team; that, in my books is massive improvement. Also, almost the same team played both matches.
I know some people disagree with me but with an average age of 30 years, I think our defence is aging. They have now conceded 18 goals in second half of matches out of the 23 overall goals they have conceded under Dennerby.
However, they are scoring more goals. In fact under Dennerby, the Falcons have scored a combined total of 30 goals and have conceded 23. Oparanozie, who finally ended a goals drought going back to November last year, is now the joint highest goal scorer under Dennerby with 7 goals (with Oshoala is missing in action due to injury).
Far from being a poor result, the outcome of today’s match (for me at least) shows that the Super Falcons continue to accelerate in the right direction.
Well done ladies!
Deo, i actually agree with you on the ages of the back 4, being that Ebi is in her mid 30s, Michael early 30s while Ohale & Ebere are in their late 20s, so average age is definitely around 30 for the defense but much younger for the rest of the team. However i was also impressed by their performance yesterday even without Oshoala, Ordega, Payne & Ihezuo. After watching the extended highlights, they seem to have lost due to 2 individual moments of lack of concentration. They were definitely not out-played. I also feel we need to beef up the midfield more to reduce the pressure on the defense because we have a deadly forward line. I think the midfield is missing link currently. Once this can be improved, I think we will shock a few teams in France.
Very Good observations @ Deo and Addisboy
The defense though might be aging, but I think if they are well shielded, they can cope. Unfortunately, they still are the best set of back 4 we have at the moment. Defense though starts from attack. For the ball to come to the defense, it has to pass through the attack and the midfield. That is what he technical team has to work on subsequently. When you have an ageing defense, like we have now, the midfield will require two great anchors and a moderate line, a la AC Milan of the mid 20’s such that the space between the defense and the goal keeper will always be enough for recovery. The midfield pairing of Chikwelu, Okobi and Ayinde for me doesn’t possess that much latent energy to both provide adequate cover for the defense and at the same time provide an attacking outlet, considering the fact that Rita is also aging. So the technical team will need to make trade offs at this point….either you sacrifice Rita for Ugonna to add more steel and better defensive cover meaning Okobi will be the only catalyst for launching attacks from the midfield or retain Rita and sacrifice the aging defense on the alter of prowling younger opposing strikers. In all, the team’s fitness regime needs to go up a few notches. I’m glad a new fitness coach has recently been added to the team. lets hope everything gels well by the time the world cup kicks off in a few months time.
Wow Dr Drey, AC Milan on the mid 20s (1920s I presume) . I hold my hat to you as my football knowledge doesn’t go that far o.
Hahahaha….pls add 2 0s to the 20s. I hope this one too doesnt throw you out of context. lolz
Watching the game’s highlights critically, there always was this gappig space in front of the back 4 which any opposition 8 or 10 will gladly take advantage of. Both Rita and Okobi were quite engrossed in the attacking link up duties while Halima was always being dragged wide and out of space. If at least one anchorwoman was available to plug that space, or tracking the late runner, the Canadians would probably not have gotten both goals they scored. A Rita and Okobi pairing is a high risk for our defense. Going into this world cup, we need to be as conservative as possible without the when not in possession, rotate the ball more when we are in possession and rely efficiently on our young an swift attackers for quick breaks and sucker punches.
I see this super falcon doing us proud
The result is not that bad. The problem is lack of quality technical input from the bench. Super eagle also have this problem. Ability for the coaching crew to read from the bench and know what to do next even when leading. Canada won this game just because the their bench was able to analyse the way Nigeria played in the first half and developed a strategy to break falcon force to win the game.
I just finished watching the highlights of the match on YouTube. Falcons were rusty, heavy and they did not play as a team. They were playing kick and follow football. They were playing like a primary school team. No game plan, nothing. I’m so sorry for the coach.
The strategy of the technical crew was horrible. I said it many times on this forum that white coaches can never solving the problems of the African teams. I agreed with you @Shesan. Well spoken bro.
Canada wasn’t mighty in that match. Forget about FIFA ranking my people. They played below their ranking and I don’t think they were better than the Nigerian team. Some of the Nigerian players are getting old.
I could remember the last world cup with our local coach, coach Paul Danjuma I think. He presented a young solid squad and they played very well but I will wait and see what our white coaches would brings to our national teams both Super Eagles and Super Falcons.
If both of them fails, I will advise NFF to go back to our local coaches. With what i saw in that match against Canada, no hope for Super Falcons of Nigeria except if miracle happens. What a boring game. God bless Nigeria!!!
Hahahahaha…..from ya mouth…?!! Adegun don dey turn to Adeogun small small. LMAO
I watched the entire game and I must say that the Falcons did really well in the first half with compact scintillating attacking football, and they were rewarded with a lovely finish by Oparanozie. If we can by every means maintain the tempo of that first half performance at the WorldCup against any team for 90 minutes we will shock a few teams.
The Falcons dominated the Canadians in the first 45 minutes, but they seemingly tired out in the second half. Otherwise they could’ve defeated Canada yesterday. I’m really worried about their fitness level, but since Canada played with virtually their first team players and we are missing Ordega, Oshoala, Dike, Payne, Ihezuo and other established players I have a cause to be optimistic with that first half performance.
They sure need steel in that midfield, Rita, Okobi and Ayinde can not provide enough cover for the aging defense over a 90 minutes span against top oppositions. They can dominate on the African continent and it shows a little at the AFCON mainly because Rita is Aging as mentioned above.
She’s a very hardworking energetic midfielder, but the younger Okobi and Ayinde are too fragile to cover for her whenever she ventures forward thereby leaving spaces behind to run at our aging defense. I’m still scratching my head why Osarenoma Igbinovia did not make this team. I thought she could be Rita’s heir when she blossomed at the U20 WorldCup in 2014, but since then she has struggled to stay in the Falcons squad.
The technical crew sure need another energetic all action body in that midfield to protect that back four. The attack is well loaded with Oshoala, Ordega, Ihezuo, Kanu, Oparanozie, Dike, Umotong, Payne all available for the WorldCup. I’m cautiously optimistic that the SuperFalcons can sneak out of that group.
I watched the match and i must confess to you i wasn’t too impressed.whenever we’re on the ball they rushed at us but whenever they are on the ball we moved backward thereby giving them enough space to operate. You can watch the full match here Check out @CanadaSoccerEN’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN/status/1115252415798886400?s=09