Reigning African Women’s Nations Cup Champions, the Super Falcons of Nigeria On Wednesday took to the Wu Hua Olympic Sports Centre of the Huitang Stadium for their first training session since arriving in China, reports Completesports.com.
The Super Falcons will tackle China’s women national team, nicknamed Steel Roses, in their opening game of the Four –Nation China Tournament on Thursday evening.
The nine-time AWCON champions will take on China at Huitang Stadium at 7.35pm local time, which is 12.35pm in Nigeria after the game involving the Korea Republic and Romania.
Meanwhile, Sweden–based defender, Faith Michael, midfielder Rita Chikwelu, England-based forward Ini-Abasi Umotong and Portugal–based Chinaza Uchendu flew to China directly from Europe and joined the team in Meizhou city.
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The winner of Thursday’s encounter will clash with the winner of the game between Korea Republic and Romania in Sunday’s final slated to kick off at 7.35pm local time (12.35pm Nigerian time).
The losers play the third-place match starting from 3pm local time (8am Nigerian time) also on Sunday, and at the same Huitang Stadium.
Nigeria’s Super Falcons are one of the seven teams to have qualified for every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals since the competition was launched in China in 1991. The others are the women national teams of USA, Brazil, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Japan.
By Johnny Edward:
5 Comments
Great to know that our ladies can have equal level of preparation with that of the guys.Great one Pinnick.
Well, I really don’t think the ladies are there yet when it comes to good preparation, we are only good in rush hours when it comes to the female national team. If the ladies can get more of this kind of quality matches to play subsequently, then, I can assure you that, our ladies will reached the final someday.
At least now that the 2018 AWCON in Ghana has exposed us, even Amaju Pinnik is afraid that, we are fast losing it here in Africa where have both absolute and comparative advantage over others. The fact is, if certain things are not checked and put in place on time, our dominance in female football in Africa will end.
‘Super’ Falcons just got trounced 3-0 by China in the first friendly today. Why is CSN not reporting it since it ended 3pm Nigerian time? Should NFF still continue to stick with Dernerby or revert now to Omagbemi or Okon?
Dernerby has simply brought down the profile and quality of the Falcons. The team was walloped 8-0 by France in the coach’s first match. In the WAFU female competition and AWCON 2018, the team practically limped and struggled to the final and was outplayed by Cameroun and SA.
The CAF Awards used to be dominated by Falcons, but this year SA stole the show, winning the Woman Player of the Year and Woman coach of the year awards. Derneby is not inspiring confidence. If Pinnick and NFF needs to do something about the team’s coaching before the Women FIFA World cup in June, now’s the time. It seems Derneby doesn’t understand the African skills set enough to know how to utilize them well.
Its always very easy to call for the head of the coach @ kel. But i think we should be fair when doing that.
A team leaves nigerian summer…travels 20hrs and lands in china winter and has to play the hosts, a top global competitor, 48hrs later….bro….we are lucky it was just a 3-0 loss. Even though I personally expected a better performance going by the fact that the coach started the AWCON defence line of Oluehi, Ebi, Ohale, Ikidi and Chukwunonye and the midfield pivot of Okobi and Chikwelu…..i wasnt expecting even a draw. And when we consider the fact that the 2nd and 3rd goals were conceeded late in the game, then only one thing comes to my mind…Fatigue..!
Friendly games are test games…to test players, tactics, oppositions’ style of play and all that. Our entire attack in that game was a new set of players…chinaza uchendu, Anam Imo, Iniabasi Umotong….so for me..the friendly is serving its purpose. i remember a similar friendly match the U23s men’s team played in Australia when they just landed for the sydney olympics…I think against Korea or so……they lost 5-1 or 5-0 sef. most of the guys couldnt lift dem legs due to fatigue and jet lag.
So i believe the girls will perform better against romania on sunday. they would have fully recovered and imbibed the weather a little more.
As for sacking the coach just 5 months to the world cup….believe me it wont solve anything. let him finish what he started. Okon and Omagbemi werent so fantastic during their reigns too. It was okon that went to tell the world media that he doesnt need to study his opposition b4 a match, that he studies them while the game his on…of course we saw the results at the 2015 WC. Omagbemi’s team also struggled at the 2016 AFCON….they werent overwhelming. SA and Cameroon almost killed us in the semis and final of that competition too….after we struggled to a 1-1 draw with ghana in the group stage. We only managed to hold them all at bay….even though it was better than last year in terms of the results recorded in both matches.
Thanks @ Dr.Drey for your wider perspective on the Falcons and their performance in recent times. To be honest, I didn’t watch the match and didn’t realize the last 2 goals were scored in the dying minutes. I was just furious by the scoreline as I had not really been convinced about this new coach previously. Not that I care about the skin color of a coach, just produce results and you’ll have the support of most Nigerians. Hopefully, they come to the party in tomorrow’s friendly against Romania.