The Nigerian female Under 20 national team, the Falconets, were on top of their game as they defeated their Liberia U-20 female counterpart on Saturday with a very convincing display.

The first leg in Monrovia (Liberia) ended 7-1 in the favour of the Falconets and last weekend Nigeria completed the routing to make the aggregate score line flawless (14-1) to march on to the next stage of their qualifying bid to book a ticket to the U-20 world cup in Papua New Guinea.

On this note we evaluate the lessons learnt from Falconets victory on Saturday.

NEW TALENTS UNVEILED
When it comes to football men or (women) Nigeria is always there like it or not and the fact that Nigeria is blessed with immense talent is there for us to see.

It’s not Nigeria’s fault that we were meant to be there very much above the rest. Nigeria is highly talented and from the Falconets display against Liberia new talent have been unveiled.

Girls like Amarachi Ojinma,Chinaza Uchendu and Joy Bokiri are talented footballer players and were meant for a special footballing purpose for Nigeria.

Bokiri’s talent cannot be hidden as she struck a free kick against Colombia in u-17 world cup last year and with her brace
against Liberia expect more from the Nigerian talents which have been unveiled.

BENEFITS OF CONTINUITY
After the U20 women world cup 2014 in Canada where Asisat Oshoala and co narrowly missed out on the trophy in the final to Germany, many Nigerians were not really satisfied that we were not crowned the Champions at the World Cup.

 A country where second position is not tolerated like in Nigeria but the fact that Peter Dedevbo the Falconets coach was retained is commendable.

This is good for our continuity as he handled the previous level and must have improved technically .

Dedevbo’s stint at this level had helped him acquire knowledge about the women’s game coupled with emotions and psychology within the female football scheme .

This continuity as Coach Dedevbo was retained  by the NFF will hopefully pay off.

NIGERIA’S POSITIVE ATTITUDE

After the first leg match between the Falconets and the Liberian girls which the Falconets won 7-1 away in Monrovia there were clear view that this tie was done and dusted.

I taught the Liberians will pull out from the return leg knowing fully that the tie was over but they courageously came for the return leg.

With due respect to the Liberians the return leg was a kind of a mere formality but in spite of this Nigeria’s Coach made it clear on how serious they will approach the return leg.

He emphatically said that will play with their heart as if the return leg was the first leg and that his girls are fit and ready to go and that they want to win and win convincingly.

This is a good positive attitude and we will be needing more of this positive attitude and focus to get to where we belong.
The attitude was commendable.

FALCONETS ARE UNTOUCHABLE

Nigeria have dominated women’s football in Africa for long and will still be up there above the rest in Africa.

It was no surprise that as they wipe washed the Liberians 14-1 on aggregate sending a threatening message to their next opponent in the next round of qualifiers.

During the 2014 U-20 world cup qualifier when we had Oshoala and Uchechi Sunday and co in the team then Nigeria beat one of Africa top side South Africa 7-0 on aggregate,6-0 in Nigeria(Abuja) and 1-0 away in Port Elizabeth(SA).

The Falconets are too good in Africa and for me we are already qualified for the Under 20 World Cup. You see these girls (Falconets) with their quality they are untouchable in Africa.

There is no doubt about it. Just a little improvement in technicality and exposure they will rule female football worldwide in the near future.

AVOID RECYCLING OF PLAYERS

This is a major lesson for Nigeria. It is painful and wrong that for a country with abundant talents like NIGERIA to be recycling players at the age grade.

We are not helping ourselves by recycling players’ in our football (female).This is largely because some of our coaches are
afraid to take risk.

Our coaches need to be more adventurous. Players like Desire Oparanozie.Ebere Orji and Esther Sunday were recycled to
no avail and success (going to a particular tournament twice) while there are enough talents to represent us at the immediate set.

Even Sarah Nnodim and Ihezuo Chinwendu was recycled. The latter here flopped at the U-17 in 2014 even with the Captain armband but when she moved over to the right level (the U-20) she flourished and showed her class.

We will be needing our coaches to be more adventurous in fishing out new talents for Nigeria so that some players will not be denied an opportunity to make a name for themselves on the green and white shirt.

Players like Yetunde Adebeyejo,Aminat Yakubu and co have been there before and will be needing to make way for the right set of player.

I hope the authorities are listening to me on this relevant issue. We will surely get there my fellow Nigerians.

Obiweluozo Martins

Photo Credit : fifa.com