By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s Falconets will try to finish top of Group C with another victory or a draw against hapless Canada when both countries clash in the last group match of the on-going 2022 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
The game billed for the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, Alajuela, on Thursday, August 18 at 3am Nigerian time, may be the toughest game so far for the Nigerian girls as Canada which has lost two earlier matches to Korea Republic and France respectively will like to win one match in Costa Rica to justify their participation in the competition.
For this reason, Falconets should expect a stiffer opposition from the Canadians whose players come from United States of America (USA) collegiate soccer system with no fewer than 19 out of registered 21 players in Canada’s roster playing amateur soccer in USA.
These include Nigerian-American midfielder Simisola Awujo of University of Southern Carlifornia; forwards- Kaila Novak of University of Carlifornia Los Angeles (UCLA) and midfielder Miya Grant as well as Nikayla Samall and goalkeeper Anna Kappenko.
The Falconets will go into the tie on the back of two wins against France (1-0) and Korea Republic (1-0) which sealed qualification into the quarter-finals just as Korea Republic and France who have won a game each still have to fight for qualification and to finish top of the group.
Should Korea Republic or France score more goals in their match to secure six points like Nigeria, superior goals aggregate will be used to determine the group winner.
This is why Nigeria cannot afford to finish second in Group C to avoid winner of Group D which is likely to be the defending champions Janan, a team Falconets will not want to face now until the final game on August 28 in San Jose.
Head Coach, Christopher Danjuma Musa and his players will not like to be knocked out again in the quarter final round as it happened in the last edition in France where the Falconets were eliminated by Spain after a 2-1 defeat by the Spanish team.
A closer look at Danjuma’s track records showed that his teams are low scoring side, dating back to his Nigeria’s U-17 women’s football team Flamingos’ era when the team did not score even one goal in three matches in 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan.
Again, when the veteran women’s football coach took the Falconets to the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in France, the star-studded Nigerian team which paraded agile goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie; defenders Glory Ogbonnaya, Joy Duru and Christy Ucheibe and midfielders Rasheedat Ajibade and Peace Effih as well as Gift Monday, managed to score two goals in four matches.
This trend has continued in Costa Rica with the Falconets grinding out paltry one goal par match in their two matches hence Nigeria could not afford to face a high-scoring sides like Japan and Netherlands in the knock out stage.
Therefore, Nigeria is condemned to get a point from the match against Canada to be able to finish top of Group C.
