By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The Cote d Ivoire’s senior women’s football team, Lady Elephants on Thursday trained at the mainbowl of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, venue of Friday’s crucial Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) first leg final qualifier round match against host Super Falcons.
The Ivorien team which has been training at Area 10 field, Garki, Abuja since the delegation arrived Nigeria on Monday evening aboard Air Cote d’Ivoire, are preparing hard to get a favourable result from the first leg tie to make the return leg in Abidjan five days later a mere academic exercise.
The Lady or La Elephants tutored by experienced Head Coach, Madame Clementine Touré who is also a Member of CAF Technical Study Group (TSG) and winner of AWCON trophy as Head Coach with Equatorial Guinea team in 2008 are in excellent form coming to Abuja.
The Ivoriens qualified for the final round on 20-0 aggregate score as Coach Tourè’s team thrashed Niger Republic women’s team (9-0, 11-0) home and away to set up a blockbuster clash with the reigning African Champions, Nigeria.
Prompt News can confirm that La Elephants are not in Abuja for sight-seeing as the team has the full compliments of the players who destroyed Niger Republic the last time out.
Amongst the dangerous players in the Ivoiren team are 27 year-old midfielder Rebecca Guehai of Logrono, Spain who scored a hat-trick away in Niamey and a goal in Abidjan and 20 year-old forward, Rosemonde Kouassi of FC Fleury, France who also scored a hat-trick at home against Niger Republic.
There are also many good players in the Ivoiren team who can cause a lot of problems for Super Falcons on Friday especially the likes of defender Fatou Coulibaly and forward Rebecca
Elloh both of DUX Logrono, Spain; midfielder Ange N’Guessan of Granadilla, Spain and Captain/goalkeeper, Cynthia Djohoré born December 16, 1987. She plays for
Onze Sœurs de (11 Sisters) Gagnoa in Abidjan.
Others are goalie Aminata Diabaté (23); Mariam
Diakité (26); Nina Kpaho (25); Fernande Tchetche (33); Jessica Aby ( 23); Bernadette Amani (24); Nadège Cissé (24); Inès Konan (25); Stéphanie Gbogou (26); Espérance Agbo (27) and Fatou Nrehy who scored two goals against Niger Republic in the first and second legs respectively.
Infact, no fewer than 20 overseas-based players are in the La Elephants squad to face Super Falcons in Abuja. They have seven players from France, six from Spain, three from Morocco; one player each from Belarus, South Korea, Turkey and Equatorial Guinea.
Perhaps, of utmost importance is the fact that Coach Tourè who holds a Degree in Physical Education led her team to deny Nigeria the ticket to represent Africa in the last Olympic Games held in Japan 2020.
The Ivoirens held Nigeria to 1-1 draw at Agege Stadium Lagos after the first leg in Abidjan earlier ended 0-0, as Cote d’Ivoire qualified for the next round of the African qualifiers on an away goals rule at the expense of Nigeria then tutored by Coach Christopher Danjuma Musa now Head Coach of the Falconets.
This is why the AWCON qualifiers have become a grudge match which Nigeria must win to average the painful elimination from the Olympics race by Cote d’Ivoire.
But the result of the first leg tie will determine if the Super Falcons Head Coach Randy Waldrum, a United States of America (USA) national, has all it takes to outsmart Coach Tourè on the African turf as she has an intimidating records since appointed into her current post by the Cote d’Ivoire Football Federation in 2010.
During her reign, as Head Coach, the team qualified for the 2012 AWCON where they finished third overall, the 2014 AWCON, and the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Prior to the tournament, the Ivoiren team had never played a match outside Africa, and in their first match, Ivory Coast lost a record 10–0 to Germany.
