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Tag: Falconets

  • WAFU U20 Women Tourney: Super Falconets trounce Benin Republic 3-0 to reach Final

    WAFU U20 Women Tourney: Super Falconets trounce Benin Republic 3-0 to reach Final

    Nigeria strolled to a 3-0 win over Benin Republic in the second semi-final of the WAFU B U20 Women Championship in Kumasi on Wednesday, easily picking their ticket to the Final match to be decided on Saturday at the same Baba Yara Stadium.

    Expectedly, the World Cup quarter-finalists didn’t have to break much sweat on the night, with Amina Omowunmi Bello putting them in front in the 23rd minute of the game.

    Precocious attacking midfielder Esther Onyenezide hit a brace, scoring first in the 34th and then in the 52nd minute to put daylight between both teams in Ghana’s second city.

    Nigeria’s Chinyere Kalu was selected as Most Valuable Player of the Match.

    Hosts Ghana won the first semi final match, defeating Burkina Faso’s Dames 3-1 to reach the final on Saturday.

    Saturday’s final jangles the bell of the interesting rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria at all levels of the game, and the hosts would wish they could stop the 19-goal Falconets who are already looking like champions-in-waiting.

    Tournament top scorer Opeyemi Ajakaye did not add to her tally on Wednesday night, but Saturday’s final is a great opportunity for her to raise her total haul for the championship.

  • WAFU U20 Women Tourney: Falconets eye another goal rush against Burkina Faso

    WAFU U20 Women Tourney: Falconets eye another goal rush against Burkina Faso

    With a harvest of 13 goals from their two matches so far, in which they bagged maximum six points, Nigeria’s Falconets are looking forward to another goal-haul against their counterparts from Burkina Faso in Kumasi on Sunday.

    The two-time World Cup silver-medallists are determined to take the wind off the sails of the Burkina Faso dames when both teams clash at the WAFU B U20 Women Championship inside the Paa Joe Stadium.

    Burkina Faso’s U20 girls turned back their counterparts from Niger Republic 8-0, only three days after the Falconets had trashed the same team 7-0.

    Both Nigeria and Burkina Faso have reached the tournament’s semi-finals, but the Falconets will insist on drawing the line between themselves and the fellow West African girls when the chips are down.

    Both teams commence hostilities at the Paa Joe Stadium at 4pm, with Togo and Niger Republic also doing the same business from the same time at the Baba Yara Stadium.

  • WAFU B: Falconets spank Togo 6-0

    WAFU B: Falconets spank Togo 6-0

    On a day that Nigeria’s U20 boys whiplashed more fancied Italy 2-0 at the FIFA U20 World Cup in Argentina, Nigeria’s U20 girls were also in the spirit, flogging Togo’s U20 girls 6-0 at the ongoing WAFU B U20 Women’s Tournament in Kumasi, Ghana.

    Aminat Omowunmi Bello put Nigeria in front in the 11th minute, and only 60 seconds later, Flourish Sebastine made it two. On the half-hour, midfielder Esther Onyenezide got in on the act with a third goal that put daylight between the Falconets and their Togolese counterparts.

    Bello was again on song in the 59th minute, and two minutes later, Opeyemi Ajakaye, who netted a hat-trick in the 7-0 pounding of Niger Republic on Sunday, got her fourth goal of the tournament.

    Not done yet, the FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists got a sixth in the 76th minute as Sebastine notched her brace.

    The Falconets have a final group phase clash with Burkina Faso (8-0 winners over Niger Republic) on Sunday, but they are already assured of a place in the last four with maximum six points and 13 goals advantage.

  • NFF mourns passing of former Falconets’ Head Coach, Dan Evumena

    NFF mourns passing of former Falconets’ Head Coach, Dan Evumena

    The Nigeria Football Federation on Wednesday expressed “deep sorrow” at the death on Tuesday evening of former Head Coach of the U20 Girls’ National Team, Dan Evumena.

    “The news of Dan Evumena’s death is too hard to take. I am still in shock. This is a young trainer who has done creditably well at Club and National levels, and still had so much in his tank with which to fertilize and nurture the growth of many more women footballers.

    “The death of every human being diminishes us, especially the death of every young person. He had his life in front of him. Our prayer is that Almighty God will grant him eternal life and also grant those he has left behind, particularly his young family, the fortitude to bear the big loss,” NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, said in Abuja.

    Thenff.com learnt that the former Falconets’ chief strategist was hospitalized for a few days but did not recover from the ailment.

    Evumena served as Assistant Coach of the Super Falcons before his upliftment as Head Coach of the U20 Girls. As Head Coach of the Falconets, he steered the team to the quarter finals of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Chile in 2008, before the squad lost to France.

  • Costa Rica 2022: Falconets land in Abuja after World Cup exit

    Costa Rica 2022: Falconets land in Abuja after World Cup exit

    After passing the night openly at Istanbul airport, the Falconets landed in Abuja in the early hours of Thursday following their ouster from the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

    Secretary-General of the Nigeria Football Federation and the representative of Minister of Youths and sports, Toyin Ibitoye were on ground to receive the team at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    Recall that, the players and officials had issues with transit visas and were forced to sleep out at Istanbul Airport, and also had a few hours of delay in Colombia and Panama.

    Falconets defeated France, South Korea, and Canada to finish top of their group before crashing out following a 2-0 loss to the Netherlands in the quater-finals.

    Speculations are rife that some of the girls will be immediately drafted to the Super Falcons team that will feature at the Senior women’s World Cup slated for Australia in 2023.

     

     

     

  • Why Falconets overstayed at Istanbul airport – NFF

    Why Falconets overstayed at Istanbul airport – NFF

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday explained that a number of factors, including the inability to secure transit visas for players and officials of the U20 Girls National Team, Falconets, at the Istanbul Airport, led to the team having to stay 24 hours at the airport in Turkey on their way from the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup.

    “The NFF did not book the team’s tickets from Costa Rica; FIFA did. FIFA also did not envisage the hitches that saw the team delayed for more than three hours in Bogota, and another one hour in Panama. By the time the team got to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had left.

    “Our officials pleaded for compassionate transit visas so as to take the players and officials to a hotel inside the town, but this was not possible as they were informed that Nigeria had been removed from the list of countries whose citizens were issued visa-on-arrival in Turkey.

    “The airline then took the team to a sleeping area at the airport and gave them tickets to have meals every five hours. This situation has nothing to do with NFF, who had made arrangements to receive the team in Abuja before the complications in travel arrangements,” NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, explained.

    It would be recalled that the NFF had implored world-governing body, FIFA to intervene with the Embassy of Germany to issue the team transit visas before their departure from Nigeria, in order for the team to be able to travel through Germany. This did not happen.

    On the issue of body-wear, Sanusi said: “The players were handed three sets of green jerseys and two sets of white jerseys, several house-wear types and training jerseys. The players opted to wash only their jersey top (no other stuff) because when the first set of body-wear was sent to the laundry people at the hotel, it returned with some FIFA and NFF badges at the front and names at the back peeled by the machine.”

  • Costa Rica 2022: Netherlands ends Falconets impressive run

    Costa Rica 2022: Netherlands ends Falconets impressive run

    A litany of factors, including poor finishing, hard luck and dodgy officiating by Costa Rican official Marianela Araya saw the Nigeria U20 girls bow out of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup with a two-goal defeat by The Netherlands in their quarter-final match in Alajuela.

    Flourish Sabastine, who scored Nigeria’s three-point winner against France in the opening match of Group C, was cynically stopped in the Dutch’s box in the 7th minute, but just as she did all night, Araya looked away unimpressed.

    Four minutes later, the Dutch were ahead, when Zera Hulswit rammed a perfect dipping shot beyond Omini Oyono as the conquerors of USA pulled away on the counter-attack.

    In the 15th minute, Sabastine again pulled away and let fly, but the ball was tipped away by impressive goal-tender Claire Dinkla.

    On the half-hour, Nigeria nearly got the leveller that their endeavour deserved when Deborah Abiodun seized the ball as the Dutch defence fell into confusion, but her own dipping shot from 25 metres rocked the crossbar and was then tipped away from the head of Chiamaka Okwuchukwu.

    Only three minutes later, the deficit doubled against Nigeria, when the Dutch broke through the right once more, and with captain Oluwatosin Demehin and Omowumi Oshobukola in a fumble, Ziva Henry bundled the ball past Oyono.

    Substitute Joy Jerry came close to pulling one back when her head met the ball from Rofiat Imuran’s cross in the 62nd minute, but the ball floated away.

    Sabastine, forever unstoppable, was hacked severally in the Dutch penalty area as she darted in whenever she had the ball, but Araya saw no reason to award a penalty kick to Nigeria.

    In the second minute of added time, a Dutch defender handled the ball in the box as Nigeria poured forward. But after consulting the Video Assistant Referee, Araya overturned her own decision to award a penalty kick.

    Defeat meant elimination for a team that had won all three group phase matches, scoring five goals and conceding only one.

  • Costa Rica 2022: Falconets target semi final ticket against Netherlands

    Costa Rica 2022: Falconets target semi final ticket against Netherlands

    Highly –inspired Falconets of Nigeria are determined to proceed further at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals in Costa Rica and see The Netherlands as simply another mountain to climb to get closer to the diadem.

    The Dutch, who emerged from a tough Group D that included the United States of America and Japan, eliminating the Americans in the process, would not be a walk in the park for Chris Musa’s girls, but the two-time runners-up say they are aware of this fact.

    “The Dutch are a super-strong squad to have survived that group where the Americans were sent packing. In any event, any team in the quarter-finals must be a super-strong squad. We will not under-rate them, just as we did not under-rate any of France, Korea Republic, and Canada.

    “As I said at the beginning of the tournament, we are taking it one match at a time. Our overall plan for each of the games in the group phase worked well. And I believe that our overall plan for the match against The Netherlands will work as well,” Chris Musa said on Saturday.

    An explosive encounter is anticipated at the Estadio Alajuela Morera Soto (the same venue where the Falconets brought down the challenges of the Korean Republic and Canada) as from 11.30 pm Nigeria time on Sunday.

    In the 20 –year history of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, Nigeria has played in the Championship Match twice, losing on both occasions to Germany, in Germany 12 years ago and in Canada eight years ago. In between, they reached the semi-finals in Japan 10 years ago.

    Midfield powerhouse Esther Onyenezide, with three goals in the tournament, is expected to again be the driving force of the Nigeria game going forward, with pacy Flourish Sabastine and Blessing Okpe likely to start as the Falconets seek early goals, while workhorse Mercy Idoko and the duo of Deborah Abiodun and Bashirat Amoo would hold things tight in the middle.

    Goalkeeper Omini Oyono is expected to be at her best as she is protected by captain Oluwatosin Demehin, Jumoke Alani, Omowumi Oshobukola, and Rofiat Imuran.

  • Falconets set perfect group stage record after edging Canada 3-1

    Falconets set perfect group stage record after edging Canada 3-1

    The Nigeria team on Wednesday at the ongoing 10th FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica advanced to the quarter-finals in grand style.

    The Falconets qualified by setting a World Cup group stage perfect record for themselves after beating Canada 3-1 in Alajuela.

    The feat enabled them to finish with a perfect nine points out of nine in Group C. In spite of hard-fought victories over France and Korea Republic, the Nigerian side were favourites to win the match even though they had already secured a final eight place.

    They did concede their first goal of the competition in the match, but they never looked back after drawing level thereafter.

    Goalkeeper Omini Oyono’s poor management of a backpass from Jumoke Alani granted Kala Novak a fortuitous goal in less than two minutes after kick-off.

    “It was great for us to come back from that setback, and also conceding first in the tournament.

    “But we showed character and spirit after that, and that would be huge for us going forward in the competition,” team head coach Christopher Danjuma said after the match.

    Esther Onyenezide, whose vicious curling shot earned all three points against Korea Republic late on, to send the Falconets into the last eight Sunday, soon drew them level.

    She scored from the penalty kick spot in the 24th minute after Canadian defender Mia Pante had handled the ball from a Blessing Okpe shot in the penalty box.

    The Falconets did look composed and surefooted in the middle with the return of Deborah Abiodun, who sat out the encounter with the Koreans.

    Chiamaka Okwuchukwu also played an inspiring game after starting for the first time in the tournament.

    Her firm header from an Okpe cross in the 15th minute had missed narrowly.

    Onyenezide however went on to shoot Nigeria ahead, also from the penalty kick spot, in the 32ndminute.

    This was after Simi Awujo’s dangerous play against Mercy Idoko was penalised, when Idoko went for a header from Rofiat Imuran’s inswinger.

    In the added time of first period, Idoko came close to scoring her first goal of the tournament, but her touch from another Imuran inswinger brushed the upright.

    In the second half, the Falconets added pace and brilliant use of space to their game.

    It was no surprise then when Imuran, again with a visionary cross, set up substitute Chioma Olise for Nigeria’s third goal.

    Their imperial campaign in the group stage earns the Falconets a quarter-final date with The Netherlands in Alajuela on Sunday.

  • Costa Rica 2022: Falconets seek to set record against Canada

    Costa Rica 2022: Falconets seek to set record against Canada

    High-riding Nigeria will look to make it a perfect group phase campaign at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup when they clash with Canada at the Estadio Alajuela Morera Soto in what would be the early hours of Thursday (3 am) in Nigeria. The kick-off in Alajuela would be 8 pm Costa Rica time on Wednesday.

    Riding high as the top team of Group C following 1-0 wins over France and Canada has thrown the Falconets into the harshest spot of the klieg lights, but Head Coach Chris Danjuma Musa says his girls have their feet firmly on the ground as they confront the North Americans for another three points.

    “We would like to make it three wins out of three to maintain a great mental state –the winning mentality. If we are used to winning, it would be difficult for any team to bring us down.

    “It would be a mistake to reduce our pace and zest simply because we have qualified for the quarter-finals. The best way to do it, always, is to consider each match as a task that must be accomplished and not slow down. We will still meet tougher teams ahead and the winning mentality is what will sustain us.”

    Canada, who hosted the tournament eight years ago when Nigeria reached the Final for the second time (losing by the odd goal to Germany), is riding an impossibility wave after losing their first two games to the Korean Republic and France, with a disadvantage of four goals. With Nigeria already qualified, the battle for the second spot from Group C is a straight one between the Korean Republic and France, who play simultaneously (3 am Nigeria time) at the Estadio Nacional in San Jose. Both teams have three points each.

    For Canada to sneak through, they would have to achieve a high-score win against Nigeria and hope that either France or the Korean Republic mutilate the other in the capital city.

    Musa is certain to start with the girls who brought down the stubborn Koreans on Sunday night. Goalkeeper Omini Oyono showed improved composure and ball handling, and the steel and awareness of captain Oluwatosin Demehin, Omowumi Oshobukola, Jumoke Alani, and Rofiat Imuran is sustaining the two-time runners-up quite well at the back.

    Midfielder Esther Onyenezide, the scorer of the scorcher that downed the Koreans, and forward Flourishes Sabastine who netted the three-point winner against France, are also expected to be in the flow alongside Chioma Olise, Bashirat Amoo, Joy Jerry, and the tireless Mercy Idoko.