SUPER FALCONECTS

In an exciting and dramatic final match of this year’s Under-20 Women Soccer Championship held at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada, this Sunday, Germany defeated the Falconets of Nigeria 1-0 after extra time. The score line bellied the meteoric soccer artistry of the nation’s team which outplayed the eventual winner in every department of the game.

But soccer is not about superior skills; it is about goals. If the Falconets had converted the many scoring chances they had, the match would have been wrapped up at regulation time. Yet many would say the officiating was unfair, more so because the Falconets’ goal was disallowed.

We are proud of the team that lost the match but was neither humiliated nor disgraced by the eventual winners. Throughout the tournament, the girls were a beauty to behold on and off the field of play.

It was not a disappointing outing for the nation to produce the second best team at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, in the circumstances that they played. But that is the very essence of the Nigerian spirit: undaunted in the face of adversity and producing beautiful brides in the midst of squalor. Though they lost by a stroke of ill-luck, the team deserves to be given heroines’ treatment by an appreciative nation in order for them to excel in future competitions and as exports. The championship was the only cause to smile from a football house that is suffocating under immorality and maladministration.

Even when the thieving bureaucracy did not cater for them, these women and their handlers showed courage, resilience and outplayed the so-called favourite teams before the tournament. From their very first match against Mexico, they never left anyone in doubt as to their championship material. They went on to trounce highly rated teams like New Zealand and North Korea in the quarter- and semi-finals respectively.

For displaying the Nigerian can-do spirit, high-level patriotism and perseverance to duty, we commend the Super Falconets and applaud the handlers of the team for their dedication to duty, determination to excel and for making the nation proud at the mundial. Nigerians are extremely proud of the team’s exploits. We commend Asisat Oshoala who won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot as competition bonuses. The Falconets’ midfielder picked these souvenirs in acknowledgement of her being the best player of the tournament and as the highest goal scorer with seven goals.

The authorities should now ensure that the team bonds together for greater exploits in future tournament and at the senior levels. For the golden girl, Oshoala, and the rest of the team, now that they have the world at their feet, they have to consolidate on the latent talents and explore greater opportunities devoid of greed at the professional and global levels. These should be the focus of the Nigeria Football Federation and the National Sports Commission, not the show of shame of burning and looting that they have come to be associated with.