By

Eniola Olatunji 

The Samba Girls of Brazil were lucky to have beaten debutantes Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon so early on Thursday morning when Captain Dudinha scored late brace to move Brazil into her 7th quarterfinal of the 11th U20 world female football tournament at Bogota, Columbia. 

Despite obvious crowd support to the Cameroonians, Dudinha scored in the 1st minute of Extra time and took advantage of a fast break to stylishly beat the Cameroonian Keeper for the 3rd goal in the 123rd minute. 

The stadium speakers blared old school song of John Travolta’s STAYING ALIVE at half time of extra time but the inexperienced Cameroonians who had 10-0 corner kicks did not take advantage of many opportunities including a throw-in from the right side that several legs missed to kick but a parry from the Brazilian Goalkeeper that Naomi Eto missed in the 112nd minute was scuttled away.

 

Cameroon had 19 -10 shots at goal with 6-5 shots on target and match control was even but the Brazilian defence saved the team from colossal damage clearing the ball to any direction. The Brazilians started falling like over ripe pawpaw in a time wasting tactics which Ref Maria Sole Ferreira of Italy seem not to decode.

Both Brazil and Cameroon ended the first half with a goal each way. Naomi Eto opened scoring at the 22nd minute to bring her goals haul to 4 having scored against Australia and supplied the two goals in the 2-2 draw with Mexico. 

As the Naomi Eto goal survived a VAR review so a penalty call for Brazil went through and Paris Olympics Silver medalist, Priscila scored the equalizer 35th minute which came to be her 3rd goal in the games having scored against France and Fiji.

Brazil had scored 14 goals and conceded none on her way to the round of 16 matches beating Canada 2-0; slayed France 3-0 and slaughtered Fiji 9-0. On 3rd May 2024 she threw Venezuela a 2-0 victory and Peru lost to her 0-2 on 6th June 2024.

Debutante Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon scored 4 goals but conceded 3 goals coming as a lucky loser after beating Australia 2-0; lost 0-1 to hosts Colombia and played a wonderful 2-2 with Mexico at the group stages. 

Cameroon as a debutante country survived the group stages with Austria while Morocco and Fiji Islands are out of the competition.

Brazil was 4th at the maiden edition in Canada 2002 losing 4-3 to Germany on penalty after 1-1 at full time; at Thailand 2004 USA beat Brazil to win the Bronze 3-0; at Russia 2006 Brazil won Bronze beating USA 6-4 on penalties after a goalless full time; she snoozed off till the last edition at Costa Rica 2022 when she slammed Netherlands 4-1 to claim the Bronze again meaning Brazil never won the title.

Brazil will meet winner between North Korea and Austria in the quarterfinal on 15th September at Medellin.

Defending Champions, Spain came from behind to edge the maiden Hosts of the world U20 female football championships, Canada  with a Moral Luiz pass to Silvia Lloris who scored a much desired winner in the 81st minute.
 
After surviving a penalty shout out cancelled by VAR in the 33rd minute, Florianne Jourde scored for Canada in the 63rd minute but Spain promptly equalized in the 65th minute through Jone Amezaga from an Ortega assist. Jone, it was who paralyzed Paraguay with the two goals that shook the Paraguans in the 0-2 loss.

Spain is now on standby to meet the winner of the Round of 16 matches between the Falconets of Nigeria and Japan in a quarterfinal duel that will take place in Medellin on 15th September.

On Thursday 12th September at 0200 hours Nigerian morning, hosts Columbia will play the never say tired South Korean girls at Cali and on that date and time Yankee Babes will tackle fellow Continental team of Mexico at Bogota.

Same Thursday at 2230 hours North Korea and Austria will size each other up at Medellin while same time, the German Machine will be in operation against Argentina at Bogota.

The Falconets have a difficult task to dismantle the high tech Japanese team on Friday 13th September at 0200 hours at Medellin while two European nations France and Netherlands will clash at the same time at Medellin to conclude the Round of 16 matches.