By

Eniola Olatunji 

Nigeria’s Flamingos on Saturday slumped 0-2 to the Yanks of USA in the first quarterfinals of the world U17 women’s cup at the at Santiago de los Cabelleros Stadium.
 
Kennedy Fuller was the star of the night as she stepped forward to rifle home a penalty shot in the 43rd minute to make her goals haul at the mundial three as she scored in the 5-0 slaughter of Columbia and 2-0 win over Columbia. Fuller provided the assist for Kimmi Ascanio who put icing on the sugar for the Yankee babes in the 74th minute.

On a day that the attacking philosophy of Nigeria’s Coach Bankole Oloowookere was supposed to work wonders the Nigerian players put every foot wrong especially in the second half.

Though Nigeria made 17-16 shots at goal only 3-10 were on target and the off target shots were 10-4. USA dominated play so much in the second half with 58-42% ball possession; stringing 417-311 passes when the Nigerian giarl were making several inaccurate passes.

From the time the 2nd goal went into Nigeria’s net, there were many errors from the Nigerians passing to the opponetnts or shooting for the blockings to come committing 11-6 fouls and the only yellow card of the match was flashed at Ascanio in the 57th minute

Nigerian defence was careless to watch for offside tactics as the Americans were caught four times one of which got them a 3rd goal which Ref Asaka Koizumi of Japan refused before the 8,000 capacity crowd. Nigeria’s Keeper saved her team from further embarrassment saving 7 close shots that got her a hug from Coach Olowookere after the match.

The only time the two teams met though was on 21st October 2022 at the same quarterfinal in India which ended 1-1 where Edafe scored for Nigeria via penalty kick at the 26th minute and USA equalized in the 40th minute via Villarreal’s goal. Nigeria went   into the semifinal winning 4-3 on penalty kicks. 

Two Nigerian star Players, Chidi Harmony who was  15 years old at this tournament and Peace Effiong who is 14 years will be eligible to play for the U17 world cup in Morocco next year if Nigeria qualifies. They can still play for the U20 female world cup next year too. Il-son Choe aged 17 in this tournament had last September played for South Korea in the Women’s world U20 tournament.

USA will proceed to meet the winner of the North Korea versus Poland match on Wednesday 30th October at midnight Nigerian time in the semifinal.  

Poland will be next opponent of England in the 2nd quarterfinal scheduled for Saturday at 2330 hours. Ecuador will test might against Spain in the 3rd quarterfinal on Sunday by 8:30 pm at Santiago Domino and Japan will do battle in an Asian war against North Korea in the 4th quarter final on Sunday at 2330 hours.

The semifinals will be USA versus North Korea/Japan on Wednesday at Midnight while the 2nd semifinal will be England/ Poland versus Spain/Ecuador on Thursday at midnight.

The 3rd place match for the Bronze Medal is scheduled for Sunday at 1930 hours before the grand finale at 2300 hours of same Sunday.