By

Eniola Olatunji 

The Samba Girls of Brazil in the early hours of Friday West African time, unleashed Juju to nip a victory over Africa’s U17 women’s football entry Zambia in a group D match attended by a scanty 470 crowd under the watchful eyes of Ref Le Thi Ly of Vietnam.

Juliana Haris aka Juju got a pass from Bellani at the Estadio Felix Sanchez to score the lone goal in the 19th minute. It is becoming the norm for every Brazilian payer to have nicknames that propel them globally like Edson Arantes de Nascimento aka Pele who was a world legend before his death.

Brazil tops group D with 3 points; Japan that played goalless with Poland is 2nd with no point; Poland is 3rd also with no point and Zambia that had a scintillating performance against Brazil is temporarily at the bottom. There is almost no stats difference between Brazil and Zambia just the lucky goal.

Africa was not lucky this Friday morning as another entry, Kenya lost to the Junior Three Lionesses of England 2-0 in group C.

Lola Sangita Brown scored via penalty in the 29th minute and Lauryn Thompson made it two in the 87th minute before a crowd of 777 football fans with Ref Alejandra Quisbert of Bolivia. 

Thus, North Korea tops group C with 3 points scoring 4 goals and conceding 1; England is 2nd with 3 points scoring 2 goals with a clean slate; Kenya is 3rd with no point no goal scored but a deficit of 2 goals while Mexico is 4th with no point 1 goal scored and 4 goals conceded.

The second round group matches open on Saturday at 2100 WAT when Nigeria plays Ecuador and Spain has a vital appointment with Sout Korea. At midnight of Saturday, hosts Dominic Republic will face New Zealand; Columbia will tackle USA at the same time.

On Sunday at 2100 hours, Japan will try a high tech game against Brazil; same time Kenya will have the Herculean task to dismantle the North Korean team. At midnight of Sunday Zambia will try to be free to difuse the Polish energy and England will tackle Mexico.