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Ebenezer Bajela.
Nigeria’s U-17 women’s national team, the Flamingos, will face a free-scoring USA side in the quarter-finals of the ongoing India 2022 U-17 Women’s World Cup on Friday (today), PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The Flamingos secured their passage to the quarter-finals with a 2-1 victory over Chile in their last Group B game on Monday.
Having lost their opening match 2-1 to Germany, Bankole Oloworooke’s side defeated New Zealand 4-0, before eliminating the Chileans at the Kalinga Stadium to book the second spot behind the Germans.
The Flamingos, who are making their fourth quarter-final appearance in the tournament’s history, will however hope to break the last eight final jinx as they aim to reach the semi-final of the tournament for the first time.
But to do so, they must first fly past the free-scoring Americans, who have been ruthless at the tournament, scoring 13 goals and conceding just one goal.
PUNCH Sports Extra takes a look at the five things the Flamingos must do to stand a chance reaching the last four of the tournament in India.
Solid in defence
Though Nigeria are one of the countries who have conceded the least number of goals at the ongoing tournament, having let in just three goals, they will need to do more when they come up against the United States.
After scoring 13 goals overall and only giving up one in the group round, the Americans are one of the tournament’s free-scoring sides. They trounced hosts India 8-0 in their first game, drew 1-1 with Brazil and hammered Morocco 4-0 in their last Group A game.
Olowookere must ensure his defence is watertight against the Americans, who have some of the best shooters of the ball at the tournament. Against Germany, the Flamingos conceded two goals that could have been avoided and were heavily punished as they were made to finish second behind the same opponents.
To avoid a repeat of what happened against Germany, the Flamingos must be solid defensively, leaving little or no room for errors against the Americans.
Clinical
Another area the Flamingos will have to improve on is the opposition’s end of the pitch. The young Nigerians have been wasteful in front of goal at the ongoing tournament and big evidence of that was against Chile, when they had 23 shots with just 11 on target and only two of those were able to beat the Red Ones goalkeeper.
Playing against opponents who are good at scoring goals, the Flamingos will need to ensure that they make good use of their chances if they want to stand a chance of making it through to the semi-final for the first time ever.
Control the game
The Flamingos must control the game, especially the midfield, if they hope to advance.
After their defeat to Germany on match-day 1, where they lost possession to the Europeans, the Flamingos improved against New Zealand, winning possession of the game 56-44 to record a convincing 4-0 win.
Against Chile, they had 57 per cent of the ball possession, while the North Americans had 43, but they will need to do better against the Americans today.
Focused
The Nigerian team has an average age of 15.7, one of the youngest at the tournament, with midfielder Mary Aderemi the youngest (14). With the girls ages, the tendency to lose focus at any point during a match will be quite high.
In their opening game, Olowookere’s girls led the encounter for the most part but lost focus when it mattered most and they were punished for that by the Germans. In their last game, they held their ground against Chile, but as it was against the Germans, they took their feet off the pedal and allowed the South Americans to get back into the game to end the encounter on a nervous note.
Today, they must ensure they stay focused for the entirety of the game because a minor slip could see them exit the tournament.
Utilise Ajakaye
The Flamingos always look more dangerous on the attack whenever the versatile Opeyemi Ajakaye is with the ball and this is something Olowookere and his technical crew must take advantage of.
Ajakaye, who emerged as the top scorer in the qualifying stages in Africa, has been one of the best players so far at the tournament and has won the player of the match award twice.
Against Chile, she rattled the crossbar with a thunderous strike, before providing the assist for Blessing Emmanuel’s goal. Her passes and crosses are topnotch and the team will need to make good use of her qualities by getting her more involved in the game.