Papua New Guinea: NFF scribe hails U-20 women team
http://www.gatewaymail.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Nigerias-Under-20-female-soccer-team-in-Papua-New-Guinea..jpgBy Wole OTAYEMI (Abeokuta)
NIGERIA: DESPITE their ouster at the biennial FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea, the nation’s national junior women team has gotten a pat on the back.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said that the team should be commended for their gallant performance at the soccer contest, which featured 16 teams from six confederations.
The tournament began on November 13 and will end on December 3.
The NFF General Secretary, Dr. Sanusi Mohammed, said that the junior women team performed their best at the competition and, therefore, deserved to be applauded.
Mohammed stated that the time had come for sports administrators to begin to appreciate women soccer as they are sources of joy to the nation.
He assured the female players that they would be accorded their deserved respect in the scheme of things.
The team had last Sunday in their Group B final match defeated Spain two goals to one, but could not qualify for the knockout stage of the soccer contest due to goal difference.
The Nigerian women soccer warriors, led by Head Coach, Peter Dedevbo, had ended the preliminary stage with six points like Japan.
They, however, could not proceed to the quarter final due to their three goals deficit while Japan had 10 goals, which pushed the Asians to the next stage of the competition.
Earlier, the African champions had lost by six goals to nothing to Japan, but bounced back in their second match by defeating Canada three goals to one, even coming from one goal down to thrash the North American team of coach Daniel Worthington.
