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After another late show against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, the Flamingos will be expecting at least a draw in their last group match against Chile. A draw will guarantee them first place in their group.

The girls have shown their superior fitness in their matches, with a stronger finish in their matches against North Korea and the hosts. But the penchant of conceding sloppy goals continues to dog the team as they let in another easy goal in their game against Trinidad and Tobago.

Limiting mistakes

Eucharia Uche, the coach of the national team, Super Falcons is not too mindful of this fact.

“To teach concentration to young players is a very important task but is not easy to achieve. They easily get carried away and crucially their lapses in concentration have coincided with conceding goals,” she said.

“The coach may need to explore introducing peculiar drills that will help his wards stay concentrated for the duration of their matches.”

John Zaki, a former FIFA referee said the Flamingos coach is yet to find a way for the team to get goals. “The forwards consisting of Francisca Ordega and Ngozi Okobi are two very speedy players but they have not been well utilised. We are still playing ‘hit and hope’ football. The coach has to devise a way to make good use of their speed.”

In the match against Trinidad, the girls had 23 shots against seven for the Soca Princesses. They also played 13 corner kicks and 66% possession but had only two goals to show for all the superiority over the Islanders.

The journey so far

The Flamingos qualified for the quarter-finals of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup thanks to a winner four minutes from time by Loveth Ayila in their game against Trinidad and Tobago. The host nation was saved from embarrassment by their goalkeeper, Linfah Jones, who made many crucial saves to keep the scoreline respectable.

That result combined with a 3-2 opening win against 2008 champions North Korea gives the Flamingos six points and has seen them emulate their seniors, the Falconets; they are now three matches from a final appearance. And as it stands, Ayila’s goal means Trinidad & Tobago must now defeat the Koreans in the final group encounter to avoid elimination from ‘their’ tournament.

Though Nigeria’s coach, Peter Dedevbo said he is “very impressed by the Trinidad and Tobago team”, they must now impress their game on their opponents, North Korea as they seek to progress to the second round.

Germany are record breakers

The tournament has been set alight with the avalanche of goals from Germany. They followed up their 9-0 trouncing of Mexico by putting ten past South Africa, with all but one of their goals coming before the interval. They are definitely World Cup favourites and it looks like folly to try and stop them. They are strong, very fast and keep their shape consistently.

Bantswana were hammered 10-1 at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago thereby setting a record for the largest win in the history of the women’s U-17 finals. Kyra Malinowski also scored four goals to bring her tally to seven with the Germans having signalled their intent through scoring 19 goals in two matches. FIFA officials will have been pleased to see the young South Africans join the crowd to support Mexico against South Africa. After their heavy loss to Germany the team took their seats at the Dwight Yorke Stadium trying to urge a Mexican side to win and help keep their own hopes alive in the competition. They joined in with the crowd’s chants of “Me-xi-co” but their support was all to no avail as South Korea won by 4-1.

Korea Republic have thus advanced to the last eight and the Asians destroyed any Mexican resistance with some lightning counter-attacks and will now fight it with the Germans for top spot in the section, while South Africa and Mexico having nothing but pride to play for in their farewell game.