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After being
walloped 8-0 in a recent friendly match with world champions, Germany,
the Super Falcons have been handed another opportunity to redeem their
battered image. The Falcons have been drawn in the same group with
Germany for next’ year’s World Cup, which runs through June 26-July 27
2011 in four cities in Germany.

Drawn in Group A, the Falcons will also have a date with Canada and France in the group phase of the female Mundial.

The defeat to
Germany is the worst to be inflicted upon the Super Falcons by any side
since their equally embarrassing 8-0 defeat to Norway at the 1995 FIFA
Women’s World Cup held in Sweden.

The Super Falcons
who recently regained their African title in South Africa after
defeating Equatorial Guinea 4-2 in the finals have been to every female
World Cup.

A key member of
the Falcons’ team, Perpetua Nkwocha who was the highest goal scorer in
South Africa says the team will put behind them the past experiences
that led to unimpressive outings at the World and concentrate on doing
well in Germany.

“I think there are
a number of factors that have contributed to that. Some will say we
have underachieved there, I wouldn’t agree with that entirely. What is
important is for us to forget about what happened in the past and
concentrate on the upcoming World Cup”.

The other African representative, Equatorial Guinea, was grouped alongside Brazil, Australia Norway and England.

Early preparation

Falcons coach,
Eucharia Uche said though she would not promise a World Cup trophy she
will do all that is possible to make Nigerians proud.

She said for the team to perform creditable at the World Cup, early preparation is key.

“I would want this team to begin adequate preparation as early as January 2011.

We should start preparation because the World Cup starts in June,”
she said. “[The] World Cup like you know is bigger than AWC (African
Women Championship). It is a bigger tournament and we intend to do
well. That is why we must take preparation seriously. And I also intend
to extend invitation to some of our foreign players who could not make
it to AWC because of one problem or the other, to beef up the team with
more experienced players to fill the loopholes we discovered”.