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Despite defeating
defending champions North Korea 3-2, at the ongoing FIFA U-17 Women’s
World Cup on Sunday, the female U-17 national football team need to do
better in their second match, a former FIFA referee John Zaki has said.

According to him, the players were good individually but need to improve on their fitness and coordination.

“The problem is not
actually with the players but with the coaches. They should have
trained the girls to be fit enough. Throughout the game, they were
playing as if they were fagged out but it seemed that in the last 10
minutes they improved,” he said.

Zaki also warned that none of the players involved should rest on their oars.

“This was the first
match to be played in Trinidad and Tobago and I am sure that the
coaches who were watching would have seen the lapses the girls had and
will try to work at improving on their present achievement”.

On her part,
Falcons Coach, Eucharia Uche has attributed the way the Flamingos
played to the dicey situation of first games in any tournament.

“Usually the first
games of every tournament are usually tension filled and riddled with
uncertainty. Let’s not forget that the girls had it at the back of
their minds that they were going to be playing against the defending
champions, Korea DPR and that most of them have never played at that
level. So let us not totally focus on how they played but let us look
at what they got”.

The way forward

Uche is also sure
that the hard-fought 3-2 victory over Korea DPR will have given the
girls more confidence and composure to go on and win the next match.

Though the win over Korea will have served as a morale booster, the Flamingos have been warned not to rest on their laurels.

Zaki warned that,
“There are no small teams nowadays, so the Flamingos should not feel
because they have crossed the Korea hurdle, they have overcome. Though
Chile and Trinidad and Tobago are coming in to the tournament for the
first time, it is important that they do not take these teams for
granted”.

Uche agrees with
Zaki. “One thing I would advise the Flamingos is that they should
remain focused and work on their lapses and not be distracted,” the
Falcons coach said.

“I see them topping their group because the toughest team in the
group is Korea DPR and they have defeated them. So if they go into
their next match and all subsequent matches like they have no point on
ground, they would go very far.”