27th June, 2011
Despite losing their opening match 0-1 to France at the FIFA Women World Cup yesterday, Chief Coach of the Super Falcons, Uche Eucharia and reigning Female African Footballer of the Year, Perpetua Nkwocha, have expressed confidence in the team’s ability to advance to the quarter final stage of the tournament.
The Super Falcons lost 0-1 to France yesterday, but Eucharia and Nkwocha still believe that the reigning world champions, whom they would confront on Thursday, are beatable.
Speaking shortly after the match, Eucharia, who is the first person to win the Africa Women Champion, AWC, both as a coach and a player opined that the Nigerian ladies can defeat Germany.
She declared that his team can take the hosts to the cleaners not considering the fact that they are hosts and defending champions.
According to her, “Germany are beatable. This is football and it is not over until it is over. We are not losing sleep ahead of the match but we are going to play them as if it is the final match”.
While reacting to the Falcons’ loss to France in their first match of the World Cup, the coach said that their target was to win the match. She scolded the attackers for not converting the chances that came their way.
“We would have won the match, but we lost a lot of scoring opportunities,†she said.
Nkwocha said the loss to the French ladies was very unfortunate, adding that they would approach their next match with all the strength that they can muster.
In her words: “I’m a bit disappointed with the outcome of the match, in football anything can still happen.â€
She also praised the 25,000 fans that watched the match for not being sentimental with their support, saying “the fans really cheered both teams.. They gave both teams equal support”.
—Adebobola Alawode