5th June, 2022
By Georgina Adegbie
Bankole Olowookere, the Head Coach of the Nigeria Women’s National Under-17 Football Team, says he needed to strategise and plan ahead of the World Cup in India.
This comes after the final round of the final leg, World Cup Qualifiers, was played at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
Nigeria’s Flamingos drew goalless with their Ethiopian counterparts to advance to the 2022 FIFA U- 17 Women’s World Cup Qualifiers India.
Olowookere said he needed to strategise with the technical department, which had been part of the team.
According to him, it is not too early to start preparing and planning ahead for the World Cup.
“They (technical department) have always been impacting their knowledge to us. They are my father, they had a lot of experience that I need to tap from it,” he said.
He said the success of the team was a joint work of the entire team and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
“This is a national work, it’s a team work we have to work together – the coaches, the players, the entire team as well as the entire body of the NFF.
“Our priority and our next assignment are to make sure that Nigeria does well at the World Cup,” he said.
Meanwhile, the coach commended the team for making the country proud over their counterparts.
“I appreciate the players for the work well done, we are proud that we have fulfilled our promise to Nigerians.
“The victory is not for us but to make the country proud, it was a tough journey up till now; we give God all the glory for the success,” he said.
He said Ethiopia was one of the fittest teams he had ever met in the course of this journey.
“The second match was a tough one, we knew that they lost at home and they are coming to Nigeria for revenge. We decided not to give them a chance to score, they are one of the fittest teams I have ever played in my life.
“I thank my players, they played to instructions, they played with details, anytime I call their attention they responded and did the needful,” he said.
On her part, the captain of the team, Alvine Dah Zossu, said she was happy that they would represent the country in India.
“We knew Ethiopia was a good side; we need to work more in the final round of the final leg of the match.
“The coaches’ crew will do the necessary things to prepare us ahead of the world cup.
“We say thank you to Nigerians for their support. We thank NFF for their support, and their motivation, I just want to tell them to continue with their support.
“They came to our camp, they motivated us one way or the other and they took care of us in camp and we are saying a very big thank you to them,” she said.
NAN