The Falconets coach, Peter Dedevbo, has lamented his side’s inability to lift the 2014 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup after bowing to Germany tactical superiority in the final played on Sunday at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in Canada.
The Nigerian girls held their own in the full 90 minutes of the encounter but lost steam and dominance of the game in the extra time and thereby surrendered the trophy to the Germans in the end, losing 1-0.
Lena Peterman’s strike in the first half of the extra-time condemned the Falconets to a lone goal defeat, thereby leaving Nigeria finishing as first runners –up for the second time in four years.
Nigeria got to the final in 2010 and also lost 2-0 to Germany, who held that year edition. Dedevbo admitted that his lasses missed the trophy due to poor marksmanship and tactical indiscipline.
He said they had themselves to blame for not entering the record books as the first African team to win a female World Cup title as statistics showed that Nigeria had more possessions and, indeed, attempts at goal than their German counterparts.
Though the Falconets may also claim to have been undone by the centre referee as with five minutes remaining Nigeria had the ball in the net only for their celebrations to be cut short by the assistant referee’s flag for supposedly offside play, but in spite their loss the Falconets tactician still thanked God the team still made the country proud.
“There are lots of good teams in this tournament who crashed out earlier than us, whereas Nigeria – not generally seen as the best – made it all the way to the final,” Dedevbo said in a post-match interview.
“We had enough opportunities to win the match in the first half alone. But while we had chances and didn’t take them, Germany had one chance and took it.
“That’s the nature of football. I’ve not spoken to the girls yet but I will tell them to take this defeat hard and learn from it because we lost this game due to tactical indiscipline, he added.
