Cameroon Crush Nigeria's Campaign (1:0) At Wafcon With Wafer-thin Win: Retrospective Reflection

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the Super Falcons players and the coaching team for, at the very least, reaching the knockout stages of this Wafcon (that provides faint hopes of reaching the world cup through a painful back door) and showing Cameroon in the quarter finals that they would have to sweat tears and blood and rely on superhuman goalkeeping acumen to beat Nigeria.

Even in defeat, I thought the Super Falcons played very well against Cameroon: we matched their physicality: we dominated midfield; we created blatant scoring chances; and we restricted them to speculative shots at goal.

However, even as a super fan of Justine Madugu that I am, I have to say that his team lost discipline, structure and bite from the 62nd minute after he elected to introduce Toni Payne for Christie Ucheibe.

To be honest, I see what he was trying to do which is: to shift emphasis. However, that "shifting of emphasis" backfired spectacularly and, in my humble opinion, contributed to losing us the match.

You see, Madugu started the match with a forward-facing diamond midfield: Ucheibe and Abiodun sat behind Echegini (as the sole centre attacking midfield).

And it worked! My Lord, it worked! As early as 5 minutes, Echegini already had a bombastic effort at goal from the central position Madugu placed her. If it were Nnadozie in goal for Cameroon, that shot would have scored. In fact, Echegini had a similar effort from a similar position at goal but a similar save from the goalkeeper of the tournament kept Nigeria out - that Cameroon goalkeeper was an absolute joy to watch (I think I am in love).

Behind Echegini, Abiodun and Ucheibe were robustly breaking up play, retrieving and recycling possession, creating overload, shadow marking, and instigating attack with wonderful passes and (most importantly) helping keep Cameroon at bay.

However, to Madugu's credit, we needed to score to equalise. So, he chose to take out the excellent Ucheibe for Payne thereby turning his midfield into a backward-facing diamond now with only Abiodun at the base with Echegini and now Payne in front of her.

Again, I see what Madugu was trying to do: have more bodies in attacking areas for Nigeria.

However, that "defensive sacrifice" in taking out Ucheibe lost Nigeria the midfield and allowed Cameroon a route into our attack as Abiodun was now overloaded, overworked, overran as the sole defensive midfielder.

At this point, around 68 minutes, this blanket of despair enveloped me and the feeling of foreboding overwhelmed me!

That tactical switch, though sensible on paper, proved disastrous on grass. We lost the midfield and the central attacking position from which Echegini peppered the new love of my life (the Cameroon goalkeeper) was now fallow, unoccupied, unexploited!

Fans should be careful what they wish for. Everyone had been berating Madugu for always benching Gift Monday. Now, bowing to pressure, he started this same Monday who proved, on the night, to be as effective as a cardboard box that has been left out in the rain at Oshodi Bus Terminal - bleeding useless! I wish Oshoala, with her pace, had started.

Even Payne couldn't add steel to the midfield when she was introduced - another player Madugu had been dragged in the mud about.

Oh well, congratulations Cameroon, I guess! The big guns are out: South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. So we will have a new winner of the Wafcon in the history of the tournament. Which, let's face it, isn't all together a bad thing for the development of women's football in Africa, if you want to see it from a continental perspective.