Coach Bankole tutored Flamingos got their U-17 Women’s World Cup campaign to a flying start by making light work of New Zealand in their 4:1 demolition job yesterday.
Moshood kicked off the festivities in just 2 minutes with a tidy close range finish followed by Adegoke’s thunderous long range belter that the opposition goalkeeper fumbled in 13 minutes to make it 2:0.
A well worked beautifully-crafted corner kick routine resulted in Abdulwahab’s delightful curling shot in 28 minutes for the 3rd goal with Afolabi’s luscious looping header in 55 minutes serving as the spice to the jollof rice to make it 4:0. Saxon pulled 1 goal back for the battered and bruised New Zealand in 60 minutes to end it 4:1.
For under-17 football, I thought Nigeria were structurally sound to a level higher than this stage of football. It didn’t take me long to decipher that they were playing 4-3-3 formation in the first half and then changed distinctly to 4-2-4 in the second half.
In all honesty, they were articulate and coherent in their movements that were in tune the gestalt of their formation.
The midfield trio of Afolabi, Abdulwahab and Moshood combined well to take total control of their area: creating openings, initiating deadly passes, pressing, probing, prodding and pinning New Zealand to their half. In front, the chemistry worked well between Effiong and Chidi but occasional selfish play from both (which is normal for strikers in world football) meant they scored less goals than they would have.
Overlapping right full-back Adegoke was a star performer with her tackles, runs, assist, goal, passes and all-round rambunctious display. The other players were not far behind in giving good accounts of themselves.
In the first half, I did notice quite a worrisome number of wayward, overcooked or under-baked passes which rubbed their game of some shine. But for the most parts they were physical and unbelievably athletic with a desire to announce themselves as possible title contenders with the focus, urgency and vibrancy at which they approached their game.
You get a lot of what you pay for from a Nigerian team: Sunday Oliseh type long range bullets which troubled the opposition; Amokachi type bullish offensive play from Harmony and Effiong, Ola Aina kind of purposeful overlapping fullback display from Adegoke laced with the sort of midfield dominance spearheaded by Afolabi that Super Eagles fans have craved for, for a while now.
Changing to 4-2-4, for me, in the second half didn’t quite work. Now having just 2 midfielders in Afolabi and Abdulwahab, supply defence-splitting passes to the now twin strike force of Harmony and Effiong didn’t fully materialise.
Midfielder Abdulwahab, who had been a potent force offensively in the first half, now had to sit back deeper to shield the back 4, thereby drastically curtailing her offensive threat. The left winger had to drop to deep to augment the midfield and I felt the stranglehold we had in that midfield dissolved after going 4-2-4.
It was lovely, to be honest, to finally see the duo of Harmony and Effiong but Afolabi by herself couldn’t do the heavy lifting needed to feed them plentiful poisonous passes with Abdulwahab now firmly in defensive duties; even those killer long range shots that were a staple in the first half now started drying up after a change in formation.
For the second half 4-2-4 to work, Coach Bankole has to work out how to provide Harmony and Effiong a solid midfield infrastructure behind them or else just stick with 4-3-3 (which has 3 marauding midfielders).
It was also nice to see my favourite Ramota Kareem introduced in the dying minutes and almost scoring. But again, she was trying too hard to bully her way past defenders with limited high-grade passes from midfield to work with.
In all: a delicious and sweet game to watch. I was left satisfied, thrilled and thoroughly entertained.
They also schooled me in the art of disciplined, free-flowing accessible football at this level. The players displayed their physicality and tactical prowess. But, better teams than New Zealand await them; team that will ask far greater questions than they were subjected to yeaterday!
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