Nigeria 1:2 Poland - Retrospective Reflection

It is truly disappointing losing to Poland. Nigeria, a veteran of Under 17 women's football played second fiddle to Poland who are appearing in only their second U-17 Women's World Cup.

Poland looked professional, polished, perceptible in their play whilst Nigeria looked like amateurs.

I think our wingers held on to the ball too long whilst our midfielders failed to assert themselves.

Our defence, despite the 2 goals conceded, actually looked quite capable as their tackles and interceptions helped to keep the scoreline respectable.

Nigeria played something like 4-2-3-1 formation in which the players looked uncomfortable in. There was no flair, flamboyance or even basic competency in the implementation of our routines. Granted, after the 70th minute, there was renewed urgency from Nigeria but they couldn't find the second wind for a second goals.

It's like we no longer know how to play football in Nigeria; it's like we no longer have the ability to assemble competent players to prosecute age-grade FIFA tournaments.

The positives against Poland are: our wingers have pace and our players have athletism and physicality. As mentioned, our defence sticks the landing competently and our goalkeeper is imposing.

If they can iron out a lot of rough edges in their passing routines, interplay, coordination and overall gameplay, maybe they could turn things around.

Also, Coach Busari needs to adopt a formation that will fit the players like a pair of gloves. His direction was very poor against Poland. His girls relied too much on their athletism and they were individualistic. He needs to drill the spirit of collectivism into them and he needs to work on the quality of their deliveries.

This defeat is an indictment of the overall poor state of Nigerian football as a whole. It served to forge a fresh ring into an ever lengthening chain of poor results across all our national teams in recent times.

I had high hopes for this team going into the tournament. Those hopes are now well and truly dashed. I don't see them doing anything meaningful or tangible in Morocco anymore.