Nigeria Vs Colombia (0-1): Retrospective Reflection

The warning signs were there in the second half, early in the second half, that Columbia were aiming for a smash-and-grab slim win but Nigeria failed to heed the warning.

Firstly, a Columbian striker left our entire backline behind to find herself 1 v 1 with our goalkeeper before said goalkeeper recovered well. Secondly, straight through the middle, our defence was breached again, only for a last ditch goalkeeper intervention, both early in the second half.

Nigeria hugged possession like a lover in the first half and created some pretty decent openings. Whilst I applaud their passing regime, goals, not passes, win games.

So, Columbia, ever so content to allow Nigeria to be the lover of possession, and them, not the fighter of it, they fought hard to create what mattered most: the opening to stab home in 93 minutes, breaking Nigerian hearts.

I was never too impressed with our coach all through the tournament but today, I thought Coach Aduku did reasonably well, the outcome notwithstanding.

His girls looked professional, business-like and focused. Their passes were neat and tidy and they showed variety in their play with crosses, long balls, nice shots, great hold up play and decent defensive work.

Janet was fabulous with neat touches, clean movements, decent vision and an eye for the spectacular. However, failure to replace her after our red card proved to be the calamity that doomed our ambitions.

After the red card, Coach Aduku shifted to a 4-3-2 formation with Janet dropping deep to be a midfielder. Never a midfielder, Janet lost her opponent before the through-ball that created the opening for the lethal goal.

Had Coach Aduku replaced Janet for a more combative midfielder whilst also shoring the midfield with more bodies, Columbia might have struggled to create that opening for that goal.

Midfielder Mafishere did play with fire with her foot that high: a valid red card for me.

Our girls played with confidence, verve and really deserved the match to, at least, go to penalties.

They were physical which accounted for the red card.

Sometimes, our wingers tried to dribble too many opponents but, as usual, Columbia, like all our other opponents, knew this flaw in Nigeria’s design. So, they doubled, even tripled up on our wingers to retrieve the ball without even committing a foul.

Nigerian female wingers, beware: opponents know your little tricks, tricks that now have very low success rate.

This Falconets team was never a podium achievement side.

Columbia came with a smash-and-grab game plan that worked flawlessly whilst masterfully neutralising our game plan.

Unlike England, Colombia were tight and compact at the back and didn’t commit the sort of school-girl errors that England committed which gifted us at least 2 goals in that match.

The day our indigenous coaches learn how to neutralise the strategies opponents want to use to neutralise Nigerian strategy, our coaches will taste success.

Until then, well done for this effort. It wasn’t bad; in the same breath, it wasn’t quite good enough.