It Is Semi-finals Or Burst for Danjuma
Coach Chris Danjuma has a lot of grounds to make up. So, for me, he has to start putting results that represent tangible improvements where his mouth is.
"The import is that we must bring our ‘A’ game to the party in all three group stage matches in the U-20 World Cup in Columbia this Summer," stated Coach Danjuma recently.
This will be the 3rd U-20 Women's World Cup in 6 years that Danjuma will be shepherding the Super Falconets into. Whilst he proved adept at navigating the group stages emphatically and compellingly in the last 2 episodes, it is the quarter-finals that the wheels fall off spectacularly.
In 2018, he stood tall against China and Haiti whilst only yielding very narrowly to Germany in the group stages. But his girls would be tossed aside in the quarter-final against Spain despite parading fantastic players like Nnadozie, Gift Monday, Ajibade, Ucheibe, Efih, Okeke and Ogbonna.
In 2022, his Falconets were simply and utterly brilliant in the group stages as they proved unplayable to heavyweight France, Canada and South Korea to bag all 9 points on offer.
Yet again, shockingly, it would all unravel in the quarter-finals as the team was humbled by Holland despite Nigeria again parading heavyweights of under-20 football like Mercy Idoko, Alani, Demehin, Sebastian, Oyenedize, Imuran and Deborah Abiodun. I kid you not, under a more savvy and shrewd coach, the last Super Falconets side was a tournament winning squad.
Yet Chris Danjuma burnt my retina to tears as he came painfully short in the knock out stages, again!
To make matters worse, in recent seasons, he has failed to win the U-20 WAFU Cup and Africa Games Gold, coming second on both occasions after fabulous and barnstorming group stage outings.
So, I am back to where I began - nothing but a semi-final slot would raise the profile of Chris Danjuma in my eyes beyond a decent coach who assembles fabulous players only to fail to mastermind tournament success with the same players based on faulty tactical methods when it matters the most.
Danjuma has bottled it when it matters the most in later stages of tournaments.
It high time he sheds this bottling image and don a pericarp of an accomplished coach. It is not how you start but how strongly you finish the tournament as a coach that would go down well in the annals of tournament history.
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