The sports scene has been agog since the FIFA World Cup kicked off
nearly two months ago. Theough the battle had since been won and lost,
sports have been on focus.
The end of the Brazil 2014 World Cup almost coincided with the beginning of another sports fiesta, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The end of that had again seen the beginning of another struggle for supremacy in sports, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off to night in Canada
Good enough, Nigeria is fea- turing, making a continuous chain of nine weeks of sporting activities involving Nigerians.
The Nigerian side, Super Fal- conets, are already a beacon of the FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup. They are one of the four teams to have featured in all past editions.
The other three omnipresent teams of the competition are Brazil, USA and Germany. In the last two editions, the Nige- rian team showed class. The Falconets were runners up to hosts Germany four years ago and got to semi finals in 2012 in Japan.
Like the players of the other 15 participating countries, the Falconets have two objectives as Canada 2014 kicks off today.
The first will be to surpass the performances of the last two editions, which will see them winning the trophy.
The second objective, though secondary, is to graduate to the senior team, which coincidentally will be playing also in Canada next year in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Indeed, the youth level in football is not designed to be an end, but means to an end. The Canadians and the French sides are already primed for the dual objectives as could be gleaned from the comments made to fifa.com by their players and coach.
Griedge Mbock Bathy, a defender in the French team is quot- ed as saying that Canada 2014 is twice as “motivating for me to have the chance to win the world title this year and nail my place down for Canada 2015.”
Canada’s coach, Andrew Ol- ivieri also spoke of a dual focus for the handlers of the respective teams. “Our goal is not to win tournaments at this level; it’s to develop players for the senior team,” he said. “But playing well, winning matches and going through the rounds at competitions like this will help us achieve that, so we know that one can come from the other.”
In the past, some players have used the youth level as springboard into higher level. For instance, in the current squad of Korea Republic are four players of the victorious FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup of 2010.
The France’s squad also features five of the players who won the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012. The Falconets of Nigeria are not left out from the squads, where junior players are graduating to higher level.
Hopes will be on the duo of Chiwendu Ihezuo and Halimatu Ayinde who between them scored 10 goals at the Azerbaijan 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
With 16 teams on parade, they are grouped into four and half of the participants will advance to the knockout stage. The Nigerian side will feature in Group C alongside England, Korea Re- public and Mexico. Most match- es of the group will be played in Moncton, except the Nigerian en- counter with England, which will be played in the more popular city of Edmonton.
The end of the Brazil 2014 World Cup almost coincided with the beginning of another sports fiesta, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The end of that had again seen the beginning of another struggle for supremacy in sports, the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off to night in Canada
Good enough, Nigeria is fea- turing, making a continuous chain of nine weeks of sporting activities involving Nigerians.
The Nigerian side, Super Fal- conets, are already a beacon of the FIFA U-20 women’s World Cup. They are one of the four teams to have featured in all past editions.
The other three omnipresent teams of the competition are Brazil, USA and Germany. In the last two editions, the Nige- rian team showed class. The Falconets were runners up to hosts Germany four years ago and got to semi finals in 2012 in Japan.
Like the players of the other 15 participating countries, the Falconets have two objectives as Canada 2014 kicks off today.
The first will be to surpass the performances of the last two editions, which will see them winning the trophy.
The second objective, though secondary, is to graduate to the senior team, which coincidentally will be playing also in Canada next year in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Indeed, the youth level in football is not designed to be an end, but means to an end. The Canadians and the French sides are already primed for the dual objectives as could be gleaned from the comments made to fifa.com by their players and coach.
Griedge Mbock Bathy, a defender in the French team is quot- ed as saying that Canada 2014 is twice as “motivating for me to have the chance to win the world title this year and nail my place down for Canada 2015.”
Canada’s coach, Andrew Ol- ivieri also spoke of a dual focus for the handlers of the respective teams. “Our goal is not to win tournaments at this level; it’s to develop players for the senior team,” he said. “But playing well, winning matches and going through the rounds at competitions like this will help us achieve that, so we know that one can come from the other.”
In the past, some players have used the youth level as springboard into higher level. For instance, in the current squad of Korea Republic are four players of the victorious FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup of 2010.
The France’s squad also features five of the players who won the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012. The Falconets of Nigeria are not left out from the squads, where junior players are graduating to higher level.
Hopes will be on the duo of Chiwendu Ihezuo and Halimatu Ayinde who between them scored 10 goals at the Azerbaijan 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
With 16 teams on parade, they are grouped into four and half of the participants will advance to the knockout stage. The Nigerian side will feature in Group C alongside England, Korea Re- public and Mexico. Most match- es of the group will be played in Moncton, except the Nigerian en- counter with England, which will be played in the more popular city of Edmonton.
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Soccer ‘world war’ shifts to Canada |
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