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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Ahead of Women’s World Cup, 6-metre tall Alex Morgan statue unveiled in US

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A statue of United States soccer player Alex Morgan is seen at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, U.S. June 27, 2023. REUTERS/Amy Tennery/File Photo

Fans wishing to snap a picture with U.S. forward Alex Morgan will have a chance at the next best thing as a six-metre, 825-pound (375kg) statue of the soccer star hits the road ahead of the Women’s World Cup.

World Cup broadcaster Fox Sports conceived of the statue to promote its programming for the tournament, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.

Known as ‘Liberty Alex’, the work is crafted from hard-coated and reinforced foam with a 3-D printed resin head and trophy, and features Morgan draped in an American flag, posing like the iconic Statue of Liberty.

Fox Sports will oversee the statue’s nationwide tour that includes stops at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Seattle and New York City.

Robert Gottlieb, president, marketing, Fox Sports, told Reuters his team began planning the project months ago.

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“It got bigger with each iteration,” said Gottlieb.

“Originally it was like, ‘Oh we’ll make it 10-foot’ and then it’s like, ‘You know, maybe it should be 15.” And then you kind of see 15 and, you know, let’s make it 20. And of course the cost goes up with each iteration.”

Morgan, who will appear in her fourth World Cup, modeled the flag in an April photoshoot. A team of 3-D artists, sculptors, painters and visual effects makeup artists completed the work in roughly a month.

“Every time we made it bigger, the weight increased, the materials, the amount of workmen and also the shipping,” said Gottlieb.

“So we have to truck this all over the country now, so we had to make custom containers that fit this exact shape.”

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-Reuters

 

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

What a goal-laden day for Nigeria; Falconets also win with wide margin!

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Nigeria Super Falconets gave Nigerians  additional joy after their 4-0 defeat of Venezuela in Cali, Colombia in their last group match. Their victory followed up with an earlier 3-0 win by the Super Eagles in their opening Group D match with Benin Republic in Uyo.

 The Falconets’ win means they have qualified for the Round of 16 where they are most likely going to face Japan when the group games are completed on Sunday.

  Both Nigeria and Germany tied on six points, but Germany have one goal better than Nigeria on goal difference.

The Super Falcons made early hays when Amina Bello put Nigeria ahead after 16 minutes. Chiamaka Okwuchukwu doubled the lead in the 28th minute before Flourish Sebastine put in the third five minutes into the added time of the first half. Joy Igbokwe put in the back breaker four minutes into the added time of the second hald.

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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Okwuchukwu shines despite Nigeria’s defeat to Germany in U-20 Women’s World Cup

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Nigeria’s U-20 Women’s World Cup campaign suffered a setback as they fell to a 3-1 defeat against a clinical German side in Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday night.

The result secures Germany’s place in the knockout stages, while leaving the Falconets with work to do in their final group match.

In an end-to-end encounter, both sides created numerous chances, but it was Germany who struck first. Cora Zicai’s pinpoint cross found Alara Sehitler, who nodded home in the 17th minute to give the Europeans the lead.

Nigeria’s star performer, Chiamaka Okwuchukwu, had earlier come close to opening the scoring with a magnificent solo run, only to be denied by German goalkeeper Rebecca Adamczyk.

Okwuchukwu’s persistence paid off early in the second half when she capitalized on a defensive mix-up to draw Nigeria level, celebrating with Cristiano Ronaldo’s famous ‘siuuu’ celebration.

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However, Germany’s quality shone through as they regained the lead through Sofie Zdebel, again assisted by the impressive Zicai.

Despite Okwuchukwu having another goal ruled out for offside, Germany sealed the win in stoppage time with Sarah Ernst’s powerful header.

The defeat leaves Nigeria on three points from two matches, with their final group game against Venezuela in Cali now crucial to their hopes of progressing. 

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WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Points of Note in Falconets’ loss to Germany

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Germany beat Nigeria’s Falconets 3-1 in their second group game of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. With Germany’s win, the Europeans have made it to the last 16 stage, even with a game to spare.

The coach of Germany, Kathrin Peter acknowledged the efforts of the Nigerian team , saying: “It was a really tough match today.

“That was expected, but we actually had big problems in defence. They had a few chances where we had the necessary luck, we have to admit that.

“But in the second half we were really good and asserted our dominance and I think we deserved to win in the end.”

Here are some major points:

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  • Germany beat Nigeria 2-0 in the final match 14 years ago in Germany.
  • Germany have now won their last four FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup meetings with Nigeria. Alex Popp inspired a 2-0 victory in the 2010 final, Lena Petermann settled the decider in extra-time four year later, and Stefanie Sanders was the solitary scorer in Group D in 2018.
  • This was just Nigeria’s third loss in their past 24 group matches at the tournament.
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