Connect with us

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Nigeria’s Onome Ebi is the oldest player at Women’s World Cup

Published

on

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

 Even before the kick-off of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Nigeria’s Super Falcons have already shot into the record books.

At 40 years, Skipper Onome Ebi is the oldest of the 736 players featuring at the championship holding in the famed ‘Down-Under’  countries of Australia and New Zealand. The Nigeria centre-back is however not the only 40 year old in the competition.

Canada’s Christine Sinclair is another 40 year old player, but is 35 days younger than Onome Ebi. So when Nigeria and Canada meet in Melbourne on Friday, the two oldest players of the tournament could square off.

In the case of Sinclair, she is even three years older than her coach, Bev Priestman. Christine Sinclair has 190 international goals to her name – astonishingly more than 21 of the 31 other 23-players squads combined!

Advertisement

The only squads whose players have more cumulative national-team goals than the Canada legend are Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Korea Republic, Netherlands, Sweden, USA and Vietnam.

Only two players in their 40s have appeared in the competition: USA defender Christie Rampone and Brazil midfielder Formiga, who was 41 years and 112 days when she became the oldest player in the tournament’s history.

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.

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

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

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

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

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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. 

Continue Reading

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Points of Note in Falconets’ loss to Germany

Published

on

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:

Advertisement
  • 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.
Continue Reading

Most Viewed