The Nigeria U-17 on Friday will be playing to make history as they play giants of women’s football, the USA in the quarter finals of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
Six times have Nigeria tried to go pass the last eight of the competition, six times have they failed, but is all that going to change this time.
They played another giant, Germany in their first game, had all it took to win the game after going one nil up, but missed chances and inability to hold play gave them into the hands of the European girls eventually losing 1-2 to them.
Subsequently, the girls dust off themselves and got an emphatic victory against New Zealand winning 4-0 before edging Chile in their last group game encounter.
Now, they are here in the quarter finals, a familiar position the country has for itself in 14 years and the girls and Coach of the side know this is not the target.
“I have gone beyond my target by getting to the quarter finals as a Coach, but as a Country, the target is to go beyond the quarter finals,” Coach Bankole Olowookere had said after the game against Chile.
The same sentiment is shared by all football loving people of the country as the thought of all is it time the girls go a step further.
But here they are and the huge task in front of them, to beat the U-17 girls of the United States of America in order to achieve that which have been elusive for years.
The task is made tougher with the Americans failing to reach the semis since 2008, a year they finished as runners-up at the inaugural edition in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria girls have shown they can hold their own against the big sides and play good food too.
However, the narrative of missed chances by the girls should not occur if the jinx is to be broken.
It is up to Coach Olowookere to tinker his girls to greatness by working on their weaknesses, turning them to advantage as they seek to walk on the streets of history on Friday.
The historical encounter will be played in the city of Navi Mumbai, 25 kilometres from the Indian capital city of Mumbai at the Dr. DY Patil Stadium as from 12 noon Nigeria time today.
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