Nigeria[]
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Women's Soccer in 2010[]
Nigeria’s national women's football team, the Super Falcons, are no doubt the continent of Africa's best women’s football side. The records are there: The Falcons have won the first seven out of eight African Women Championships and have lost only four games to African competition since the inception of the women’s game in Africa. The Falcons have first won the AWC in 1998. They retained the trophy two years later after beating hosts South Africa 2-0 in Johannesburg in a match that was later abandoned after 75 minutes due to crowd invasion of the pitch. In 2002, they won the trophy for keeps defeating Ghana again 2-0 in the final at the Warri Township Stadium, in South-South Nigeria. In 2004, the Falcons with relatively new players under coach Godwin Izilein emerged champions again. In 2006, the Falcons opened their title defence with a 4-2 victory over Equatorial Guinea and went on again to beat Ghana 1-0 in the final. The team, however, surrendered their title for the first time in 2008 in Equatorial Guinea after a semi-final defeat to the host nation, who went on to win the tournament. But success at continental level has not translated to success at the global level for the Nigerians. The Falcons have consistently failed to make any serious impact in the Female World Cup since 1991 when the team made its first appearance. Their best show yet in the competition was in 1999 in USA, where they got to the quarterfinals, under the coach Ismaila Mabo. The Falcons defeated DPR Korea 2-1 and Denmark 2-0 in the group stage and became the only country in Africa to reach the quarter-final stage of the Women World Cup. They were sent packing by Brazil courtesy of the Golden Goal.
Key players[]
Rita Chikwelu (Club: Umea IK, age: 22years) Versatile Chikwelu has an impressive scoring record at senior national level- 15 goals in 30 appearances for the Falcons, an average of a goal in every other game and would be hoping to even better that statistics in South Africa. Last year, she won the Best Play of the Year and top scorer awards with 22 goals for FC United Piertasaari in Finland before she moved to two-time Swedish champions Umea IK in Sweden. However, the AWC title has eluded her as she was on U-20 World Cup duty in Chile when the Falcons surrendered their crown to hosts Equatorial Guinea in 2008. Chikwelu, who played for FCT Queens, Coal City Queens and Pelican Stars before her sojourn abroad in 2005, is very fast, strong, has a fierce shot and is always a constant threat to the opposition.
Perpetua Nkwocha (Club: Sunnana, age: 34 years) Sunnana of Sweden forward Nkwocha has a rich profile at international level winning the AWC thrice (2002, 2004 and 2006) named as African Women Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005 respectively. The 34-year-old Falcons captain scored four goals as the Nigerians demolished Cameroon 5-0 in the final of the competition six years ago. She also set a record by scoring nine goals at the tournament; the highest ever scored at the AWC, and was named the best player of that edition. Nkwocha is cunning, has an eye for goal and the Falcons will need her wealth of experience as they aim to reclaim the AWC title.
Cynthia Uwak (Club: FC Saarbrucken, age: 24 years) 2006 Africa Woman Footballer of the Year Uwak is one of Nigeria’s finest women strikers in recent times. She’s also distinguished herself in Europe having played for big French side Olympique Lyonnais and other top flight European teams before moving to FC Saarbrucken in the highly competitive German Women's Bundesliga in Germany.
Coach: Eucharia Uche Eucharia Uche entered the history books in 2009 as the first Nigerian woman to coach the Super Falcons when she replaced Jossy Lad, the man in charge when the Falcons failed to win the AWC for the first time in eight editions in 2008. A former Falcons star herself, Uche is now faced with the task of reclaiming the AWC title the Nigerians lost for the first time in the history of the competition two years ago in Equatorial Guinea. “My target is to build a Falcons side that will regain their position as Africa’s champions and qualify for the 2011 World Cup in Germany,” she said. She is hoping that her experience both as a player and as assistant coach of the national team at various times will help in achieving her dream. Uche attended the National Institute of Sports in Lagos and holds a Licence B Coaching Course from California, USA. She also has a diploma in CAF coaching course held in South Africa and has attended a number of courses organised by FIFA and the NFF. She was assistant coach to Ismaila Mabo at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as well as the AWC which the team won in South Africa that year. She was an understudy to coach Ntiero Effiong at the 2002 U-20 World Cup in Canada and was also an assistant coach when Nigeria reached the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup in 2004 and 2006 in Thailand and Russia respectively before she was drafted by the Nigeria Football Federation as assistant to coach Jossy Lad to the AWC in Equatorial Guinea in 2008. At club levels, Uche has coached top sides in Nigerian women’s topflight like Delta Queens, Ufoma Babes and Rivers Angels. A potent striker during her hey day, Uche was in the Falcons’ squad that participated in the maiden 1991 and 1995 World Cups in China and Sweden respectively.
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