U20 Women’s World Cup: Nigeria Secure First Win of Group C
After a series of draws in Group C, it finally experienced its first win.
Nigeria held their nerve to secure a 2-1 win over South Korea, making a piece of history in the process.
Nigerian striker, Courtney Dike, scored in a matter of seconds after kickoff, the fastest goal at the U20 Women’s World Cup ever.
Nigeria’s Chinwendu Ihezuo added to the deficit in the 36th minute. Korea pulled one back via Kim Soyi, but it proved only to be a consolation goal.
Group C, which consists of England, Nigeria, Mexico and South Korea hasn’t reveled in excitement like the other groups, England have played twice now without a win, playing 1-1 draws with both South Korea and Mexico, coming back from behind against the former and being pulled back against the latter.
The same story goes for Mexico, who before playing 1-1 with England engaged in the same score line with Nigeria.
Nigeria top the group above England and Mexico with 4 points, while both teams are in 2nd and 3rd respectively due to their two draws, Korea at the bottom of the table with just a point after sharing the spoils with England and falling to the Super Falconets.
With credit to the defense the attacking stars in this group haven’t really quite shone at the moment.
Nikita Parris of England is without a goal; Martha Harris and Beth Mead have the goals for the English, Mead’s goal -by the way- an absolute beauty from about 25 yards.
Nigeria have the most scorers (3), Osarenoma Igbinovia scored a stunner from 32 yards against Mexico, star of the previous U17 World Cup, Chinwendu Ihezuo and Courtney Dike, who is the sister of the Nigerian international, Bright Dike.
Mexico have scorers in Fabiola Ibarra, another scorer of a beautiful goal from as far as 20 yards against Nigeria and Tanya Samarzich’s against England, while South Korea have two goals from Sodam Lee and Soyi Kim.
Game day 3 is obviously any of the teams’ final chance to claim qualification which is still quite a wide open race.
England and Mexico have their fates in their hands, nothing less than a win against Nigeria and South Korea respectively, while Nigeria just need a point to go through and South Korea badly need a win and would have to depend on results elsewhere.
If the Super Falconets do qualify, which now seems highly likely, they seem to be the most promising of the bunch, beating two local Canada boys’ teams in preparation for the competition. Coach Peter Dedevbo clearly stated before the competition that this time, he aims to bring the trophy -in his words- ‘home’.
