Nigeria and Cameroon Shine as African Sides Spark Women’s World Cup to Life

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 9, 2015

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Going into the third day of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, African football was under the spotlight. After Ivory Coast emphatically lost 10-0 to Germany, it was the turn of Nigeria and Cameroon to fly the flag for their continent and show the strides football has made in their region. They didn’t disappoint.

The Super Falcons of Nigeria made an ominous start. Two set pieces from Sweden ended in Edwin Okon’s side going down 2-0 after 31 minutes. Despite their inability to deal with the Scandinavian side’s corner kicks, Nigeria showed enough going forward to cause Sweden problems.

Pia Sundhage set up her side playing 4-4-2 and it was obvious early on that there would be space in behind the full-backs for Nigeria to exploit.

All over the pitch, the African side were faster, stronger and showed more desire to play a direct style. Liverpool’s Asisat Oshoala was a threat from the right. Rather than stick out wide, she was constantly joining the attack and playing more as a forward than a midfielder.

Their 4-4-2 looked more like 4-2-4 with Oshoala on the right and Ngozi Okobi on the left. They used their pace and movement to find gaps in the Sweden defence.



With only five minutes of the second half gone, Nigeria were rewarded for their positive play. Centre-forward Desire Oparanozie made a run wide-right and played in an excellent low cross into the middle. Okobi, pushing in from the left with her first touch left Nilla Fischer—one of the most respected defenders in the game—finished beautifully with her right foot.

Only minutes later, Okobi—easily the Player of the Game—turned provider. The powerful runs from Oshoala had caused constant problems to the back four, and this time she was picked out perfectly by Okobi. One on one with goalie Hedvig Lindahl, the Under-20 star announced herself to the World Cup with a calm l...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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