Nigerian international, Toni Payne started for Sevilla as Cristian Toro’s side bowed to a 2-0 away defeat against Real Sociedad femenino.
Sevilla XI against Real Sociedad.
Sevilla were dominating in the areas with chances for Inma Gabarro and Paula Nicart, but after the hour of play the misfortune was primed as Paula Nicart finds the back of her own net from an opponent corner kick to give the hosts the lead in the 62nd minute.
Sevilla made quick changes as the manager gave entry to Rosa Otermín, Cahynová and debutant Michele Vasconcelos.
With the team restructuring, Franssi increased the hosts lead with just over 15 minutes remaining of the regular time.
Toni Payne played full game as Cristian Toro made the final sub with Almudena Rivero and Ana Franco on. Franco had two clear chances to have been able to alter the scoreboard but missed on both occasional as Sevilla left Zubieta empty handed.
Payne and her Sevilla team will now focus on next Wednesday’s encounter against Rita Chikwelu’s Madrid CFF at the Jesús Navas Stadium.
After failing to score with two assists against Mali at the just concluded Aisha Buhari Tournament of the international break, Oshoala return to her club side, FC Barcelona who have started the season in the best way, achieving two victories in their first two games without conceding.
Oshoala, Alexia Putellas and Bruna Vilamala are the team’s top scorers with two goals each before the international break.
The Nigerian international started as Jonatan Giraldez Barça thrashed Valencia 8 – 0 and added its third consecutive victory. 18 goals in three games.
Oshoala opened the scoring in the 24th minute after capitalizing on lack of communication in the defense of Valencia.
Three minutes after, Alexia Putellas extended the hosts lead through Claudia Pina’s assist. The two combined immediately after for Putellas’ brace and through Haven’s assist in the 31st minute, Putellas scored her third.
Scoring three goals in the space of four minutes, Putellas immediately sighted Mariona Caldentey a minute after for Barcelona’s fifth goal as the team headed towards the halftime.
Valencia made one change coming into the second half with Asun Martinez making way for Salmi.
Oshoala at the end of a great build-up play to net her brace in the 46th minute as Barcelona continued from where they stopped in the first half.
Maria León and Oshoala make way for Andrea Pereira and Bruna Vilamala in the 66th minute.
Two more goals from Lieke Martens in the 71st minute and Caroline Hansen in the 84th minute rounded up the rout for the Catalan side.
All is set for the kick-off of the maiden edition of the Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament.
The 10-day girls football tournament is organized in honor of the name and office of the First Lady of Edo State, with its kickoff slated for Sunday, 26 September 2021, at four different venues in Benin City:
School of Health Technology Uniben Sports Complex Western Boys High School Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium
The competition, with the theme, ‘Promoting the Girl Child’, is aimed at harnessing sporting talents in the state and tackling the scourge of irregular migration among teenage girls.
The first Lady, Mrs. Betsy Obaseki, while addressing journalists at a Press Conference in Abuja, ahead of the games opening, said the tournament will hold in the ancient city of Benin between Sunday, 26th of September and Monday, 4th of October, 2021.
“Twelve prestigious women football clubs in the country have confirmed their attendance and participation. The teams will be arriving in Benin City on Sunday, September 26th, 2021. Our medical team has been put on standby to carry out the rapid test on all the players and officials on arrival, in line with COVID-19 protocols,” she said.
She continued: “The draws for the tournament will be held that same day under the full glare of the media and will be streamed live online to ensure credibility and transparency.
“The first matches will be played in the morning at the three earlier mentioned venues on Monday, September 27th, while the opening event will be held at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium at 4pm featuring the last match of the day.
“The finals of the tournament will be played on Sunday, 3rd of October, 2021, after which trophies and other prizes will be handed over to participating clubs.”
On the choice of the theme for the tournament, the Edo First Lady explained : “Prior to the inception of my husband’s administration, human trafficking was rife in Edo State with Edo occupying the ignoble position of being the foremost state in the illicit trade,” she stated.
“Five years down the line, Edo has moved to number five in the nation, owing to the commitment of this administration to job creation, infrastructural development, human capital development and the sheer will to tackle this menace headlong through innovative approaches.
“From the onset, I took delight in my role, in the supportive capacity, to tackle this menace and other forms of gender-based violence through various initiatives targeted at the girl child. Among them are the Edo Women for Agriculture and Enterprise; Betsy Angels Shelter, Edo Youth Academy, among others.” she added.
Mrs. Obaseki further stated:
“Our efforts in tackling gender-based violence have also been yielding results, culminating in the inauguration of the Edo State Gender-Based Violence Management Committee, which I chair.
“Sports is not only a career, means of self-expression, empowerment opportunity but it is also therapeutic. The Betsy Obaseki Women Football Tournament will be another veritable tool for achieving this goal as it affords our girls the opportunity to showcase their skills and also provide mentors for those aspiring for future careers in the preferred line of sports, promoting the sporting industry among grassroots women and girls.
“In addition to encouraging female participation in the sporting industry, the economic benefits inherent in the tournament will be immense, particularly in the hospitality industry, food vending services and transportation industry.”
“It is also worthy of note that this tournament is funded by development partners and not the state government as we are embracing this initiative as a means of achieving sustainable growth in the sports industry in Edo State,” she concluded.
The 12 participating teams comprises of 8 first class NWFL Premiership clubs which include two former champions of the league and 4 first class NWFL Chamionship teams:
Rivers Angels FC Bayelsa Queens FC Edo Queens Sunshine Queens FC FC Robo Queens Royal Queens FC Confluence Queens FC Naija Ratels FC ————————————————— Kaduna Queens FC Heartland Queens FC Fortress Ladies FC Rolly FC
D’tigress defeated Senegal 73-63 to advance to a third consecutive final with a 21 match unbeaten run, with their last defeat dated back in 2015 against Cameroon in the semifinals.
Senegal came fighting back in the 4th quarter, but the Nigerian Girls showed why they are now the dominant team in Africa, after beating Senegal for the third successive time.
Nigeria now stand a chance to win a third title in a row and just a win away from winning their fifth overall, when they face Mali in the final.
Amy Okonkwo scored a splendid team-high 16 points 7 rebounds to lead two other players with double figures, Ify Ibekwe scored 14 points, while captain Adaora Elonu added 12 points.
One of the top performer for Senegal so far in the tournament Mame-Marie Sy-Diop recorded a team-high 18 points for Senegal who will have to settle for a 3rd place matchup with host nation Cameroon.
Coach Christopher Danjuma has expressed confidence in his Nigeria U20 girls as the real race for berths at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2022 begins for Nigeria in Douala on Saturday, with a first round, first leg encounter against the U20 girls of Central African Republic.
A contingent including 23 players of the Falconets flew into the Cameroonian city in the early hours of Thursday, and trained on Thursday ahead of today’s official training at the Stade Japoma de Douala – the match venue.
Nigeria’s U20 girls have appeared at every edition of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup since it started as FIFA U19 Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2002, making it to Thailand 2004, Russia 2006, Chile 2008, Germany 2010, Japan 2012, Canada 2014, Papua New Guinea 2016 and France 2018. The 2020 edition, planned by FIFA to be co-hosted by Costa Rica and Panama, was scuttled by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Costa Rica will now be sole host nation for the 10th edition in August 2022.
Saturday’s clash was enabled by the withdrawal of Equatorial Guinea’s U20girls from the race, shooting the CAR girls straight to the first round against the highly –successful Falconets of Nigeria.
“We are here to earn a good result that will make the second leg a bit easier for us. We will go all out for victory against our opponents who are also playing on away ground,” said Danjuma.
Central African Republic are playing their home matches in Cameroon as no venue in their country is deemed fit for international matches.
The first round, first leg clash will kick off at 3pm Cameroon time, with the return leg in Nigeria on Friday, 8th October.
England is about to stage the most lucrative Women’s European Championship yet after UEFA announced they were doubling prize money for the EURO 2022 tournament.
European football’s governing body, UEFA said in a statement on Thursday that it has doubled the prize money of the Women’s EURO Championship starting from the next year’s showpiece.
Therefore, the 16 qualified teams will now share €16 million, double the €8 million that was distributed at EURO 2017 in the Netherlands.
The body also approved the introduction of a programme which will see teams that release players for the EUROs rewarded with payouts from a €4.5 million fund.
The decisions were announced following a UEFA executive committee meeting in Chisinau, Moldova on Wednesday.
The women’s tournament, originally scheduled for this year but postponed by 12 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is now set to take place in England from 6th of July to 31st of same month in 2022.
UEFA’s move comes at a time when FIFA is proposing introducing a Women’s World Cup every two years, a concept that England’s new head coach Sarina Wiegman this week described as “not very good for the players, for their welfare”.
UEFA said its latest decision reaffirmed its strong financial commitment to the whole of European football.
“The financial distribution will include increased guaranteed amounts and performance-based bonuses for the group stage.
“The increases in financial distributions and introduction of a club benefits programme are key strategic initiatives of UEFA’s women’s football strategy, TimeForAction, ensuring that more money than ever before is distributed across the women’s game.”
Despite UEFA ramping up investment, there remains a wide disparity between financial rewards at the men’s and women’s elite levels.
The men’s EURO 2020 tournament repirtedly offered a prize fund of around €330million and now with the latest increment, the women’s EURO will receive €16million.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised in 2019 that the next Women’s World Cup, in 2023, would see prize money at least double to $60million. The men will play for $440million at next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Though football is a result oriented game but you will have to agree with me that performance matters a lot, especially when you are considered the powerhouse of women’s football on the continent.
The Nigeria women’s football team is the only women’s national team from the Confederation of African Football to have reached the quarterfinals in both the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Football at the Summer Olympics.
Winning a record nine of eleven Africa Women Cup of Nations titles, Nigeria is the only African team with most appearances at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
However, these honours are quite becoming a thing of the past as many African teams are now catching up to the supposed giant of Africa.
The federation has tried different approaches to ensuring the giants never fall, moving on to employing foreign tacticians after trying out the veterans of the team and some home-based coaches, but something seems not working.
Could it be lack of competitive friendly games?
It is no surprise how disparate the Super Falcons team used to be cobbled together in the shortest time frame possible and expected to perform optimally with very little preparation, yet still managed to deliver when called upon based on individual brilliance.
After winning the AWCON in December 2016, the team did not have a game until April 2018, months before the next tournament.
The 2018 AWCON was an indication that Nigeria’s dominance on the continent was under threat. Beating Cameroon and South Africa in the semi-final and the final respectively, Nigeria was taken to penalties before winning both games.
A better preparation yielded a better result but does the performance improved?
Heading into the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, NFF showed to have got its act together and ensured that the team had a much better preparation.
Nigeria featured in the Meizhou Four Nation Tournament, the Cyprus Cup, and had a training camp in Spain, where they played a friendly against Canada before their final preparations in Austria. All these didn’t just happened overnight, it was all thanks to the big names in the team who publicly clamoured for more games.
Replacing the Super Falcons legend Florence Omagbemi, who had won an AWCON title and made the FIFA Coach of the Year shortlist, Thomas Dennerby –who won Bronze with Sweden at the 2011 World Cup– was brought in and the Federation now hopes that the Super Falcons can transfer their continental success to the global stage.
For a team that has not gone past the group stage since 1999, getting into the last 16 was considered an achievement for the Dennerby’s Falcons.
What next for the Falcons team?
Shortly after the 2019 World Cup, coach Thomas Dennerby announced he is stepping down as the head coach of the Super Falcons.
Why?
Rumour has it that the Swede in his resignation letter claimed he quit his position because of unfulfilled contractual obligations including unpaid wages and a lack of cooperation from the NFF and their failure to provide accommodation for him in Nigeria.
Shortly after, NFF released a statement to clear the air.
The NFF in their statement, however, claimed that the fall-out with Dennerby was because they had refused his request to bring in more expatriate coaches.
“Perhaps, one of the reasons he left was because we did not accede to his request to bring in more expatriate coaches and an indigenous coach who do not have the required license,” the NFF said.
“If we had agreed to his request for more expatriate coaches, that would have left our indigenous coaches presently with the team in the lurch.”
Back to square one, a drought for the Falcons.
Since the departure of Thomas Dennerby in October 2019, it took the Nigerian women’s national team one year to get a new head coach as NFF confirmed the appointment of American coach, Randy Waldrum as the new manager of the Super Falcons in October 2020.
Changing of the guard:
While teams like USA, Brazil, France, Germany, among others keep their players together for long while introducing the youngsters one at a time, Nigeria choose to run before walking.
Coming back from the World Cup and preparing for the Olympics, the acting coach of the time, coach Christopher Danjuma invited about seven fresh legs to blend with the World Cup team, and Nigeria crashed out of the Olympic Qualifier on away goal rules against Cote d’Ivoire.
In an opened interview, some of the big names in the team complained about having to start the team chemistry all over after every tournament, with too many new players introduced to the team.
Some blamed not having enough competitive friendly matches before the qualifier. The team played friendlies against Confluence Queens and some home-based academy.
Back to the drawing board, coach Randy Waldrum gets support of the NFF in getting a very competitive friendly games when his side travelled for the Turkish Women’s Cup in February, then to USA for the Summer Series in June, but winless in their three-match campaign, after which the team camped in Austria for friendlies.
However, the problems are still there.
Aisha Buhari Cup: The eye opener tournament?
Aisha Buhari Cup is a six-nation invitational friendly organized in honor of the name and office of the First Lady of Nigeria.
The tournament which is now recognized and planned to be adopted by FIFA and CAF as a team ranking tournament held its inaugural edition in Lagos over a course of six days. FIFA President Gianni Infantino and CAF President Patrice Motsepe were on ground to witness the intriguing opening game.
Mali, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco and South Africa joined the host nation Nigeria in what proved to be a thrilling showpiece. Each team played two matches each. Nigeria happened to be the only side with mostly foreign based players.
Invited players of each of the six-nation teams for the AishaBuhariCup.
It was day one of the tournament and Nigeria under pressure to impress in the presence of Infantino and Motsepe, face Mali.
This team playing doesn’t look like Africa Champions in any way. Struggling against Mali despite staging what looked like the best team in Africa, with coach Waldrum starting 10 foreign based players compared to a Malian side whose only star player of the day was Aissata Traore.
Nothing to separate the two sides and Mali looked the better side until some home-based players were introduced to the game and Nigeria won through one of the home-based substitutes, Monday Gift who scored two late goals.
Fast forward to the last day of the tournament, Nigeria played its second game when they face a familiar side whom they defeated on penalties shootout at the last AWCON.
Different games, similar lineup and performance. This time coach Waldrum had added three home-based youngies to his lineup. It was crystal cleared that the home-based players had a better performance as they caught the attention of the spectators.
South Africa came prepared, determined and outclassed Nigeria all through the first half, with the big names once again missing and hoping on a miracle.
The COSAFA Women’s Cup champions condemned Nigeria to it’s biggest first half defeat on the continent, scoring three unreplied goals.
Coach Waldrum providing the same solution after making the same mistake as against Mali, brought on four home-based players taking their number to seven on the pitch. Their impacts was quick to felt as Vivian Ikechukwu scored brace to reduce the goal gap.
On the verge of completing a comeback, frustrated Falcons conceded a late minute penalty and hence suffered a 4-2 loss.
The maiden edition of the Aisha Buhari Tournament came to an end on Tuesday evening.
The victory saw Banyana Banyana emerged maiden Aisha Buhari Cup champions with six points from two games and avenged their 2018 TotalEnergies Africa Women’s Cup of Nations final defeat to Nigeria in Ghana and finally recorded their biggest ever win over the nine-time African winners.
Nigeria scored four goals in the tournament and all were scored by home-based players. Also, the most impressive players of the tournament happened to be young talented home based players.
While some of the players believed having too many youngies introduced at a time was causing them to adjust to accommodate the new ones, fans believed keeping the old legs together for too long is the reason for the team decline.
The tournament has now begged a question; New legs, old legs, which way to go?
Once again the great protagonist at Naples was Victor Osimhen. The Nigerian footballer scored a brace in the away match against Sampdoria.
Napoli crushed Sampdoria, 4-0, on Thursday, a victory that took them back to the top of the Serie-A table with 15 points from their first five league games under Luciano Spalletti.
The on form forward has now scored five goals in his last three games for Napoli in the space of eight days.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, Osimhen said: “Starting well gives me confidence to score other goals. I am happy with my performance, but a little sorry for what happened last year between Covid-19 and the injuries. It is important to speak on the pitch, but not only in matches, also in training. We need to calibrate ourselves on when to come and take in midfield, on the movements, it is important to communicate ”.
Osimhen also spoke clearly of the importance of Spalletti in his professional moment: “He helped me with the trust he gave me and I hope to repay it. I am honored to have a coach like him. He gives me a lot, he stops after training and we work a lot together ”.
Napoli will welcome Cagliari next week while Sampdoria visit Juventus who sit 12th on the table just above the Sampdoria on goal difference.
In the Swedish Allsvenskan league, Hammarby IF eased pass IFK Goteborg in a 3-0 comfortable win.
Akinkunmi Amoo scores a long range strike to open the scoring from a Ludwigson’s assist just six minutes into the game.
The 19-year old then went on to provided an assist for Aziz Mohammed who doubled the hosts’ lead just before the halftime to motivate his side’s confidence.
Vladimir Rodic made it three in the 70th minute from a Mads Fenger’s assist.
The goal and assist tonight means that the Nigerian winger has averaged a goal or an assist every other game (13 in 26) in domestic football this season.
Amoo has now scored 10 goals for Hammarby IF this season in all competitions.
Togolese referee Vincentia Enyonam Amedome has been appointed to handle the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifier between Nigeria and Ghana.
The current number one Togolese women’s referee Vincentia Enyonam Amedome was part of the officials of the just concluded Aisha Buhari Cup, a six-nation invitational tournament held in Lagos Nigeria. She also has been shortlisted for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia / New Zealand 2023.
She will be assisted by compatriot Abra Sitsofe Agbedanou (Assistant I), Sonia Louis from Benin (Assistant II) and Edoh Kindedji from Togo (Fourth referee).
Souadatou Djallo-Kalkaba from Cameroon will serve as the Match Commissioner. Fadouma Dia Dia from Senegal will act as Referee Assessor while Sulaiman Onimisi Ohida from Nigeria works as COVID-19 Officer.
Super Falcons of Nigeria will host Ghana’s Black Queens in a 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations first leg qualifier clash at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Onikan Lagos on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. The game is scheduled for 16H00 WAT kick off.
MOLATsportgist 