Duro Ikhazuagbe
25 November 2008
Lagos — Dede's blunder Gifts hosts final ticket
Nigeria's domination of female football in the African continent was halted yesterday by Equatorial Guinea whose lone goal victory over the Super Falcons ended the dream of a record sixth title for the defending champions.
For the very first time in the 10-year history of the African Women Championship (AWC), Nigeria is going to be absent from the final game due, largely to a goal keeping blunder from Precious Dede.
The gangling goal keeper bundled a harmless free kick into her own net, to hand the hosts a famous victory and a chance to claim their first ever AWC title when they play the winners of the second semi final between Cameroon and South Africa.
NFF President Sani Lulu Abdullahi, who had not been happy with the output of the Falcons since the championship began, said: "This is an embarrassment to the Nigeria nation. The coaches have let us down.
"We gave them the free hand to select a team capable of doing the nation proud and gave them all they asked for. It is clear that there must be an overhaul in several aspects of our women's football".
Before yesterday's fall, the Super Falcons have struggled throughout the tournament only securing their place in the last four with a 2-1 win over South Africa in their final group match.
In their opening game, the Super Falcons were held to a 1-1 draw by arch-rivals Ghana. That was again followed by a tame goalless stalemate against Tunisia.
Sadly enough, instead of the Coach Joseph Ladipo led technical crew to look for the problem plaquing the Falcons, they were busy calling for an inquest into the gender of two of the players in the Equatorial Guinea squad.
THISDAYSports had exclusively reported yesterday that football chiefs at the Glass House in Abuja were already exasperated with Jossylad and the other female football coaches in the employment of the NFF. Yesterday's failure could become the immediate cause for the exit of JossyLad from the Falcons job even before the inglorious third place game of the tournament.
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