country’s senior women national team captain has insisted that the west African powerhouse merited being listed top on the continent by latest FIFA ranking Super fThe alcons captain Evelyn Nwabuoku says Nigeria’s senior women national team is better by far and deserves being ranked best in Africa.
Nwabuoku said that the Falcons still remain best in Africa going by their records at the African Women Championship, after being ranked top in Africa in the latest FIFA rankings released last week.
“We deserve being the best, so much, it is not easy, if you check how many times we have won the AWC, you can see we are still the best on the continent,” Nwabuoku told Goal on her way to resume camp in Abuja.
She blamed the team's dismal outing at the 2012 African Women's Championship in Equatorial Guinea on hard luck, disclaiming links to poor coaching and below par performance from players.
The Falcons finished third in the competition under coach Kadiri Ikhana, the first time they failed to play in the final having won the tournament five times and placed second once.
“I can’t really tell what happened, we had a sound coach, and if it’s for the game we played well, but I could say maybe it was hard luck,” she said.
The midfield maestro who finished runner-up in the Women player of the Year award at the 2013 Nigeria Sports Awards advocated high-profile friendly matches for the senior women side, urging that the provision of top grade tune-up games will avail coaches opportunity to appraise the players regularly.
“We need friendly matches, we ought to play bigger teams, because it’s not about results but about access to your players – you get to know your players and those to rely on during international games.
"You don’t just sit down in camp preparing for competitions playing against the young boys, it is kind of different.
"Like the friendly we played against the Japanese team, we got to know each other more. If we will tell ourselves the truth, we know within ourselves that this is a different Super Falcons,” she noted.
Speaking on what experience the Super Falcons garnered from the two-legged friendly with Japan earlier this year, she admitted they were greatly exposed by the encounter despite losing 2-0.
“We learnt a lot against Japan, just a team that prepared after one month. We can see from the way we were moving the ball around. We really implemented the tactics our coaches taught us. If we continue to get such matches, you get to assess your players more and will really know what you're doing.
“The glory has already come back, like I said earlier – it just has to do with the [Nigeria Football Federation] motivating the players enough, because the women team, sorry to say we are not being motivated. But we thank God for the moments though we still hope for a lot to change,” she said.
On what Nigerians should expect of the current Super Falcons at the 2014 AWC, Nwabuokwu assured that she and her teammates are determined to better their performance in Equatorial Guinea in 2012.
“This is a new team, things have really changed. Some new set of players are coming-in to blend with the old players. We should get better than the last edition. We have coaches who know what they are doing. We have some set of players who are really determined and by the grace of God we should do well,” said the Rivers Angels captain.
The Rivers Angels utility player also appealed to the NFF on getting sponsors for the Nigeria Women Premier League, stressing that securing sponsorship deals will boost the quality, interest and competition.
“If the NFF can get some sponsors for the female league, it will go a long way to improving the standard of women football league in Nigeria,” she concluded.
The Six-time African Champions will host the Indomitable Lioness of Cameroon in a high-profile friendly on April 15 at the Abuja National Stadium in preparation for their final qualifying game of the 2014 African Women’s Championship against the She-Amavubi of Rwanda.