By Onyekachi Chimezie
Ahead of the USA clash at the ongoing FIFA U-17 women’s world, Flamingos quartet of Comfort Folorunsho, Bisola Mosaku, Opeyemi Ajakaye and captain Alvine Dah Zossu shared their thoughts on the USA tie.
Nigeria are set to make history on Friday afternoon by becoming the first team from Africa to reach the last four of the women’s FIFA U-17 World Cup if they can overcome Women football powerhouse USA.
Four players, including captain Dah Zossou, spoke to the media shortly after feeling the pitch and doing the team’s final training session before the match on how prepared they were.
“Win, win, win all the way.” They are a strong country but we are not afraid of any team, we believe we’ll conquer them and have a victory tomorrow,” Comfort Folorunsho says as she is confident of the team wining chances.
Opeyemi Ajakaye, who has been named player of the match for the last two world cup games, has argued that the team is not afraid of the USA and that she will play to the best of her ability to assist the team win.
“USA is just a name. I am going to bring out my best, play with my teammates and sell myself to the world,” Ajakaye stated.
Bisola Mosaku who scored the second goal against Chile to hand Nigeria all three points and secured quarter-finals qualification said she is glad on putting her name on the scoresheet ahead of her birthday, inisiting that fear isn’t in their dictionary ahead of the encounter.
“I am very very excited and happy because it is two days to my birthday so I am happy. We are not scared at all, we are training and they ( USA) are also training so we are doing our best to move to the semi-finals.
The team has a lot of respect for the USA, but it only extends off the field, according to captain Alvine Dah Zossou, who concluded the interview.
“The mood is very high. We have been training and working hard and we know that by tomorrow we are going to win the match by God’s grace. The feeling is normal. It is like every other match, like I will always say we respect them off the pitch but on the pitch we are all the same so we are not scared of them at all.
Coach Olowookere Bankole’s team will lock horns with USA at the DY Patil Stadium in Indian’s capital city Mumbai on Friday 12 noon.
