International Football
FRANCE WON’T BEAT NIGERIA TODAY, SAYS NNADOZIE
BY ANN ODONG
Nigeria face on-song hosts France, this Monday. Chiamaka Nnadozie was in goal as the Super Falcons lost 8-0 to Les Bleues in a friendly last year, but she is adamant history won’t repeat itself.
“I know they will feel relaxed, think that they will maybe score more than eight goals.
“It’s going to be a tough game. They are one of the best teams in the competition, but we are letting them know that it’s not going to be like that again.
“That was last year. I know we are not going to lose. We are going to make our country proud.”
The tournament this year has seen some superb goalkeeping performances, and among them is a record-breaking one from Nigeria’s Chiamaka Nnadozie.
As Nigeria entered their second match against Korea under the pressure of knowing that, following a 3-0 loss to Norway, only victory would preserve realistic hope of a top-two finish in Group A.
Many coaches would have played it safe, but Thomas Dennerby handed the gloves to the 18-year-old from Imo State, and she responded with a clean sheet in a 2-0 win.
“My coach called me and said, ‘This is your time’,” Nnadozie told FIFA.com. “It was a dream that came true.”
Nnazodie’s rise in Nigerian women’s football has been rapid. She started playing football as a 12-year-old and was quickly elevated into the U-17 and U-20 national teams.
Last year she pulled on the gloves at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and displayed her potential in a Player of the Match performance against Haiti in Brittany.
It was in that tournament that Nnadozie set her sights on returning to France for the senior global finals.
“I knew it was going to come true, because when I was coming up my coach used to tell me, ‘Work hard, you will get there’,” she said. “I really worked for it. Every time at training, I gave it my best. Even if I was tired, I would keep pushing.”
Nnadozie carried only one target into France 2019.
“I told myself that before the end of the tournament, by God’s grace, I must keep goal in one match,” she said. “When I was called upon to keep goal, though I was a little bit scared, I encouraged myself, I told myself, ‘Come on, you’ve been doing it during the friendly matches, so you have to do it now’.”
Nnadozie achieved her pre-tournament goal in a performance against Korea Republic that demonstrated poise and maturity beyond her years.
She became, at 18 years and 186 days, the youngest goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet at the Women’s World Cup.
“After the match, when I saw the post, I was so happy,” said Nnadozie. “A young girl like me getting a good record, I was so proud of myself.
“I am so proud of the defence. They did great. I know I can’t do it without them – they made it possible for me.”
Nnadozie’s chemistry with the defensive unit illustrated how quickly she has made herself a part of the Nigerian squad. The remarkable calm the teenager displays on the pitch contrasts her infectious personality off it.
“I love playing, joking around with people,” she said. “Whenever I notice you are angry or sad, I will come and do some funny things. I love seeing people around me happy.
”Sometimes when I am not around, they will call me saying, ‘We miss you’. Whenever I come in, when everyone is moody, I will just do one funny thing and they will laugh.”
International Football
Former Brazil coach Tite taking break to take care of mental, physical health
Former Brazil coach Tite said he is taking an indefinite career break in order to take care of his mental and physical health.
The 63-year-old, who led Brazil to the 2019 Copa America title, was hospitalised due to a heart issue last August. He was sacked by Flamengo the following month and had most recently been linked with the Corinthians job.
“I realised that there are times when you have to understand that, as a human being, I can be vulnerable and admitting that will certainly make me stronger,” Tite said in a statement posted on his son Matheus Bachi’s Instagram on Tuesday.
“I’m passionate about what I do and I’ll continue to be so, but after talking to my family and observing the signals my body was giving off, I decided that the best thing to do now is to take a break from my career to look after myself for as long as it takes.
“As has become public, there was a conversation in progress with Corinthians, but it will have to be paralysed by a difficult but necessary decision.”
Tite, who stepped down as Brazil coach after their quarter-final exit from the 2022 World Cup, has previously coached a string of Brazilian sides including Gremio, Atletico Mineiro and Palmeiras.
-Reuters
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Brazil have sacked head coach Dorival Jr, the country’s football confederation (CBF) said on Friday after the five-time world champions were thrashed 4-1 away to fierce rivals Argentina in a humiliating qualifying loss in Buenos Aires.
The 62-year-old was appointed in January 2024 after the team spent a year under two caretaker coaches as the Brazilian FA were unable to lure Italian Carlo Ancelotti from Real Madrid.
“The Brazilian Football Confederation informs that coach Dorival Jr is no longer in charge of the Brazilian national team,” the confederation said in a statement.
“The management thanks (Dorival) and wishes him success in continuing his career … the CBF will work to find his replacement,” it added.
Dorival was handed the job after his success with Flamengo in 2022 where he won the Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup, a trophy he lifted again the next year with Sao Paulo.
However, he never seemed to get to grips with the national team job and failed to earn the trust of Brazil’s demanding fans after winning only seven of his 16 games in charge.
Sources told Reuters the CBF was not confident in Dorival’s work, considering there had been little to no progress since a lacklustre Copa America campaign when Brazil were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Uruguay last year.
Still, the CBF was willing to wait and see until the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay in June to reassess the situation following the end of the European season and the Club World Cup in the U.S. in June and July.
But after Brazil slumped to their heaviest-ever loss in a qualifier when they were thrashed by Argentina this week, CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues decided to pull the trigger.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sources told Reuters Ancelotti was still the ideal candidate but he is under contract with Real until July 2026 and there is no indication he would leave the European and Spanish champions.
Brazilian media have reported that Al Hilal’s Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus is the favourite to replace Dorival.
Brazil have been in unfamiliar territory for over two years since crashing out of the 2022 World Cup against Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals, a heartbreaking elimination that led to the exit of long-time manager Tite.
Their humbling defeat in Buenos Aires was the latest of a series of negative records Brazil have set under caretakers Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and with Dorival in charge. They had never conceded four goals in a World Cup qualifier.
Brazil are in the midst of their worst-ever World Cup qualifying campaign. They are fourth in the South American standings with 21 points, a point above sixth-placed Colombia who currently occupy the final direct qualifying berth.
Never have Brazil lost so many games, conceded so many goals or set so many negative records in the qualifying competition. They have lost five of their 14 games and conceded 16 goals.
Brazil’s 1-0 defeat by Argentina in the Maracana late in 2023 was their first-ever qualifying loss on home soil.
They also lost to Colombia for the first time, saw the end of their unbeaten run against Uruguay stretching back over two decades and were defeated by Morocco and Senegal, having never previously lost to an African nation.
-Reuters
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International Football
England’s German manager Tuchel will not sing the English anthem in his first game
England manager Thomas Tuchel said he would have to “earn the right” to sing the national anthem, God Save the King, after announcing his 26-man squad on Friday ahead of the team’s World Cup qualifiers.
Tuchel, who was appointed as Gareth Southgate’s successor in October and named his first squad to face Albania and Latvia this month, said he would not sing the anthem in his first games in charge.
“It means a lot to me, I can assure you, but I can feel that because it is so meaningful and it is so emotional and it is so powerful, the national anthem, that I have to earn my right to sing it,” the 51-year-old German told a news conference.
Former caretaker manager Lee Carsley was criticised last year for not singing the anthem during his tenure.
However, Tuchel added that while he is proud to be in charge of the team and knows the words to the anthem, he plans to earn the right with results.
“Maybe I have to dive more into the culture and earn my right from you, from the players, from the supporters, so everyone feels like ‘he should sing it now, he’s one of our own, he’s the English manager, he should sing it’,” he said.
-Reuters
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