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Like Falconets did against USA in 2010 quarter-finals Flamingos dream elimination of US at India 2022

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Flamingos feel the turf of the Dr. DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Thursday

On 25 July 2010 in Augsburg, Germany, Nigeria’s Falconets eliminated powerhouse, US in a thrilling quarter final duel at the U-20 Women’s World Cup on their way to the final, the Falconets are having the same aspiration.

A potentially explosive match-up will see the Nigeria U17 girls face favourites, US  in Navi Mumbai in one of the quarter finals matches of this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals.

The Flamingos lost narrowly, 1-2, to another powerhouse of women’s football, Germany in their first match of the competition but have since overcome stage-fright and were worthy 4-0 and 2-1 winners over New Zealand and Chile respectively.

Navi Mumbai, a planned ultra-modern city that is only 25 kilometres from the Indian capital city of Mumbai, is the venue for this titanic clash set for the Dr. DY Patil Stadium as from 12 noon Nigeria time on Friday.

Nigeria, who would be aiming to break their quarterfinal jinx at this competition, are up against USA for the first time at this level and this encounter is an opportunity for the West Africans to make history.

Having failed to reach the semi-finals in six previous editions, the Nigerians set out to achieve the impossible, ending the country’s 14-year wait for a last-four berth on their fourth quarterfinal appearance.

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The Americans will hope to reach the semis for the first time since 2008 when they finished as runners-up at the inaugural edition in New Zealand.

Impossible is nothing, really. On 25th July 2010, in Augsburg, Nigeria’s U20 girls, Falconets came from behind to defeat USA on penalties in one of the quarter-final matches of the 2010 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Germany. The match ended 1-1 and the Falconets went on to win 4-2 after a penalty shootout.  

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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