Falcons with the African title
Nigeria’s international and Super Falcons player, Ngozi Okobi has urged chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation to arrange Grade A friendly matches for the Super Falcons ahead of 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
The nine time African champions are drawn against France, Norway and South Korea in Group A at the showpiece.
Already , the NFF have lined up the China Invitational for the Super Falcons alongside hosts, Romania, South Korea between January 17-21 and will later take part in Cyprus Cup between February 25 to March 7, facing Belgium, Slovakia, and Austria in Group C.
With the two tournaments already secured, the Eskilstuna United midfielder is asking for more games to be secured for the team for the available international windows in April and June.
“The tournament in China and Cyprus is not enough, because these games are in January and February,” Okobi said
“What then happens after February until June? We need more quality international friendlies to put us in shape.
“Top friendlies bring the best out of the team. They also provide enough time for the players to further understand the coach’s ideas, philosophy and also to get used to ourselves.
“The World Cup is not a place for us to be trying things out, so we need top matches to prepare us adequately.”
The team was unconvincing throughout their defence of AWCON title in Ghana , Okobi feels the country needs to ‘triple things up’ in terms of preparations to avoid another horrible World Cup campaign.
“It’s very important for the NFF to arrange something big for us. We’ve witnessed how the gap is gradually closing on the continent between us and others,” she continued.
“For the World Cup we need to triple things up because we can’t wake up one morning without top matches and then start travelling to France.”
The team has not gone beyond the quarter-finals of the mundial and will be hoping that good fortune smile on them when they confront Norway on June 8 in Reims, before facing South Korea in Grenoble on June 12, and later host France five days later in Rennes.
