FIFA U-20 WWC: Dedevbo blames Japan loss for Falconets exit

The coach of Nigeria’s U-20 women team, Peter Dedevbo, has blamed Nigeria’s early exit from the tournament on his team’s 6-0 loss to Japan in their opening group game of the FIFA U-20 Women World cup in Papua New Guinea.

The Falconets on Sunday won their last group game against Spain, which placed them at equal points with group opponents Spain and Japan; but they failed to qualify for the next round of the tournament due to their inferior number of goals.

Dedevbo, after the match against Spain, granted an interview to FIFA, explaining how his team bounced back after the Japan loss and how they have learned that the first match is the most important in the whole tournament because it sets the tone for the rest.

FIFA: Despite beating Spain today, your team have been knocked out of the tournament. What would you pinpoint as the reasons for your early exit?
Peter Dedevbo: In the first match against Japan, we lost 6-0. That defeat is very painful because it cost us qualification to the next round.

Read Also: AWCON 2016: Super Falcons begin well, thrash Mali 6-0

How did you motivate your players after that heavy defeat? Your team bounced back with wins against Canada and Spain.
“When you lose the first match in a competition, you have to work very hard to get back in the saddle. You need to win, and that’s what we did. After the first game, we told the players they absolutely had to win the next two matches, and that message went over well. We tried to score as many goals as possible, but it wasn’t enough to keep us in the tournament.”

Your players celebrated the win today even though it did not result in qualification.
“They were pleased to have won because nobody will be disappointed with our performance when we return home. We still managed to win two matches.”

You do not seem happy, on the other hand.
“That’s true, because I hadn’t foreseen us getting knocked out. We wanted to go far in this tournament.”

What do you think your players will have learned from this competition?
“They know now that the first match is the most important in the whole tournament because it sets the tone for the rest. When you lose the first game, it’s difficult to get back in the running.”

It is worthy of note that Nigeria’s Falconets were the runners-up in the last edition of the FIFA U-20 women tournament two years ago in Canada after losing in the final to Germany; and coach Peter Dedevbo would have hoped to build on that record, but alas!

 

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