Super Falconets’ handler, Peter Dedevbo, has lashed out at his wards for being tactically indisciplined against Germany in the final of the FIFA U-20 Women World Cup.
The Nigerian side lost 0-1 to the Germans early on Monday, which made it the second time in the final.
The Falconets lost 0-2 in the final of the 2010 edition of the tournament to the Germans.
In his post march conference in Montreal, Canada, Dedevbo said: “There are lots of good teams in this tournament who crashed out earlier than us, whereas Nigeria – not generally seen as the best – made it all the way to the final.
“Today, we had enough opportunities to win this match in the first half alone.
“But while we had chances and didn’t take them, Germany had one chance and took it.
“That’s the nature of football.
“I’ve not spoken to the girls yet but I will tell them to take this defeat hard and learn from it because we lost this game due to tactical indiscipline.
“We had a great opportunity to win a World Cup with the chances we had in the first half, but we threw that chance away.
“Be that as our may, we did our best to redeem Nigeria’s image.
“I haven’t spoken to my players yet as I don’t want to say the wrong thing to them now.
“But I will talk to them tomorrow once everything is calm and get through the message I want to put across.”
Dedevbo’s German counterpart, Maren Meinert, believes Germany World Cup win in Brazil was a huge boost for her girls to also write the country’s name in gold.
Meinert’s words: “The players and I spent the whole summer cheering on the men’s team and their success definitely motivated us.
“We didn’t necessarily expect to follow them and be standing here as champions, but we’re very proud – and the quality of teams we’ve beaten along the way makes us especially proud.
“One crucial thing today was that we played very well defensively as well as offensively, and the whole team worked hard to achieve that.
“We knew Nigeria were very strong and play a high-tempo game and that there would be times when our defence was overrun.
“But we restricted them to only a few shots on goal, so I think we defended against them well.
“Every one of my girls put in 100 per cent and the win, in my opinion, is definitely deserved.
“We showed again today that we are strong physically and that has a lot to do with our fitness coach.
“But it also has a lot to do with our players’ mentality as they want to give everything until the very last minute.
“They know it hurts in the last 20 minutes but they keep going anyway.
“And today our physical strength towards the end of the match was definitely a factor.”
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