Nigeria record victories in African football qualifiers

The Flying Eagles of Nigeria recorded a 6-1 aggregate victory over the U-20 team of Tanzania in an under 20 African Youth Championship qualifier that was played in Kaduna. The Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Northern Nigeria was filled to capacity.

Some of the stars of the country's under 17 team that won the 2013 FIFA World Youth Championship in UAE are now in the nation's under 20 team. Kelechi Iheanacho,Musa Yahaya and Sunday Awoniyi played against the Tanzanians. The team won the first keg by 2-0 in Dar-es-Salaam a fortnight ago.

The Manu Garba tutored side will now face the winner of the match between Lesotho and Angola in August.

Meanwhile, the nation's senior women team, Super Falcons also recorded an emphatic 4-1 away victory against Rwanda on Saturday. The six time champions of Africa defeated their hosts in Ginyeng. Nigeria will host the second leg of the match on June 7, 2014. The winner of the tie will proceed to the 9th African Women Championship to be hosted by Senegal this September.

The fall of Nigeria's Women team

The 2012 edition of the African Women Championship was won by host nation,Equatorial Guinea on November 11th. The Central African nation were also victorious when they hosted the championship in 2008.

The inaugural edition of the CAF African Women Championship was won by the Super Falcons of Nigeria in 1998. The team defended their title in 2000,2002,2004 and 2006.

In 2008, Nigeria suffered a setback in a bid to win the 6th edition. A new champion emerged after Nigeria were beaten 1-0 by Equatorial Guinea.
The Nigerian Football Federation refused to replace old players with the new ones that represented the nation at various age grade competitions.
Uche Echaria won the title for Nigeria in 2010, but she failed to lead her players to All Africa Games 2011 and London 2012 Olympics. The NFF fired the female coach for such a dismal outing and employed Khadiri Ikhana. The former Enyimba boss had never tutored a female team and his lack of experience in Women soccer was exposed when he took a bunch of old players like Stella Mbachu,Perpetua Nkwocha and Precious Dede to the 2012 edition. Nigeria lost to South Africa in the semi final before losing to Cameroon in the third place match.

The NFF must rise to the occasion and begin to groom young players ahead of future championships.

Falcons devour lionesses of Cameroon

Nigeria's Super Falcons began the defence of their African Women Championship title with a slim 2-1 win over the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon. Onyinyechi Ohagugha put the Nigerians in front with a 20 yard effort that beat the Cameroonian keeper. The Falcons were in total control of the first half, but the only goal of the opening half was the notable chance that they created.

Perpetua Nkwocha

In the second half, Cameroon equalised in the 53rd minute through Patience Mani's penalty kick that beat Precious Dede who was in goal for the reigning African champions. The Indomitable Lionesses missed a glorious opportunity to take the lead when Louni put her effort wide after the Nigerian keeper had fumbled with a shot. The Cameroonians were more dominant in the second half, but veteran striker, Perpetua Nkwocha scored the winning goal of the match in the 90th minute via a diving header that followed a pull out from Ngozi Okobi.