Super Falcons Defender Says Team Fought For Africa
Super Falcons of Nigeria defender Michelle Alozie said the gallant fight the team put up against European champions England at the FIFA Women’s World Cup round of 16 was for Africa.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, three African nations progressed to the round of 16, with Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa flying the African women’s football flag.
However, Nigeria crashed out on Monday after a goalless draw concluded with England advancing to the quarter-finals, courtesy of a 4-2 penalty shootout win. Speaking after the match, Alozie said they were disappointed, but proud of the fight they put up for Nigeria and Africa.
“I mean yeah, obviously this isn’t how we wanted our World Cup to end,” Alozie said. “We really had a lot of opportunities early on, myself included. We should have put them away sooner instead of letting it go to PK’s (penalties).”
“Especially with us being up one person but I can’t be more proud of this team. We probably had one of the hardest groups, some say the group of death. We came out and no one believed in us. We played over 90 minutes, going to PK’s with England, Europe’s top team.”
“And so everyone kind of counted us out and put us as the underdog. We kept fighting, we fought for Africa, we fought for Nigeria and I just hope everyone is proud of us but this isn’t the end, this is really only the beginning of the wave of Nigerian soccer,” Alozie concluded.
Super Falcons coach, Randy Waldrum echoed her player’s sentiments, saying that he was proud of his sides performance, even though they could have won it had they buried their chances.
“I’m so proud of them, to come in and play like we did tonight. We had every opportunity to get it done,” Waldrum said.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite get it done. We had the best chances, we hit the crossbar twice. When it gets to penalties, it’s anyone’s game.”
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