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Coach: Nigeria's women football team still has hope
17/9/2007 10:30

Nigeria's team coach Effiom Ntiero said his players have nothing to be ashamed of, stressing that they still have a chance to progress with one more game in hand.

Nigeria's Super Falcons dream of reaching the quarter-final of the FIFA Women's World Cup in China suffered a set-back Friday when two strikes from DPR Korea's Kyong Hwa Kim in the 17th minute and Kum Suk Kum Ri four minutes after sank them, leaving the team with just one point, same as Sweden who also lost 0-2 to the United States.

To qualify, the Falcons must beat highly favored the U.S. in the last group match on Tuesday in Shanghai by more than 2-0, that is hoping that DPR Korea also beat Sweden.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of and there is still one game to go. We still have a good chance to advance. Anything can happen and we will just need to make sure we are prepared for our last game," he said.

He said the early goals from the fast-pacing Koreans made things very difficult for his girls, adding "it was a bad game for us. We had some serious troubles from their in-swinging corners. The Koreans played well, but we gave them a good fight especially in the second half."

Falcons midfielder Stella Mbachu said, "We are still alive in this World Cup. We just need to keep working hard and fight hard in our third game against the U.S. team and we shall be just fine. We are not afraid of the U.S. team. They are women just like us and on the day anything can happen."



Xinhua