FIFA U-20 Women World-CUP: Oparanozie flies Falconets to S/final

FALCONETS' striker, Desire Oparanozie has described her winning goal against Mexico as the "most crucial" in her career.Nigeria defeated Mexico 1-0 in the quarter finals of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan on Thursday but had to wait till the 109th minute to break the resilient North Africans.Oparanozie said: "This is the most important goal of my career."I knew all eyes were going to be on me, but thank God l was able to get the decisive and most crucial goal."Oparanozie, who has now scored twice at the World Cup, also spoke on the game dragging into extra time."I never imagined it but that is football for you. When you expect the goals to come, they don't," she explained.Nigeria's Falconets will face the winner of either North Korea or the USA in the semifinals.Meanwhile,SUPER Falconets' splendid run at the ongoing Japan 2012 U20 Women's World Cup, has not gone unnoticed in the camp of the senior national team, as Head Coach Stephen Keshi and his crew have kept a close tab on events in the Asian country with hopes of a final Nigerian triumph.Keshi was to declare after the team's quarterfinal victory over Mexico on Thursday morning that he foresees the team going all the way and bringing the World Cup trophy to Nigeria at the end of the championship. 'We support them while they were here as our daughters and we hope and pray that they will win the trophy which they narrowly lost to Germany at the last championship. So that it will help boost our morale ahead of the Nations Cup qualifier in Monrovia and also the World Cup qualifiers that comes up later', Keshi was quoted as saying.Meanwhile, Eagles medical crew of Dr Ibrahim Gyaran and Wale Oladejo, has assured that there was no cause for alarm over the slight knocks that Kano Pillars duo of Gabriel Reuben and Papa Idris picked up during the final stages of the Federations Cup in Lagos.Oladejo, who was reacting to the fact that the players have been training separately from the squad, said they will join their teammates to hustle for shirts from Saturday morning. 'Normal knocks that footballers get every now and then, they will be fully fit to train with the rest of the squad by Saturday', he said.
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