Nigeria’s cadet female national team, Flamingos’ coach, Bankole Olowookere has assured that he and his players will not underrate highly unheralded Samoa at this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, Sports247 reports.
Speaking in the wake of the competition’s official draw ceremony, which placed the Nigerian squad in the same group with Canada, France and Samoa, Olowookere promised that all three first round opponents will be treated with equal respect.
Bankole disclosed, “I don’t underrate any team. As a coach, my philosophy is that I don’t underrate my opponent, because it’s always a game of 90 minutes.
“Having qualified from their continent to be at the World Cup means they are not a pushover. We will have to put that at the back of our mind.
The more you give that level of respect to other teams, the more you need to work harder.”
He then spoke about the general approach each of the qualified countries will likely adopt in their build-up to the competition; in which the Flamingos will tango Canada on October 19th, face France of the 22nd of same month, and end group play versus Samoa on the 25th.
The smooth-talking tactician added, “We know that each country has a strong team, and they have some exceptional players. The coaches there, too, are working on something.
They will most likely want to seek access to information about us … regarding our philosophy and about our players.
“We can’t take it away from them that they will be getting videos of our team’s games in the qualifying matches and every other thing. The same way we are reacting to this draw, they too will be hustling around to study us; as we are also looking to get relevant information about them.”
Bankole concluded by pointing out that the real preparation phase towards the forthcoming Women’s Cadet Mundial in Morocco now has to commence in earnest; and affirmed that he will seek a means through which vidoes of the three group opponents’ matches can be procured, in order to help him and his assistant coaches map out the right approach towards scaling through into the next round.
“If possible, I need to get videos of their matches to watch with my technical team. We should get enough details that we will transfer to our players and begin to work on our strategy,” Olowookere posited.
