Chief coach of Nigeria's Super Falcons, Ntiero Effiom, and his players have vowed to win the remaining group matches against favourites the United States and the DPR Korea (DPRK), local media based in Lagos reported Thursday.
The Nigerians played 1-1 draw in their opening match against Sweden and will take on the DPRK on Friday at Chengdu. Ntiero said the team would improve with each game and would give its best against the DPR Koreans. He added that the new players that made the team proved their worth in the first game against Sweden.
"The game against the Swedes was a tough one. We knew the group was tough coming in. The game was balanced. Sweden played well but we stuck with them," Ntiero said. "They had a bigger reputation coming into the game, but my girls played their hearts out today (Tuesday) and never gave in."
"I could not be more proud. This is a great starting point, but now we want to improve with each match. You have to get better all the time to win a tournament like this and that is what we will try to do. I had to make some changes in my team for various reasons and all of the new players responded well to the challenge.," he said.
"We still have some big names to play against the U.S. and the DPRK, so we have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves," he said.
The game's Most Valuable Player, Stella Mbachu, was happy over the result and promised a better outing in their next game. "This was a wonderful result for us. The Swedes came out to beat us, but we never let them feel comfortable on the pitch," she said.
"We played well and the result is a fair one. We showed our class on the field today and hope to keep doing so."
Perpetua Nkwocha, on her own part, said the team would keep up the form and get better.
"This was always going to be a tough game for us. Very few people gave us a chance, but we never gave up and scored late to get level. This is the sign of a strong team with good psychology. We will hopefully keep up this form and get even better."
Falcons' goal scorer, Cynthia Uwak, said the goal has given her confidence with which to approach subsequent games:"I can't explain how good it felt to score that goal late and rescue a point for us," she said.
"I play in Sweden so I know a lot of those Swedish girls. I will be able to walk tall when I go back there."
Source: Xinhua
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