We lacked focus —Falcons coach

Nigeria coach, Edwin Okon, believes the Super Falcons
were not focused enough in their last Group D match
against the United States of America on Wednesday at
the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
A lone goal from Abby Wambach in the 45th minute
gave the Americans a 1-0 win and sent the African
champions out of the tournament.
The defeat meant the Falcons left the tournament
sitting bottom of the group with one point, which they
got from their opening day 3-3 draw with Sweden, thus
extending their inability to progress beyond the group
stages of the tournament since their quarterfinal feat in
1999.
However, Okon believes the Falcons wasted their goal-
scoring chances to win the match saying his opponents
were better with theirs.
“It was a great experience for us here in Canada. We
weren’t focused enough in a few situations today,” he
told Fifa.com .
“Today (Wednesday) USA made the most of one of
their chances and we didn’t, even though we had
several.”
The coach added that the red card given to Sarah
Nnodim in the 69th minute also gave the Group D
leaders an advantage over Nigeria.
He said, “I wasn’t surprised to see USA make
substitutions that were more defensive after our
sending off as they knew they were playing a good
team. You always have a 50-50 chance in every game.”
For USA coach, Jill Ellis, Nigeria were worthy
opponents in a difficult group but regretted her team’s
inability to score more than a goal.
She said, “Nigeria gave us a good fight, as expected.
They’re a dangerous team. I’m happy with the way we
played both with and without the ball.”
“We can attack with confidence if we have a good
backline. It’s a shame we only scored one goal but
we’re very happy to finish top of a difficult group.”
Wednesday’s loss was the fourth by Nigeria to the USA
in the history of the competition. The meetings between
the two countries have produced 15 goals with Nigeria
scoring only one of them.