29th October, 2010
Super Falcons’ Chief Coach, Eucharia Uche, spoke to SuperSport.com before she led the team to South Africa ahead of the African Women Championship, AWC. The 36-year-old speaks on her team’s preparedness for their opening game against Mali and her ambition to see her side claim their eighth title in Africa and also eyes the trophy as her personal target
Nigeria will open their quest to win the African Women’s Championship, AWC against Mali on 1 November, how prepared is your team?
The players are in very good shape for our first game. We are very prepared for our first game against Mali. That is our focus for now.
Are you thinking of how your team will play against South Africa since they are regarded as the toughest side in your group?
No. I am not thinking of South Africa yet. The first game is very important to us. After the first game we will talk about South Africa and then Tanzania. It is very important for us to win our first game against Mali, and the girls know this too because we have discussed it. This is a big competition in Africa and we will not underrate any team.
So how difficult was it putting this team together considering that you had to invite players from the U-17 and U-20 teams that did well in different FIFA championships earlier this year?
I must say that it was not an easy task. But I thank God that I was able to pick the best players from the players that came to camp to represent the country ahead of the competition in South Africa.
There were reports that this list of players were actually not done with 100 per cent of your input, but that Assistant Secretary General, Technical, James Peters, had a hand in it?
No I don’t think that is true. Yes James Peters is my supervisor and a senior man in the job. I can tell you that I picked the players by myself. What he did was to give suggestions since he is part of the technical department. That is all.
In essence, you’re saying that you will accept responsibility if the team fail to do well in South Africa without blaming anyone for such?
Of course I am the coach. As the coach I will accept such.
But there was an incident in the involving some senior players who clamoured for one of their colleagues to be selected ahead of a younger player. It involved one of the goalkeepers, Chioma Ajagba, almost being dropped for her U-17 counterpart.
Things like this happen in almost every team. But I don’t think i’is a big issue because every player wants to play for her country and I believe that same happened while we were in camp. I also believe that some of the players dropped are still not happy about it but that is what happens in football because we have limited number of players that canl be registered for the competition so we can’t take everybody with us.
But the players we dropped are still part of the Super Falcons because by the time we qualify for the World Cup next year, they will get the chance of being called to camp to fight for places again. So there will be no automatic shirts for anyone to the World Cup like we have done for the Nations Cup.
Why did you drop Cynthia Uwak and Sarah Michael?
As for Cynthia Uwak and Sarah Michael, I left them out because they did not come to camp early enough. When they arrived, the team were almost through with all of our plans for the competition and it would dragged us back if I had included them in the team after what we had done.
Realistically, do you have confidence that this team can win the African championship after failing to do so in 2008?
I am very confident that we will win this competition. Although, we know that we must also work very hard to win it. Two years ago, Equatorial Guinea shocked us and it was just an eye-opener that there are no small teams in women’s football in Africa anymore. So we will play every game as if we are playing in the final.
Also, this team are made up of young and experienced players. Some of the players came from the U-17 and U-20 sides that did brilliantly well in FIFA competitions and I believe that they will put up the same performance in South Africa, while the older and experienced players will guide them to glory.
What will be your main target in South Africa?
I want to win back the cup for Nigeria. Secondly, having won this cup as a player in the past, I want to do the same as a coach and create a record for myself. So it will be interesting to become a winner of the competition as a player and a coach of Nigeria.
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