The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) expects a semi-finals appearance from the under-20 women team, the Falconets, at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada this August.
Mrs Dilichukwu Onyedimma, an NFF board member in Abuja that the team had since been working to surpass its previous World Cup record.
“The Falconets will come into camp in the next one or two months but we want to start preparing them with friendly matches.
“All expectations are that the team should go beyond the stage it reached before and, if not, the semi-finals. But I am looking at the team playing in the final this year.
“The under-17 team which went to Costa Rica in March did not start playing friendly matches on time when they were preparing for the World Cup, but they later did when they embarked on a training tour.
“They played a good number of matches which really helped them get to the quarter-finals stage.
“So, we also want to do the same for the Falconets. We will start with friendly matches and from there we will get them into camp,’’ Onyedimma said.
She said the programme of early camping and friendly matches would ensure that the team had the coherence it needed for the World Cup.
The 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada is scheduled to hold between Aug. 5 and Aug. 24.
Nigeria is in Group C with England, Mexico and Korea Republic.
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