AWC: Mabo challenges Falcons Coach To Get Team Ready

By Eddie Akalonu Former Super Falcons handler, Ismaila Mabo, tasked Super Falcons coach, Edwin Okon to get his team well prepared for the African Women Championship holding in Namibia in October, saying that having a good team will be the best instrument to reclaiming the title last won by Equatorial Guinea in 2012. Falcons chief coach days back released his list of players for the AWC. Speaking with Sports Vanguard, Mabo, who handled the Faslcons to the Women World Cup in USA'99 and two women Olympic tournaments- Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 enjoined Okon never to take things for granted because, as he puts it “the country's failure to build on gains made by women football, had allowed the rest to draw level. “in time past, we ruled Africa. We knew ahead of time that we would defeat fellow African xcountries.It is no longer the same now because while we failed to lay a good foundation for developing women football,Other African countries who had problems in the male category swiftly turned attention to women football. That left us panting. So things are no longer the same for the game because others have seen the benefit of contesting for the title,” he said.. Nigeria, winners in six editions is in group- A with the Ivory Coast which eliminated current holders Equatorial Guinea during the qualifiers, Zambia and hosts, Namibia, while group- B consists of South Africa, Cameroon, Algeria and Ghana. Both South Africa and Ghana displayed earlier signs they had caught up with Nigerian with Ghana Black Queens inflicting the first defeat 2-0 on the Super Falcons in 2002 in Nigeria. Mabo has meanwhile congratulated the Falconets for the second place finish in the under-20 World Cup in Canada, saying “I am no looking at the the defeat by Germany in the final but the competition campaign as a whole. It is a mark of progress for the country because the team exhibited very high standards, skills and the knowledge that a coach with focus had handled them . To me, this performance should be an inspiration to the Falcons to go to Namibia and reclaim the crown.”