Chris Maduewesi
Member
The Europeans defeated their African counterparts 1-0 after extra time in Montreal,to be crowned champions of the tournament which was hosted by Canada.
2014 has proven to be a wonderful year for German football,just last month in Brazil their Men's senior team won the FIFA World Cup tournament.
And it was in similar fashion that they did it in the under 20-Women's World cup,scoring an extra time winner to beat Nigeria to the trophy,just as Mario Goetze did in Rio De Janeiro for Germany to beat Argentina.
It was disappointing for Nigeria who have once again fallen short when it looked as though they were going to shake off that cloud and come out from their shadows.
Backed up by the expectations of millions of people back home in Nigeria,the Falconets had support in quantum.
From President Goodluck Jonathan,who incidentally is presently in Germany,down to the other citizens in the country,it was a point of commitment by these Nigerians to cheer them.
There was belief that the Falconets could do it,having whetted the appetite of people with their displays so far in the tournament.
Scoring with aplomb and making the finals against Germany seemed like the perfect stage for a payback time to the loss suffered four years ago.
Nigeria started brightly and had good chances of getting behind Germany,but they didn't take them,although the Germans had a fair share of theirs.
It was an entertaining match and highly competitive for the two teams vying to their respective countries proud.
If there was any player that the Falconets looked up to for inspiration,it was Asisat Oshoala who had already scored seven goals coming into the match in Montreal.
But then Germans did a good job in containing her,although she somehow couldn't find a way in all the four chances she got.
Chance after chance and the time went away with the game going into extra time,although the Falconets would have stolen a late winner but for Loveth Ayila who got in the way of Oshoala's header that was goal-bound,only for interference to be called for an offside.
It was a balanced game with no team in particular having an upper hand against the other.
However it fell apart for the Nigerians in extra time,and just as they did against Germany in 2010,poor technical abilities robbed them
The Falconets were caught in possession in their own half with Germany skipper Paolina Bremer doing a nice job to steal the ball from Ebere Okoye and cutting it back to Lena Petermann to slot past the Nigerian keeper.
It was cruel for the Nigerians to concede an extra time goal,but they were second best in the first half of extra time and did not rattle their opposition in search for a goal.
Nigeria failed to ignite something,conjure up an equaliser with Germany holding out to win only for their third time in the history of the competition.
The Falconets might have lost yet again,but they would take solace knowing that Nigerians reckoned with the team,staying up late to watch them because they never doubted their abilities.
And if they had made the semifinals in each of the last four editions of this tournament,then certainly they are not far away from winning it.
Photo Credit: @FIFAWWC