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Edwin Okon has the unenviable task of becoming a villain or a hero as he leads his wards against two-time world champions, the USA in the early hours ofWednesday at the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
With so much talent, especially attacking-wise, the Falcons have largely underachieved in Canada where they now need to beat the Americans to stand any chance of making it to the round of 16.
The task is hard but not insurmountable and here is how the Falcons can cover themselves in a lot of glory by beating the USA for the first time.
Play Nkwocha in midfield
In the match against Sweden, apart from lethargy from the front players, there was the inability of the midfielders to connect straight into their path away from their Swedish defenders. Coach Okon can solve that riddle by playing Nkwocha as part of a middle trio of herself, Halimat Ayinde and Evelyn Nwabuoku. Nkwocha has the guile and the eye for a pass and the other two can hustle to get the ball to her.
Play balls over the defence
Now one thing the Falcons have done very well in Canada is get caught by offside calls. This happens mostly because the strikers are too fast for the thinking of their midfielders but that challenge can be easily solved with a little bit of coaching – let the players continually hang on the shoulder of the last defender or make runs inside and out inside of going straight away whenever they think they have a chance.
Do not concede corner kicks
The USA side is a big, strong and technical side. They will try and work the flanks so that they will either get in their crosses or create situations where they will get corner kicks. This is one area that the Falcons must really work on, as the full backs must ensure that conceding a corner is the last resort. This means that Ngozi Ebere and Ugo Okoye must always stay inside their opponents and not allow any width.
In three matches against the USA at this stage, the Falcons have lost the three, conceding 13 times and scoring just once so if they are going to get anything from today’s game then the coach and his girls must make sure that they negate all the strengths of this USA side.
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