Sports
Oshoala wants Falcons to play like Real Madrid against USA
Asisat Oshoala has had a pretty spectacular 12 months by anyone’s standards. The Ikorodu, Lagos native took home both the adidas Golden Ball and the Golden Boot at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 en route to a second-place finish with the Super Falconets in August of last year; while just last week she scored in her senior Women’s World Cup debut.
In between those feats, ‘Superzee’, as she is known by her team-mates, signed for Liverpool and earned the BBC’s Women’s Footballer of the Year Award, while also picking up the CAF young and senior player prizes. Add in becoming a Member of the Order of the Niger, an honour bestowed upon the 20-year-old by her nation’s president and it would be safe to assume that Oshoala is content with how things are going at the moment.
And you would be wrong. Despite all of the accolades she has recently earned and the attention she has received from all corners of the planet, Nigeria’s No8 has been finding it difficult to enjoy herself during her first Women’s World Cup so far. That is not to say Canada 2015 has yet to be a worthwhile experience for the young starlet, though.
“I have learned a lot of things about myself as a player,” Oshoala told FIFA.com after her team’s 2-0 loss to Australia. At times during the U-20 Women’s World Cup last summer it seemed almost impossibly easy for Oshoala to find the back of the net. But as the young starlet quickly pointed out, that is simply not the case at Canada 2015.
“This is a big tournament with much stronger competition. When you play at the under-age tournament, and then you come to the senior World Cup, you see it’s much harder. So, you just have to adapt to it.
“My style of play can’t always be the same. I need to find different ways to change my attacking patterns so I can get behind the backline.”\\