By Solomon Nwoke, Abeokuta
Team Delta women football team Tuesday added the 2024 Gateway Games gold medal to their collection to sit firm in the Games medals table.
The exciting final match which had the MKO Sports Stadium full to capacity which had Team Delta pitched against the Invited Junior Athletes (IJA), otherwise known as the Flamingos and national U-17. team was decided on penalty shootout after both sides played out a goalless during regulation time.
Both teams tied again at 5 – 5 during the first set of penalty shootout before Delta shutdown IJA in the decider penalties at 3-2 bringing the shoreline to 8 – 7 to win the gold.
Speaking shortly after the match, the IJA coach, Bankole Olowookere was pleased with the standard of play by the two teams
“It’s a developmental program for the girls and I give kudos to them.
They have done well, I can never be angry with them, it’s a family affair, they did their best. This is a team that was assembled a week to the NSF, nobody gave them a chance to get to this level. The IJA initiative to NSF is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria, otherwise nobody would have known these girls today”, he said.
The coach of Team Delta, Nelly Orasakwe equally gave kudos to her girls for making her proud.
She said, “The state government has been encouraging to us. They’ve been supportive. My girls and I also decided to make them proud, this is what we did in the NDDC Games, and we also came to the festival to prove to them that we can do it on and on. We played our fellow girls. We played them before we knew them, and we came back to prove to them that we can still do it. The next is for you to wait for us in the Youth Games”.
1 comment
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