For Nigeria captain Desire Oparanozie, her country\u2019s meeting with hosts France at the women\u2019s World Cup on Monday will be like playing on \u201chome soil\u201c.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited playing in France and playing against France as well. I will have a couple of my friends in the French team,\u201d the 25-year-old tells AFP.<\/p>\n
This is her third World Cup, and it has a special flavour given she plays her club football in France for Guingamp.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s match, which is crucial for Nigeria as they seek to join France in the last 16, will be played not far from Guingamp, in Rennes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing against the host nation, you\u2019re not just playing against 11 players, you\u2019re playing against the crowd,\u201d warned Oparanozie, who helped her team to a 2-0 win over South Korea on Wednesday to claim their first points in Group A.<\/p>\n
After a 3-0 loss to Norway in their opening match, that result means the Super Falcons still stand a chance of making it out of their group at a World Cup for the first time in 20 years.<\/p>\n
Nigeria may dominate women\u2019s football in Africa, having won 11 out of 13 Cups of Nations, but only once have they got beyond the group stage at the World Cup. \u201cIn past World Cups, we haven\u2019t really done well and we are working very hard to make sure that we qualify from the group stage,\u201d said Oparanozie.<\/p>\n
To help them do that, the Nigerians moved last year to appoint as coach Thomas Dennerby, the Swede who led his home country to third place at the 2011 World Cup. \u201cHe brings a whole lot of positive things in the team. He has a very broad knowledge about women\u2019s football,\u201d said Oparanozie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a couple of changes since he arrived.\u201d Among the most important changes were the improved preparations ahead of the tournament. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really have that in the past. But this time is different. We had a couple of quality international friendlies and tournaments. \u201cWe went to China, in Cyprus for the Cyprus Cup and we were also in Spain to play against Canada, so we had a good preparation for this year\u2019s World Cup.\u201d Another of Dennerby\u2019s decisions was to make Oparanozie the captain, something she describes as \u201can honour\u201d and \u201ca great privilege\u201c.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always comes with a whole lot of expectations, I would say. I mean the players expect a lot from me, the coaches, the federation, the country as a whole,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Oparanozie left her homeland at the age of just 17 and had spells in Russia, Germany and Turkey, eventually settling in France at Guingamp in 2014. \u201cIt was really hard in the beginning. At that age I missed home a lot, it was cold, the food was different, the culture, the people,\u201d she said of leaving Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really difficult but looking from where I came from, I wanted to grow in my career, I didn\u2019t have any option other than to try to make a career for myself.\u201d She also had to overcome resistance from within her own family at the idea of becoming a footballer. \u201cIn a typical African home, they think the girls shouldn\u2019t play football, they think it\u2019s a boy\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in my family, they were against it, but luckily enough I had my father\u2019s support and that\u2019s what helped me to carry on with my career.\u201d She is now eager to help youngsters who want to follow in her footsteps, and she recently set up her own foundation for boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18.<\/p>\n
In July, she will be back in her home town of Owerri, in southern Nigeria, to hold a seminar for several hundred youngsters. \u201cI organise seminars to encourage them to be whatever they want to be. That\u2019s my own way of giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Nigeria captain Desire Oparanozie, her country\u2019s meeting with hosts France at the women\u2019s World Cup on Monday will be like playing on \u201chome soil\u201c. \u201cI\u2019m excited playing in France and playing against France as well. I will have a couple of my friends in the French team,\u201d the 25-year-old tells AFP. This is her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":11575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[122,453,123],"class_list":["post-11573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-sports","tag-super-eagles","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\n