Barcelona Femeni of Spain attacker, Asisat Oshoala ended her belaboured outing with Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons at the 2021 WNT Summer Series with scathing remarks hitting her in the technical report about her performance against hosts USA.
Nigeria lost that game 2-0 in the early hours of Wednesday and, though Oshoala gained 6.5 points out of ten on analyst rate cards, the overall verdict about her performance showed that she failed to conjure ideas that would have given her and the team a better result.
Megasportsarena.com reports that it was another night of personal and collective struggles for Oshoala and her team, as the Falcons’ captain failed to score and was caged all through by the determined hosts, even as she ended being ranked Nigeria’s third best player on the night.
That marked an anti-climactic end to the Series for Oshoala, who could not get herself into the best of form in the two matches she played for the Falcons at the competition in Texas, USA, as she is yet to fully recover from surgery she had on her left foot in early April.
She into action was rushed back for her club’s visit to Paris-Saint Germaine of France in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and then played bit-part roles in all of Barca’s remaining matches on the domestic front.
The former FC Robo Queens of Lagos, Liverpool and Arsenal of England as well Dalian Quanjian of China star has been plagued by injury problems in recent months and was rated doubtful for the Champions League final against Chelsea of England but managed to pass a fitness test before the final.
‘Super Zee,’ however, paid the price of getting into the thick of action with the Falcons on the same day she linked up with the squad in Texas, as she got injured in the second half of a 3-3 draw with Portugal, leading to her replacement by Obianujuwan Ikechukwu in the 70th minute.
Oshoala did manage to feature in Wednesday’s epic game versus Team USA, but she was not at her prime best, even after officials of the Nigerian tam assured that her injury was not as bad as first feared, and the verdict was that she was only suffering cramps due to the flight from Spain.
The Falcons went on to lose 2-0 against the Americans and their captain ended up taking a swipe from many analysts and the game’s technical report noted that she was kept at bay and quiet all through the game.
Oshoala’s inability to shine was summated in the technical assessment of her performance in the Falcons’ last game, with the citation stating in part: “The Barcelona striker was caged. She was the target of a few physical challenges by the USA girls. 6.5/10.”
