Japan U-17 women\u2019s national team head coach Sadayoshi Shirai has expressed pride in his players\u2019 resilience and commitment following their 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in the final of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
The Little Nadeshiko came up short against the Flamingos at the Mohammed VI Football Complex Pitch 3 in Rabat on Saturday night, with Nigeria making history by winning their first-ever U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup title.<\/p>\n
Japan began the final on the front foot but found it difficult to match Nigeria\u2019s physicality, pace and attacking intensity as the Flamingos gradually established control of the game.<\/p>\n
Nigeria took advantage of their dominance through goals from Awawu Bashiru and Oluebube Umejiaku, putting them firmly in control of the contest.<\/p>\n
Japan, however, refused to give up and reignited hopes of a comeback when Fuki Ito found the net with 10 minutes left to play.<\/p>\n
Despite their late resurgence, the Japanese side could not find an equaliser as Nigeria held on to secure a historic victory.<\/p>\n
Shirai Reacts To Japan Defeat Against Nigeria <\/p>\n
Shirai acknowledged the quality of the Nigerian team but praised his players for their determination to compete until the final whistle.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I have to say that Nigeria were a very strong team. We understood their strengths, but there were moments when they managed to get in behind our defence,\u201d Shirai told FIFA.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven so, I think our players fought incredibly hard until the very end, doing everything they could to cope with Nigeria\u2019s speed and physical power. I also believe that if we had managed to score earlier, we might have had a better chance of winning the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them [Japan\u2019s players] to be proud of themselves. The way they fought until the very end of this World Cup will have inspired many people, and I hope they can take confidence from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Japan U-17 women\u2019s national team head coach Sadayoshi Shirai has expressed pride in his players\u2019 resilience and commitment following their 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in the final of the 2026… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}