{"id":12282,"date":"2026-11-08T07:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T07:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/fifa-u-17-wwc-why-we-lost-to-nigeria-in-final-japan-coach-shirai\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T07:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T07:46:10","slug":"fifa-u-17-wwc-why-we-lost-to-nigeria-in-final-japan-coach-shirai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/fifa-u-17-wwc-why-we-lost-to-nigeria-in-final-japan-coach-shirai\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA U-17 WWC: Why we lost to Nigeria in final \u2013 Japan coach Shirai"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img width=\"612\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/FIFA-U-17-WWC-Why-we-lost-to-Nigeria-in-final-\u2013-Japan-coach-Shirai.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"FIFA U-17 WWC: Why we lost to Nigeria in final \u2013 Japan coach Shirai\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/FIFA-U-17-WWC-Why-we-lost-to-Nigeria-in-final-\u2013-Japan-coach-Shirai.jpg 612w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/japan-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan U-17 women\u2019s national team coach, Sadayoshi Shirai, has praised Nigeria\u2019s Flamingos following his side\u2019s 2-1 defeat in the final of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shirai admitted that Nigeria\u2019s speed and physical strength posed major problems for his players, particularly when the Flamingos managed to break through their defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nigeria secured the title through goals from Oluebube Umejiaku and Awawu Bashiru, while Fuki Ito scored for Japan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reacting after the encounter, Shirai acknowledged Nigeria\u2019s superiority but maintained that his players gave their best throughout the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\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. Even 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. I 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 Shirai said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan reached the final after defeating DPR Korea in the semi-finals, while Nigeria booked their place in the title decider with a victory over Brazil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Flamingos eventually defeated Japan to claim the U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup trophy, marking a historic achievement for Nigerian women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/11\/fifa-u-17-wwc-why-we-lost-to-nigeria-in-final-japan-coach-shirai\/\">FIFA U-17 WWC: Why we lost to Nigeria in final \u2013 Japan coach Shirai<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan U-17 women\u2019s national team coach, Sadayoshi Shirai, has praised Nigeria\u2019s Flamingos following his side\u2019s 2-1 defeat in the final of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Morocco.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12282","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=12282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}