{"id":12791,"date":"2026-11-09T01:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T01:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/japan-coach-salutes-flamingos\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T01:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T01:45:51","slug":"japan-coach-salutes-flamingos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/japan-coach-salutes-flamingos\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan coach salutes Flamingos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Japan<\/strong> head coach Sadayoshi Shirai has hailed Nigeria\u2019s Flamingos after admitting his side struggled to cope with the champions\u2019 pace and physicality in the final of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Rabat, Morocco.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Flamingos secured a historic 2-1 victory over Japan on Saturday to become the first African nation to win the competition, with goals from Awawu Bashiru and Oluebube Umejiaku proving decisive.\n<\/p>\n<p>Japan mounted a late fightback through Fuki Ito, who reduced the deficit in the 80th minute, but Nigeria held on to claim their maiden world title.\n<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the defeat, Shirai acknowledged the quality of the Nigerian side, saying his players had struggled to contain their opponents despite being aware of their strengths before the encounter.<\/p>\n<p>\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 he told FIFA.<\/p>\n<p>\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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese coach also felt an earlier goal could have changed the outcome, as his side struggled to recover from conceding twice before the hour mark.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI also believe that if we had managed to score earlier, we might have had a better chance of winning the match,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n<p>Despite the disappointment of losing the final, Shirai urged his players to take pride in their efforts throughout the tournament, having reached their first final since 2016.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want them 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 he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s triumph completed a remarkable turnaround after their opening 2-1 defeat to Poland, with Hakeem Busari\u2019s side winning their subsequent six matches to lift the trophy.\n<\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan head coach Sadayoshi Shirai has hailed Nigeria\u2019s Flamingos after admitting his side struggled to cope with the champions\u2019 pace and physicality in the final of the 2026 FIFA U-17&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12791","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=12791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}