Staubli
A
Swiss referee, Esther Staubli, will be at the centre for the semi-final
match between Nigeria and the United States at the ongoing U-20 Women’s
World Cup in Japan, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The Media Officer of the U-20 women national team, Falconets, Ejiro Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
``
Esther Staubli, who handled the Argentina versus Canada group match,
will be in charge of Tuesday’s encounter that comes up at 8am Nigerian
and 4pm Japanese time.
``Staubli has been a referee since 2000, but became internationally acclaimed in 2006,’’ the statement said.
The
Falconets defeated Mexico 1-0 in the 19th minute of the extra time to
get to the semi-finals, after both sides recorded no goal at the end of
the regulation time.
The statement added that penalty shoot-out dominated Monday's training of the Nigerian team ahead of the Tuesday’s match.
It
said the coaching crew was not taking anything for granted since it was
through penalties that Nigeria defeated the Americans two years ago in
Germany.
Nigeria knocked out the U.S. 4-2 on penalties in the quarter-final in Germany two years ago, after regular time ended 1-1.
``Anything can happen at this stage, even though we have always practiced penalties during our training sessions.
``But
this time, we felt it is pertinent to step up the tempo because of the
possibility of the match going into extra time," it quoted Coach Edwin
Okon as saying.
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