•As Nigeria face rampaging Germany
HISTORY making national women Under-20 team, the Falconets, hope to hand over to Nigerians a befitting 50th independence anniversary gift by the end of their encounter with hosts Germany in Sunday's final of the 2010 FIFA Women's U-20 World Cup.

The Falconets, who had since earned the tag 'Super' from appreciative Nigerians for their splendid performance so far at the tournament, will file out tomorrow against their German counterparts with the determination to be the first Nigerian female squad to win a FIFA-organised championship.
"The girls are very much aware of the milestones they stand to achieve with a victory in Sunday's final," Egan Adat, coach of the Falconets said shortly after Thursday's semi-final win against Colombia. "They want to show their appreciation to Nigerians who have supported them even from home and also to the government for the motivation."

Indeed, very few gave the Falconets any chance of advancing to the latter stages of the competition-Nigeria had crashed out in previous editions at the quarter final stage-but the team, which would have been missing from the tournament in Germany, has now become the first African team to the reach the final of the women U-20 event.

The Falconets, would as usual rely on the creative ingenuity of Rebecca Kalu and Amarachi Okoronkwo in the midfield for Ebere Orji, Esther Sunday and Desire Oparanozie to forage for goals, with the likes of capatain Joy Jegede and Helen Ukaonu providing the necessary cover in the defence line.
They will however be up against a free scoring German side highly favoured by pundits to lift the trophy.
Golden girl Alexandra Popp, who has hit the net nine times so far in this competition, will be the biggest threat to the Nigerian dream, but expectations are high that coach Adat would be able to find an antidote to the German poison before the anticiapted epic final.