Nigeria's superfalconet shines on sunday.

There were seven minutes remaining of Nigeria’s
FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014
quarter-final with New Zealand on Sunday when
Super Falconets’ coach Peter Dedevbo decided to
freshen up his front line.
Though 2-0 up and well in control, the Africans
had failed to trouble the Kiwi keeper for some
time, prompting Dedevbo to look for someone to
shake things up and cap his side’s impending win
with a flourish. The player he turned to was the
appropriately named Uchechi Sunday, and she did
not disappoint.
As she explained in an interview with FIFA.com
after the final whistle, the substitute made an
instant impact. “I scored with my very first touch,”
said the bubbly striker. “That’s football, though,
isn’t it? Sometimes you play well and things don’t
work out. But today I went out there and found
the back of the net straightaway.”
Sunday did not finish there either. With the game
moving into stoppage time, she struck again to
complete a 4-1 win for Nigeria, who will now
meet Korea DPR in the semi-finals.
Sunday’s brace showcased her innate finishing
skills. Firing into the roof of the net from a corner
to open her account, she then used her pace to
score her second, bursting into the box with the
ball at her feet, powering past a Kiwi defender and
clipping the ball neatly over the keeper.
Laughing as he tried to describe her style of play,
she said: “I suppose you could say I’m a goal
specialist. I just try to get in the area so I can
round moves off by putting the ball in the back of
the net. That’s what I’m there for.”
Making an impact
This is not the first time Sunday has jumped off
the bench to steal the show, as Sierra Leone’s
U-20 side can confirm. Taking up the story, the
smiling Sunday said: “We played them during the
qualifiers for the World Cup and I came on in the
second half in that game too. By the end of it I’d
scored five goals.”
She finished the Canada 2014 qualifying
competition as her side’s leading scorer with ten
goals, nearly a third of the 31 they amassed in
total, a figure made all the more impressive by
the fact they did not concede once.
The striker has yet to start a game at the finals,
however, and has found it hard so far to keep her
nerves under control: “It’s impossible not to be
nervous when you’re on the bench! It’s far worse
than starting because you want to get out there
and help your team-mates. And when they make
a mistake you think: ‘Ahhhh. I would have done it
this way or that way’. Sometimes, though, you
just have to sit there and watch and cheer them
on.
After her rapid double against New Zealand, is
there a chance that Dedevbo might be tempted to
give her a start against the North Koreans?
Pondering that question, she replied: “I’m
dreaming about that semi-final. I don’t know if I’ll
start the game – that’s up to the coach – but I
do know that no matter who plays, they will have
to give their all because we want to be in the
final.”
With that final falling on another Sunday, it is
understandable why Nigeria’s super Sunday wants
to be a part of it.