Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt produced a clinical second half display to win the 2014 Women’s Federations Cup final at the expense of Sunshine Queens of Akure.
Asisat Oshoala‘s inspired performance gave the Rivers State owned side a 2-0 win over Queens in the final played at the Teslim Balogun stadium, Lagos on Sunday.
Angels looked brighter of the two sides in the first half but were kept at bay by their former goalkeeper, Funke Okewole who was in goal for Sunshine Queens.
The deadlock was broken in the 66th minute, when Mercy Amanze was put through down the right flank, her effort was spilled by Okewole allowing FIFA U -20 Women World Cup most valuable player and highest goal scorer, Asisat Oshoala to poke the ball into the net.
The Akure girls had no answers to the superior fireworks of the league leaders from Port Harcourt and were only rescued in the 83rd minute when Super Falcons and Angels captain, Evelyn Nwabuokwu’s 20-yard rocket cannoned off the cross bar.
The reigning Federations Cup Champions however made the game safe two minutes later when veteran striker, Stella Mbachu who retired from international football after winning the Africa Women Championship in Namibia in October, added his team’s second when she connected Oshoala’s pass from the left.
Rivers Angels thus retained the trophy for the fourth time in a row and their fifth Federation Cup triumph overall.
Asisat Oshoala was named the Most Valuable Player of the Federation Cup, while Ebere Orji won the Highest Goal Scorer courtesy of her hat trick in the 6-1 win against City of David Babes in the Federation Cup round of 16 games.
Coach of the winning team, Edwin Okon said this year has been a great year for him as a coach.
“It is the best year for me as a coach. I just need to sustain and maintain it for personal brand and level. I don’t want a situation whereby people would say he wasn’t like this last year. It is just like a motor, you should know when the clutch needs to be changed and when the tyre needs to be changed. We wish to sustain this tempo even higher than this next year”, said Okon.
Sunshine Queens’ coach, kayode Olujuyigbe attributed his side’s loss to errors made by his team in the game.
“It is not that they are really better than Sunshine Queens,it is because we made some expensive errors and at the end of the day we paid for it. Every team has got its own weaknesses and that’s why one team has to win one has to lose.The loss is going to hurt Ondo state people a little bit but for the team, we have learnt a lot. When we come to the Federation Cup next season,the performance is going to be better than this one, said Olujuyigbe.”
Rivers Angels lost 2 games in 2 days before the Federation Cup final. A 1-0 loss to Pelican Stars in a Nigeria Women Premier League rescheduled game in Calabar and 2-1 loss to Fc Robo in a warm match in Mushin, Lagos on Friday.
Captain of Rivers Angels, Evelyn Nwabuokwu said confidence and believe gave her team the victory.
“It has to do with believe as a team which is the spirit that keeps us moving. We have a mentality that we never want to lose and that has been our bond that has kept us. We never lost confidence in ourselves.We just felt that was a friendly game and could happen.You lose some and win some but this is a final we had to give our all, said Nwabuokwu.”
