{"id":12149,"date":"2023-08-06T13:06:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T13:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=12149"},"modified":"2023-08-06T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T13:06:43","slug":"a-breath-of-fresh-air-nigerias-world-cup-run-sparks-joy-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/06\/a-breath-of-fresh-air-nigerias-world-cup-run-sparks-joy-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A breath of fresh air\u2019: Nigeria\u2019s World Cup run sparks joy back home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lagos, Nigeria \u2013<\/strong> Nigeria\u2019s 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland last week took their Women\u2019s World Cup points tally to five from three matches, enough to secure passage<\/a> from the group stage for only the third time in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A round-of-16 clash with England beckons on Monday, and for 59-year-old cab driver Adetunji Ajagbe, this holds significance. Despite giving up on watching the national teams for years as a means to \u2013 in his words \u2013 \u201cavoid heart attacks\u201d, the Super Falcons\u2019 performances have tempted him back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prospect of one-upping England, in light of the colonial subplot, is particularly tantalising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey took so much from us [when] they colonised us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cI have not been following Nigeria in [recent] competitions, but these girls are playing good football and using their strength very well. I believe they can go far.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of the current crop in Australia is redemptive in more ways than one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is it repairing the country\u2019s image as also-rans at the Women\u2019s World Cup and assuaging the anger and disappointment over the Super Eagles\u2019 failure to qualify<\/a> for the 2022 men\u2019s World Cup in Qatar, but the success of the Super Falcons\u2019 campaign down under has provided a rare bright spot in the midst of political instability and violence<\/a>, runaway inflation, a cost of living crisis, and growing youth migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving a national team doing well in a major tournament is always a good distraction for Nigerians as they often forget their crises as long as the team stays in that tournament,\u201d sports journalist Fisayo Dairo told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome excited fans are already being bullish about the Falcons\u2019 chances of getting to the semifinal, this will further enhance the incredible and unstoppable excitement and support across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lagos, Nigeria \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s 0-0 draw with the Republic of Ireland last week took their Women\u2019s World Cup points tally to five from three matches, enough to secure passage from the group stage for only the third time in the country\u2019s history. A round-of-16 clash with England beckons on Monday, and for 59-year-old cab driver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-27.png?fit=770%2C513&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12152,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12149\/revisions\/12152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}