A Wrap-up of the U-17 Women's World Cup.

Well, before I say farewell to the U-17 Women's World Cup in Azerbaijan, I would just like to post about the Final and 3rd Place games that took place a couple days ago. First off, the 3rd Place match between Ghana and Germany! Despite falling a player down by the 32nd minute, Ghana ended up striking ahead in the 38th minute. Fatima Alhassan's sending-off was admittedly disappointing and certainly made the game no less easy for the Africans. Nevertheless, Priscilla Okyere struck the one and only goal of the game 6 minutes later to give the Africans a 1-0 victory over a rather hapless German side. Despite a total of 16 shots, 7 corner opportunities, and 57% of the possession, the German women could not get past Ghana's keeper Victoria Agyei who had yet another phenomenal game! Comparatively, Ghana had a total of 9 shots and 43% of the control of the ball. Last but certainly not least, the Final match between France and North Korea. Once more, it was a positively exhilarating experience with the French women striking in the 33rd minute of the 1st half through Lea Declercq. It took a while, but the North Koreans ended up drawing level in the 79th minute thanks to the perfect foot of Ri Un Sim! As the final whistle blew and the game proceeded to penalties, the French side could be said to have had the upper-hand with 11 shots to North Korea's 7; 5 to the 2 opportunities for the North Koreans; though "just" 48% possession compared to France's 52%. How did the penalties turn out? Well, despite not utilizing any of their subs, the French side managed to keep level with the North Koreans through the first 5 penalty shots for the respective sides. It ended even with just a miss from each of the sides - Kim Un Hwa had her shot saved by the French keeper while Marion Romanelli's shot for the French team was saved by North Korea's goalie. Going on to the sudden-death portion of the shoot-out, both sides were looking strong until the 3rd go-around: then, Ri Un Yong's shot was saved after Kadidiatou Diani struck home for the French national team. That makes France the first European side to lift the U-17 Women's World Cup! How so? Well, since the beginning of the competition in 2008, North Korea and South Korea had been the winners up to this point with the top-five most successful teams up to this point being: North Korea, France and South Korea (tied), Japan and the United States (tied), Germany, and Ghana and Spain (tied). What about the final statistics of the present tournament? Well, as far as goal averages, the top five broke-down as follows:
1) Japan scored about 4 goals a game;
2) Nigeria scored almost 4 goals per game;
3) North Korea scored 3 goals a game;
4) France scored about 2 goals a game;
5) Just as the United States did.
 As far as goal-scoring ability goes though, North Korea was actually the top-scoring team with 18 goals for the good compared to Japan's 17, Nigeria's 15, France's 14, and Germany's 11.
And what about by-the-player statistics? Well, Nigeria's Chinwendu Ihezuo was the best assist-maker with 4 while North Korea's Ri Hyang Sim's made 3. The rest really fell into a pack though these two were the trend-setters. On the goals side of things, Ri Un Sim struck 8 for North Korea while Chinwendu Ihezuo had 6 to the good for Nigeria. Once again, following these two the rest fell into a pack.
I hope you all enjoyed the competition and and please make sure to keep track of these truly talented footballers - I am sure that many of them have bright careers ahead of them!