Speaking from Germany, where she is part of the World Cup’s Technical Study Group, Shipanga together with World Cup and Olympic winning coaches such as Tina Theune from Germany, April Heinrich from USA, Vera Pauw from the Netherlands and Sylvie Beliveau and many more are part of the team entrusted with compiling a technical report on the World Cup in terms of tactical and technical developments of the teams.
“What is interesting are the admirations that these women have for our development programs in Namibia and the tremendous support we have being receiving from the media, schools, federation and government,” Shipanga said.
Shipanga thinks that Germany are the favorites to win this year‘s Women World Cup.
“They have positioned and established themselves like no other in terms of women’s football development. Former players are working in football related careers, with most of them coaching.”
“Brazil have always been favorites to go through to the final stages with the likes of Rosanna, Christian, Marta, but their reliance on these players’ individual excellence can be detrimental just like in 2007 when Marta missed a crucial penalty in the final,” she explained.
The Brave Gladiators mentor also thinks the USA came into the tournament silently in contrast with the over confidence that they usually portray.
“They had tough qualifiers and have a great coach in Pia Sundhage. Their work rate is incredible and their self-belief and determination is close to none. With star players like Rodriquez and Abby Wambach they should go all the way,”
Another team that Shipanga thinks has a chance is Japan. They reached the final of the Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago last year and are also one of the favorites with their disciplined style of play and their individual technical ability with good combination play and excellent finishing.
Shipanga is however moved by the display of France, whose team have about ten players from the same team, FC Olympique Lyon.
“This team is similar to Barcelona and are boasting of more than eight players in the Spanish team. The FC Olympique Lyonnais team is the current European Club champions and they have a relatively good mixture of youth and experienced players. I will keep an eye on the French this time to surprise us all.”
On Africa
Shipanga said that she hoped Nigeria would have a good game against France before their exit from the World Cup. They have so far not scored in any of their matches.
“They need to at least exit the tournament with a good result. Nigeria being one of the teams that participated in all the World Cups needs to make their presence felt on the international stage.”
Of the other African representatives Equatorial Guinea, Shipanga said: “They are without their controversial Salimata sisters and this might have contributed to their poor showing of late, nonetheless they did exceptionally well with their star player Genovive Anonman scoring twice against Australia the other day. For their first appearance I would say they did pretty well”.
Shipanga is currently the second African woman to be recognized by FIFA's Technical Department and her first assignment was the in 2010 U/17 World Cup Trinidad and Tobago.
Nigeria Chalks First World Cup Victory
Perpetua Nkwocha gave Nigeria a 1-0 win over Canada in a Group A match between two teams already eliminated at the Women's World Cup.The game was delayed by a lighting malfunction.
The veteran scored in the 75th minute of a lackluster game most notable for the electronic breakdown of the floodlights, which stopped the match for 12 minutes.Both teams lost their first two matches, but Nigeria finished third, six points behind Germany and three in back of France. The result was especially disappointing for Canada, which was ranked sixth in the world going into the tournament.
AP
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