It looked as if Jaylene Rondon, the Dominican goalkeeper would finish her tournament by registering a clean sheet, as she made a countless number of saves and stops to deny Nigeria.
A late shot would get the best of her, though, but it certainly did not detract from her incredible performance.
For 89 minutes, a combination of the post, the bar, wayward Nigerian finishing, and a stellar performance by Dominican Republic goalkeeper Jaylene Rondon had the hosts on course for a famous point against one of the powerhouse nations at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
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In the end, their hearts were broken by a late wonder strike from one of the stars of the tournament, Shakirat Moshood, but not before they’d put up a fabulous rearguard resistance.
Dominican keeper Rondon had the game of her life, thwarting Nigeria time and time again, but there was little she could do with the strike that settled it.
New adidas Golden Boot leader Moshood collected the ball 25 yards from goal, teed it up on her left, and launched a rocket that flew past Rondon a minute from the end of regulation time.
In her post match reactions, Rondon says “Obviously, it’s bittersweet that we are not advancing to the next round but at the same time we already made history by being here and we gave everything we had.
The result almost went our way, we gave 110% so we can walk off the field knowing that so it’s a good feeling.”
Nigeria ended the group phase with three straight wins to set up a second straight quarterfinal bout with the USA, while the Dominican Republic finished with just one point but plenty of new admirers and belief for the future.
Nigeria Goal: Shakirat Moshood (89) Player of the Match: Renata Mercedes (Dominican Republic)
Bankole Olowookere, Nigeria Coach had this to say “I’m so happy, I’m happy for myself, happy for the team and happy for the whole of Nigeria. We knew in this match we had to manage our energy and strength; these are young girls with many games to play so we had to take it easy.”
