Nigeria Under-20 women’s international striker Courtney Dike says she judged her quick time goal against Korea Republic only by instincts.
The Super Falconets forward, who was only making her first start with the coach Peter Dedevbo’s ward after coming on as a substitute in Wednesday’s 1-1 stalemate against Mexico, stunned the Asians with an 18 seconds opener at the Moncton Stadium, Canada- the fastest goal in the history of the Fifa U-20 World Cup.
Congrats to my sister @CourtneyDike getting her first goal for Nigeria and the fastest U20 World Cup goal in history #DikeFamilyKillingIt
— Bright Dike (@bbright19) August 9, 2014
Nigeria held on to their first win of the tournament, with Pelican Stars’ Chiwendu Ihezuo doubling the 7th-timers’ lead before Kim Soyi halved Korea’s deficit.
An elated Dike told Fifa.com: “It all happened so fast, even for me to be honest,”
“The ball came to me in the box and, well, they always say it’s good to test the opposing keeper early in a match, so I had a shot and in it went! It all happened so quickly, it hit a defender, I picked up the ball and scored, right? I honestly only remember seeing that I had space and went for a shot.”
The Nigerian lady, who plays for Oklahoma State University in the USA, re-echoing coach Dedevbo’s opinion after the deserved win, says the team now has the confidence to go on and conquer in Canada.
“Now I’m just hoping to keep playing and keep improving alongside the rest of the team. I’m very happy to be here and I hope we can go a long way,” she said.
Nigeria now top Group C with four points and need at least a point against England to progress to the quarter-finals.
Dike added: “This win against South Korea was crucial, because everything was very tight after the draws on the opening matchday. In our next game against England, I’m expecting the team to fight just as hard. I’m convinced that, if we play as well as we did today, we’ll win again.”
