QXpertresses

This is the story of Courage, determination and commitment. It's the story of the QXperts Ladies though we love to call them QXpertresses. Funny name right? We don't mind, so far we get the job done we are satisfied.

The QXpertresses are the female team of the 400L Quantity Surveying (QS) department of the University of lagos. They went into the tournament as underdogs but came back as Idols and models.

This will be our first major tournament. I'm sure you're wondering why. In our first year, the female competition wasn't added to the list of games and in year 2 we went to the field with no training under our belt, on getting there our opponents weren't around. We waited for long and left when it seems our opponents won't appear but to our greatest surprise, we were disqualified. Year 3 was the lockdown year with no activity.

Power horse is the official sponsor of this year's HOD games and we decided to give it a go. We have 12 ladies in our class and about 8 showed interest. I was surprised for I was expecting them to turn down the invitation to the tournament. I had a little help from the captain who typed a long heartwarming note to persuade the other ladies.

We had our first training and it was evident that these ladies are stars. They made my work look so easy. They won the heart of everyone around and it takes just a few attempts for them to understand what we were teaching them. We were faced with a big problem. We had just 4 outfield players and a Goalkeeper. We have no sub and the fixtures show we will be playing 3 games in 3 days. Though we need to win the first match to play the second and also win the second to play the third match which is the final.

Our dilemma was solved when Ziggs and Tomi appeared in training. At first, I thought they won't be able to play well because these are beautiful ladies that won’t want to go dirty. So I thought but they proved me wrong.

The first game ended 1-0 with our opponents defending with every player all through. My players were injured but these ladies are relentless. They played on with injuries and we qualified for the semi-finals which were to be played the next day. Our defender Tomi was injured but a miracle happened overnight and she requested to play the semis. I checked out the injury and when I was sure she could play, we added her to the team list.

Our opponents in the semi-finals are tactically good. They man-marked our key players and defended with their life. From the onset, they intended to take the match to penalty, which was their speciality. We tried everything but they succeeded in taking it into penalties. My players were scared- a reminder that they are human. I saw this because these ladies were already turning into idols. Everyone sang their praise and gave each of them nicknames after famous footballers.

Kelechi our Goalkeeper was the hero of the day, she caught all 5 penalties played by the opponent and scored the winning penalty. In the process, she sprained her ankle and was carried out on a stretcher. We call on Estilroyce from the bench to help us play one of the penalties. Though we didn't score 4 out of 5, the penalties were well taken.

Another headache came up, my players were tired from playing back to back games in two days and the opponent they are meeting in the final are looking fresh since they got an automatic qualification into the semis without playing any game (This is a norm for every year 5). Also, the bruise and injuries sustained in previous matches were telling on them. I asked Oyin to come to training early the next day, so we can train her to Keep since our first choice keeper is out injured. She came and we quickly did some drills.

The final was one-sided as expected. Every team now defend against us, since they know how deadly Grateful and Debbie can be in front. The opponent scored a contentious goal and my ladies up their game. Debbie was in Messi mode, she dribbled and wriggled through all tackles but the body mass of our opponent was something scary. Other things happened in the match... we lost the final but we won the heart of the crowd. This can be seen with the applause we received from everyone.

Ziggs, Grateful, Debbie and Oyin were pissed with the result but the cheerful mood of our supporters' club headed by Oyinkan helped them snap out of it. Though they won the silver medal, they celebrated more than the gold medalist. This was a team set up just a few days to the tournament, with just 1½ training under their belt, yet they played like a team that has been playing together for over 5 years. As I said in my noisecash post "I tried to make these ladies a better player and team, but instead they made me a better coach and person". I love every one of them. Every single one and I'm sure next year we are bringing the Gold medal home.

Thanks for Reading! ⚽️💚🏃‍♀️

Tomorrow I will introduce each member of the team to you with a summary of each performance. Also, talk about the Gold medal they won in the 4x100 relay race, particularly Priscilla and Bimps outstanding performance, and finally the guys that helped with the training.