For the first time in Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) history, Super Falcons went down to three defeats in a single tournament.
A 2-0 loss to eventual Champions in the first group game was followed by defeats to host, Morocco on penalties in the semi-final and another loss to Zambia in the third-place match.
The signs had been coming with South Africa giving the Nigeria senior women’s national side the tip of the iceberg.
At WAFCON 2018, South Africa edged Nigeria 1-0 in the first group game with the team relying on penalties to defeat Desiree Ellis’ side in the final match.
At the 2021 Aisha Buhari Cup, the South African side recorded a 4-2 win over Nigeria under the tutelage of Coach Randy Waldrum.
The WAFCON 2022 experience showed that Waldrum hasn’t learned his lesson from defeats to South Africa twice.
It showed that the part-time Falcons coach and full-time Pittsburgh University Panthers coach is still learning on his biggest national team job.
After three defeats at WAFCON 2022, Nigeria has suffered four more defeats during tune-up games in preparation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The team lost twice to the United States of America (USA), Japan, Mexico, and Colombia.
At next Summer’s World Cup, the West African giants will face co-host, Australia, Olympic Champions, Canada, and debutant, Republic of Ireland in the group stage.
With the current result trajectory, football lovers, journalists, and enthusiasts are clamouring for the sack of the coach to avoid more embarrassing showings at the World Cup.
Super Falcons had not had it bad like this especially in Africa under home-based coaches and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) decided to appoint foreign coaches to translate continental dominance to the global stage with the appointment of Coach Thomas Dennerby and now Waldrum.
With the World Cup six months away, there are five options for Ibrahim Musa Gusau NFF-led board as far as Super Falcons is concerned.
– Allow Waldrum to take the team to the World Cup and finish his project
– Sack Waldrum
– Make Onome Ebi a player/ coach
– Employ a home-based coach
– Hire another foreign coach
It is clear that one of the above options will be adopted ahead of the World Cup.
The option to be adopted is still not clear with the team’s recent lull in form leading to the World Cup.
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