SPECIAL REPORT! Time to Rebuild Super Falcons after Paris Olympics Flop

By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist

Nigeria’s Super Falcons’ performance in the Paris 2024 Olympics women’s football event can be described as a disastrous outing from the perspective of many Nigerians especially football followers who would have liked to see the country’s senior women’s football team win a medal in the global multi-sports competition in France.

Returning to the Olympic Games after 16 years hiatus, many Nigerians expected the Super Falcons to reproduce their somewhat impressive outing in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia and New Zealand where the team recorded two barren draws against Olympics champions Canada and Republic of Ireland, and a 3-2 victory over hosts Australia in the group stage to garner five points which was enough to qualify for the Round of 16.

Although Nigeria was eliminated in the knock-out stage by eventual World Cup runners-up England via penalty shoot-out after both countries played out a 0-0 draw at regulation time and have to settle the match by penalty kicks with England winning 4-2, even as the ardent critics of the team applauded the players and coaching crew led by Randy Waldrum.

Still basking in the euphoria of World Cup performance last year, Waldrum, his players and many Nigerians were expecting the Super Falcons to fly even higher in Paris 2024 Olympics based on what they achieved a year ago in Australia just as the coach told the whole world that his Olympics squad was stronger than it was at the last World Cup.

However,  coach Waldrum supervised the Nigeria team that lost all their three group matches at the games .The misadventure saw the Super Falcons conced five goals in three matches and scoring only one as Nigeria was knocked out in the first round.

A 0-1 loss to the Canarinhas of Brazil in the first match in Bordeaux followed another 1-0 defeat by Spain’s La Roja at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes in the second Group C tie and 1-3 loss to Japan also in Nantes last week marked their biggest defeat of the tournament and elimination from the competition.

Waldrum’s team found it hard to create scoring chances and wasted the few ones created why the ultra defensive approach deployed by the current head coach of University of Pittsburgh women’s soccer team Panthers failed to yield the needed results despite him boasting before the Olympics started that the team he took to Paris 2024 Olympics was better than last World Cup squad.

Sadly, after the team’s shambolic performance in Paris Olympics, Waldrum has shifted the blame to his employers Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as he claimed that the team could have done better but for the lack of time of good preparation .

“We prepared for them (all three opponents) based on the fact that we haven’t had a lot of time,”

“We missed the last window before the Olympics, and so we missed 10 days of good training before the Olympics.” Waldrum told a news outlet in France after Nigeria was eliminated at group stage.

This is even as his team more than any Super Falcons squad under past coaches has received alot of supports in the build up to major competitions including the Paris Olympics as Super Falcons camped for 10 days in Seville, Spain and played one grade A preparatory international friendly game against reigning Olympics champions, Canada ahead of the Olympic Games yet the team failed to fly out of the group stage at the games and ended losing all three games played.

But in the words of an American author Karen M. McManus, “Things ‘ll get worse before they get better”. This clichè is reflective of the sad reality of the present slump of the 11-time African champions, a team which can be said to have become one of the worst women’s football teams in the world at the moment and fourth-rated in the African continent following Nigeria’s fourth-place finish in the last Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco two years ago.

Although the team in the estimation of many Nigerians performed creditably in the last World Cup but the lost of the WAFCON trophy in Morocco in 2022 was a bitter pile to swallow by majority of Nigerians who see the African Cup as Nigeria’s birthright after winning it a record 11 times  out of 14 with Equatorial Guinea winning two and South Africa picking the coveted trophy once.

…….IN THE BEGINNING

Nigeria has an intimidating record in the African continent and was the undisputed African champions since the Confederation of African Football (CAF) introduced women’s football at the continental level in 1991 ahead of the qualifiers for the first FIFA Women’s World Cup final in China.

Super Falcons trounced every opponent on the way to pick the only ticket to represent Africa in the maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup China 1991 including the Black Queens of Ghana in their first-ever official or international Grade A match approved by both FIFA and CAF.

Other teams defeated by Super Falcons by wide margins enroute to qualify for China 1991  final are the Syli National of Guinea and Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon respectively as they could not match the superior fire power of Nigeria in the qualifiers.

Two years later, Nigeria also thrashed opponents including Sierra Leone 11-0; Ghana 5-0 and South Africa11–2 on aggregates to qualify for the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sweden without much problems in the qualifiers.

Nigeria’s dominance in Africa was later confirmed in 1998 when CAF introduced the African Women Championship (AWC) now called WAFCON which the country hosted and won with Super Falcons scoring a whopping 28 goals without conceeding a single goal or losing a game throughout the tournament which took place in Kaduna and Abeokuta, Ogun state.

Led by an experienced football tactician, late coach Ismaila Mabo, Nigeria went to the 3rd FIFA Women’s World Cup final in United States of America (USA) in 1999 to make a significant impact at  world stage by reaching the quarter-finals where the now abolished “Golden Goal” gifted Brazil a 3-2 victory over Nigeria.

By reaching the quarter-finals in the competition and losing by slim margin to Brazil, Nigeria finished in the 7th position above Germany in 8th position to qualify for Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in Australia and also qualified for two back to back Olympics in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 respectively.

At the Athens 2004 Olympics, Nigeria Super Falcons led by Mabo stunned Japan’s Nadeshiko 1-0 in front of 14, 126 fans at  Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus on August 14,  2004, thanks to attacker Vera Okolo’s 55′ goal. The win was enough to take Nigeria to the quarter-final stage where Germany edged the Africans.

FALCONS FAIL TO FLY UNDER COACH WALDRUM

Unfortunately, Nigeria has since been dethroned as “African Queens” and they have not been able to perform better than she has done in the past years at the World Cup, Olympic Games and  WAFCON especially since 2020 when the NFF in its wisdom hired American-born Waldrum who doubles as the head coach of University of Pittsburgh women’s soccer team Panthers.

Super Falcons dismal performance at Paris 2024 Olympics was not the first time Waldrum’s team will falter as the statement: “a fish rots from the head down” is apt in the case of how poorly former African champions have fallen from grace to grass and if nothing is done and  quickly too, may not reclaim her lost glory anytime soon.

Despite inheriting a strong standing team that played in the Round of 16 of 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France few months before he signed a contract with the NFF on October 5, 2020 and also the luxury of playing several Grade A international friendly matches against countries like United States Women’s National Team (USWNT), Canada,  Portugal, Jamaica, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea and Mali prior to the 2022 WAFCON in Morocco, Waldrum’s team still lost the trophy Nigeria won at 2018 WAFCON in Ghana under his predecessor coach Thomas Lenhart Dennerby.

Again, after the 2022 WAFCON failure, the NFF leadership continued to support the team’s coach by arranging more international friendlies during the FIFA International Windows in a bid to prepare the Super Falcons ahead of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The Super Falcons led by Waldrum played no fewer than eight Grade A pre-World Cup international friendly matches against USWNT, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Haiti and New Zealand but ended up winning only one match, played two barren draws and crashing out in the Round of 16 stage.

TIME TO REBUILD SUPER FALCONS

In fact, results of the Paris 2024 Olympics Women’s Football Tournament CAF qualifier matches Nigeria played especially the two double-headers against Cameroon’s Indomitable Lionesses and Banyana Banyana of South Africa which Waldrum prosecuted showed clearly that Super Falcons can not score more than one goal in 90 minutes game.

Waldrum’s side struggled to qualify for Paris 2024 Olympics as goalscoring was a big challenge for his team because he is known to always set up his team defensively and depending heavily on counter-attacks which did not work out for the team in France.

This is why the dismal performance of Nigeria in Paris Olympics was not a big surprise to many Nigerians who have been following the team’s activities since Waldrum took charge in 2020.

Surprisingly, nearly four years on the job, the Texan whose first contract expired in October 2023 and was extended by NFF  for one more year in January 2024 to cover the now postponed 2024 WAFCON and Paris 2024  Olympics has not won any laurel for the country. This is the longest spell Falcons’ coach will be on the job without winning any trophy.

NEED FOR A NEW FALCONS COACH

Frankly speaking, Super Falcons’ fortunes have failed to improve under Waldrum’s watch, no matter the parameter used to gauge his achievements during the period under review (2020-2024) as his records did not measure up to his predecessors especially the achievements of his his immediate predecessor Thomas Dennerby who won two trophies during his one year and six months on the job.

In his 18-months incharge, Dennerby who was appointed in January 2018 as a replacement for Florence Omagbemi, the last indigenous coach also led Nigeria to a Third-place finish at the 2018 WAFU  Women’s Championship in Cote d’Ivoire in February, where he returned to lift the title in February 2019 before guiding the Super Falcons to win the 2018 WAFCON in Ghana and also qualify Nigeria for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and under Dennerby Nigeria reached the last 16 of the competition.

Dennerby who led Sweden to finish third at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany, was the first foreign coach to lift the WAFCON trophy and also qualify Nigeria for a FIFA Women’s World Cup final.

In contrast, Waldrum has failed to win any type of trophy in his nearly four years incharge of Super Falcons including the 6-Nation International Tournament tagged Aisha Buhari Cup organised by NFF in September 2021 in Lagos, a competition South Africa’s Banyana Banyana thrashed the host team 4-2 in the final match to lift the cup.

His two achievements are  leading Nigeria to finish fourth in 2022 WAFCON in Morocco; qualifying Nigeria for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Australia and New Zealand and also qualifying the country for the Paris 2024 Olympics for the first time in 16 years.

However, his time as Falcons coach has endured several controversies especially his knack for accusing the NFF of lack of support, non payment of salaries misappropriation of FIFA funds meant to prepare the Super Falcons for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

In addition to going trophy less for four years, Waldrum is “a visiting coach”, who only comes into Nigeria on the eve of every international home match while the coach has disdain for players plying their trade in the Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL).

In over 44 months incharge of Super Falcons  Waldrum has failed to graduate any youth player to Super Falcons like his predecessor Dennerby did by promoting no fewer than nine home-based players to the senior women’s football team.

They include the reigning African Best Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie; midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade and Christy Ucheibe; defenders Chidinma Okeke, Glory Ogbonna; forwards Anam Imo, Chinaza Uchendu, Uchenna Kanu and Chinwendu Ihezuo.

The Swedish gaffer drafted these players from the women’s U-20 team Falconets after they had also impressed in the national women’s U-17 team in 2018 and 2019 just as he picked some of the players from the local league after watching the NWFL matches in Lafia, capital of Nasarawa; Lokoja, Kogi state; Lagos; Port Harcourt and Yenagoa in Rivers and Bayelsa states respectively.

Dennerby who lived permanently in Abuja and also had his own office with desk at NFF Glass House in Wuse throughout his stay graciously took a total of six Nigeria-based players namely goalie Nnadozie, Ajibade, Ihezuo, Kanu, Imo, Okeke and Uchendu to the World Cup in France while he capped Ogbonna at 2018 WAFCON in Ghana .

But in his over 44 months incharge of Super Falcons, Waldrum has failed to discover one single young new talents in Nigeria and abroad who will take over from the aging players in all the departments of the team. He has been recycling the players who may have played their best football for Super Falcons.

Unlike Dennerby who gave most of the reliable players in the current Super Falcons the chance to excel at international level, Waldrum have never stayed in Nigeria for over 48 hours, shunned NWFL players and picked 23  foreign-based players for 2023 World Cup.

Also, he took 18 foreign-based players including those who did not play a single game for Nigeria in the past two years to Paris 2024 Olympics at the detriment of home-based players who played over six matches during the Olympics qualifying series.

The American is obsessed with diaspora players especially those based in United States and neighbouring Mexico

and he would do everything to feature them in the match no matter their forms.

A typical example is his continued invitation to the  national team of an American-born 34-year old goalkeeper Yewande Balogun from the day he took charge of the Super Falcons but will never select her to man the post in over 30 competitive and international friendly matches Nigeria played under his watch including WAFCON, World Cup and Olympic Games.

Waldrum has invited over a dozen Nigeria-based goalkeepers since he became Nigeria coach but never picked anyone of them to understudy Nnadozie even as the reserve goalkeeper Tochukwu Oluehi is way past her time in Super Falcons squad.

The story is the same with outfield players with the coach always dropping local league players from the Super Falcons whenever he is going for any competition or international matches.

This situation has made Super Falcons unrecognisable by Nigerian football followers because his team is based abroad and only comes for two or three days stay in Nigeria to play home matches before jetting out again to honour away games or fly back to his country to handle his college soccer team Panthers.

It is therefore imperative to note that the persistent poor performances of Nigeria in international football competitions like World Cup, Olympics and WAFCON are the fallout of Waldrum’s inability to build a strong national team with the bulk of the players selected from the country’s women’s league as is the case in United States, European countries and South Africa.

This is why the NFF should as a matter of priority commence the search for a qualified foreign or indigenous coach to replace Waldrum who has over stayed his welcome because he has nothing new to teach the Super Falcons.

Finally, should Nigeria’s football authorities insist on going for an expatriate Technical Adviser (TA) to reset the Super Falcons trajectory, it will be a wise decision to reappoint Thomas Lenhart Dennerby of Sweden who has proven to be a perfect coach for Nigeria because he is willing to live and work in Nigeria.

His records as Super Falcons’ coach for the short period towered high above Waldrum’s four years and can only be compared to the achievements of iconic coach Ismaila Mabo who led the Super Falcons to dominate African for a decade and half before the likes of Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Morocco and Zambia woke up to challenge Nigeria to a fight as regards to WAFCON trophy.

But should the NFF decides to engage a Nigerian coach for financial reasons then the lots should fall on the laps of the combination of Justin Madugu and Ann Agumanu-Chiejine who possessed the highest continental coaching certification, CAF-A and UEFA licenses among other certificates obtained within and outside Nigeria.

Recently, both Madugu who assisted Dennerby and Chiejine led Super Falcons to trounce Ethiopia and Cape Verde in pre-Olympics and WAFCON qualifiers double-header ties when Waldrum went AWOL from October 2023 to January 2024. They have also been assistant coaches to the American-born gaffer for the last four years.

This is the way to go if Nigeria wants to return to the winning ways.