Waldrum blames Falcons flop on poor preparation

Super Falcons coach Randy Waldrum has blamed the team’s ouster from the women’s football event of the Paris 2024 Olympics on poor preparation, The PUNCH reports.

Nigeria were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage on Wednesday after a 3-1 defeat to Japan, ending the phase without a win, having lost their first two matches to Brazil and Spain, 1-0 on both occasions.

Japan raced to a 2-0 lead within 10 minutes, with goals from Maika Hamano and Mina Tanaka before Jennifer Echegini handed the Super Falcons a lifeline with the first half winding down. But there was still enough time for Hikaru Kitagawa to restore Japan’s two-goal lead before halftime with an exquisite free kick.

Nigeria needed to win by at least two goals to have any hopes of reaching the quarterfinals, but they couldn’t do enough against the 2011 World Champions as their performances in the first two games proved to be better.

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

“We missed the last window before the Olympics, and so we missed 10 days of good training before the Olympics.”

The Falcon camped for 10 days in Seville, Spain, ahead of the Games, and The PUNCH reported how their preparations were hindered by visa issues, which prevented some of the invited players from arriving camp early enough.

Although they were drawn in a tough group, expectations were still high about the chances of Waldrum’s team, following their performance at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where they were eliminated on penalties by England in the round of 16.

The results from the Paris Olympics mirrored those of the 2008 team that lost 1-0 to the Korea Democratic People’s Republic, 1-0 to Germany, and 3-1 to eventual silver medalists Brazil.

Nigeria’s best outing—so far—at the Women’s Olympic football tournament was in Athens 20 years ago, where the Falcons finished in 6th place after exiting the tournament in the quarterfinals.