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Ismaila Mabo unsatisfied with Randy Waldrum’s Nigeria’s Women’s World Cup target
By Saheed Afolabi
Former Nigeria women’s national team coach, Ismaila Mabo says he is not satisfied with Randy Waldrum’s target of reaching the knockout stage at this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The Super Falcons will be making her 10th appearance at the global showpiece, having only progressed from the group stage twice, first was a quarterfinal finish in 1999 and last edition in France where they got to Round of 16.
And the veteran coach, however believes the team to set sight on nothing short of a semifinal or the final as target, citing the quality of preparation and activities the team have enjoyed in the last two-year.
“Getting to the knockout stage shouldn’t be the major target because that is not a new thing to the country,” Mabo told The PUNCH.
“The target should be the semi-final and the final and that should be Waldrum’s target as well and not just thinking of making it out of the group stage.
“We cannot be thinking like we did in the past because during my time and that of Paul Hamilton (as coaches), we could tell from our preparations that we would be able to reach the quarter-final.
“So, it will be unacceptable for someone to tell the president of the federation and the country that he will take the team to the knockout phase because that is not our problem as far as women’s football is concerned.
“We want to go beyond that and get to the semi-final and final and win the tournament.”
The FIFA Women’s World Cup scheduled for Australia and New Zealand, will start on the 20th of July and end on the 20th of August 2022.
The West Africans have always been ever present in the FIFA Women’s World Cup that started 32 years ago in China and are drawn in group B with joint host Australia, Canada and Republic of Ireland.
The United States of America are the defending champions of the quadrennial tournament.
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