Randy Waldrum reveals 2023 Women’s World Cup target with Nigeria

By Saheed Afolabi

Head coach of the Nigeria women’s national team, Randy Waldrum has set his targets for the FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand, beginning from July 20, 2023.

The American born coach had led the Super Falcons to a fourth-place finish at the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations but now assures that the knockout stage is the target of his team.

“The first target for us at the World Cup is to advance out of the group stage,” Waldrum told the thenff.com.

“Everyone wants to get to the knockout stage but obviously in order to achieve that, you have to advance out of the group, and now, our focus is principally on doing that.”

This will be a big test for Waldrum as the team had a disappointing finish in the last WAFCON by failing to win a medal, making it the worst campaign ever in the expanded tournament, having lost three games for the first time.

The Super Falcons will be in a tricky group B of the World Cup as they will engage co-host Australia, Republic of Ireland and Olympic champions, Canada.

The West Africans had progressed from the group stage for the first time in 20 years in the last edition in France 2019, but they could not match their quarterfinal best ever feat in 1991.

The city of Brisbane is where the nine-time Africa champions will be based and play two of their group B games, before moving to Melbourne for their last group match.

The former African champions will be hoping to make history once again and advance to the from the group phase for the third time on their 10th compaign on the international stage.