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Randy Waldrum unmoved by sack chants after Super Falcons fifth straight defeat
By Bethel Kalu
Super Falcons coach, Randy Waldrum says he is not too bothered about criticisms from fans about the team’s recent poor performances following a 2-0 loss to Japan in Kobe.
The Super Falcons have lost five consecutive games and seventh in 2022, a poor run that is raising sack threats from fans back in Nigeria but the American-born tactician insists the results would have been different if he had the full complement of his squad.
“I don’t put a lot of weight by what everybody outside says or the results of some games where we know half of those games we have not had our full team together,” the 66-year-old told ESPN.
The Falcons’ defeat to the Nadeshiko followed double losses to the United States in September plus the crumbling to Morocco and Zambia in the semi-final and third place matches at the WAFCON in July.
Waldrum is assuring fans an improved display at the Women’s World Cup, while attributing his team’s recent retrogression to the growth of women’s football in various parts of the world, especially in Africa.
“We are coaching the players that we have and I am proud of their development and I think the fans will be proud of their performance at the World Cup,” he continued.
“People talk about the team qualifying with ease for the World Cup in previous years. Women’s football was in a different place then. What you are seeing now in the last two World Cup cycles is that the game has grown and developed in Africa like it has in the rest of the world.
“You are seeing countries like South Africa and Morocco putting a lot of resources into women’s football and we have to be careful as a country not to expect to qualify and win the Cup of Nations just because we are Nigeria.
“Even in the last tournament, you advanced to the final and the championship by two games on penalty kicks. It’s not like it was a dominant performance in 2018.”
