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Women’s World Cup Round of 16: 5 takeaways from Nigeria’s gallant loss to England
By Wale Mustapha
The impressive run of Nigeria’s Super Falcons at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was halted on Monday through penalty shootouts defeat to European champions, England.
The Three Lionesses steadied through the match despite playing the last quarter of an hour of regular time and extra time with 10 players.
The 11 times African champions failed to make good use of numerical advantage in the normal and extra times and were unfortunate to lose 4-2 in the shootouts.
The journey has ended for Nigeria in Australia and New Zealand but the match will be one of those to be talked about for years and we review the five major talking points from the match for Nigeria Football:
1. Future is bright for Nigeria
It clearly showed that, despite having many players who will be leaving the stage after this mundial, there have been perfect replacements for them as evident in the young players who did well for the Super Falcons. Notable among them are Tosin Demehin, Christy Ucheibe, Tony Payne and Chiamaka Nnadozie.
The football federation will only need to keep them together with proper monitoring and encouragement.
2. No more underdogs in women’s football
The encounter in Brisbane also gave a close hint about the pace at which women’s football I developing.
For the neutrals, it will be hard to believe that Nigeria who were ranked 40th in the world could hold England who are 4th in the world and are also reigning European champions.
Left for few misgivings and mistakes, Nigeria had a better chances to win the match and could have added England to the growing lists of the upsets at the tournament.
3) Super Falcons fail to capitalize on counter attacks
The Super Falcons throughout the tournament have been brilliant defensively but struggled in transitions as evident against England.
Their inability to shift playing from a defensive situation to attack contributed to their exit.
If Waldrum will stay on as the Coach, he will need to improve on the team’s attacking strength and their pace.
4) Chiamaka Nnadozie has large heart
With just 22 years, Nnadozie showed class against the Lionesses which was far from her previous performances.
She made some crucial saves all through to keep Nigeria in the game, notable at the match was second half goal line save from Daly.
However, the goalkeeper will need to do better in her distributions and how to start play from the back as well as making good use of her feet.
5) Let Waldrum continue with the Falcons
The US born tactician showed why he should be ranked among the best coaches in women’s football with how he assembled his girls against England.
He was able to show his tactical ability, matching the Lionesses’ approach with a compact team and had his side creating more chances than the European champions.
The team is more of young sides who are becoming used to his tactical approach. It will be wise and helpful if the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF could extend his contract and let him be with the team, at least till the 2024 Olympics.
