Women’s World Cup: Secret behind Randy Waldrum’s lucky charm Down Under

Following his explosive interview that almost got him sacked, Nigeria’s head coach Randy Waldrum lost his trusted assistant Lauren Gregg, due to administrative reasons.

Gregg was on the touchline with Waldrum whom the NFF had rejected to be part of the country’s technical crew for health reasons, leading to her giving a tearful interview just before the tournament kicked off.

However, her replacement has proven to be the missing piece to the reborn of the Nigerian side as Terry Eguaoje, a US Soccer coach and instructor who was seconded from the Super Eagles after the WAFCON debacle.

Just like the head coach, Randy Waldrum, Eguaoje lives in Pittsburgh, has become the coach’s defacto Number One. The nine-time African champions was was on a seven game losing streak before their friendly wins over Costa Rica, Haiti, New Zealand. With 0-0 draw against Ireland means the Super Falcons are now unbeaten in six.

His arrival coincided with the beginning of the major turnaround, and Eguaoje believes some changes still have to be made for the team to return and surpass their good old glory days.

“There were changes that needed to be made,” he told ESPN.

“You could see that whenever Randy spent time with the team, the players performed better. Look at the second of the two friendly games they played against Canada and the USA and how much better they did than the first game. Those little changes were important.

“Other coaches may have done it before, but what Randy has done is to have specific detailed plans for attacking, defending and transitions for each opponent.

“Not just to have it in the head, but detailed documentation with specific roles and responsibilities for each player on what they need to do during the game and for each group of players, in midfield, attack and defence.

“We also had a clear plan of being defensively disciplined, and keeping our shape, even if that meant allowing the opposition to have more of the ball.”