Super Falcons captain Onome Ebi has said it is important for the team to get a win in their next game against Australia.
The nine-time African champions will come up against the Matildas in their second Group B game at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup on Thursday.
The encounter is slated for the Brisbane Stadium.
Randy Waldrum’s side played out an impressive 0-0 draw against Canada in their opening fixture last Friday.
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Co-hosts Australia on the other hand defeated debutants Republic of Ireland 1-0 a day earlier.
Ebi reckoned it is important for the Super Falcons to beat the Australians as it will put the them in good position to secure a place in the next round.
“It is very important for us to collect the three points on Thursday. That will put us in a great position before we play the Irish,”Ebi told thenff.com.
The Super Falcons will welcome back Rasheedat Ajibade and Halimat Ayinde for the game.
The duo missed the game against Canada due to suspension.
11 Comments
Una don start, a must win game my foot. They are not organise, they don’t take their chance, if you don’t do these things, how do you expect to win a football game. We have been qualifying for long time, but no improvement. No cohesion, no team plan, no scoring plan, no attack and defence plan, them just dey play like amateurs, anywhere belle face.
Abeg make una no dey hope on our female squad, them dey disappoint pass Nepa. Imagine a team celebrating draw, which kind mindset be that, losers mentality. Some useless countries will draw, you will see sadness in them, but our own go they sing(Ebube dike).
I sort of hinted at it that the Super Falcons are seeking to garner all 3 points from this match.
Coach Randy Waldrum kinda gave it away in a recent interview by stating that “there are 6 points on offer in the other 2 games”.
Read to that what you will.
Now Ebi has hinted at something similar.
So, are we going to see an open game? Will the Super Falcons come out all guns blazing?
Well, to be honest, I haven’t seen the Super Falcons under Waldrum being aggressors. For one, we are not technically grounded when it comes to stringing intricate, imaginative passes together for a sustained period in a manner that hurts opponents.
Long balls from deep, crosses, inswingers, long range strikes and through balls from anywhere in attacking midfield are the staples of Waldrum’s attacking philosophy.
But, how do we travel with the ball into dangerous areas to pounce? The likes of Ajibade, Payne, Alozie and surprisingly sometimes Plumptre are the ones tasked with traveling with the ball. Personally I think we need more ball carriers in the team.
Onumonu’s job is to hold up play, bring others in, latch on to through passes, deliver inswingers and score a variety of goals. If we are to play quick passing fluid movement game, then either Onumonu refines her approach or, left to me, Gift Monday or Uchenna Kanu will be better suited for a more direct approach.
Supply to Oshoala has to be better. Her role is simple: latch on to a variety of through and driven high and low passes to score goals. She does occasionally drift inwards and the wings to create space of others in the middle. If properly executed, a strategy that sees Oshoala operating behind enemy lines can be ruthless.
Ucheibe is a defensive midfield behemoth. She offers little attacking threat but her abilities to bail out the defenders will be crucial in an open game.
Fullbacks, Michelle Alozie is fantastic when support the attacking efforts with her nifty footwork, crossing deliveries and presence in attacking areas and long balls from deep. Plumptre offers her attacking threats with route one long balls from deep, long throw ins, and contributions to build up of passes from the back and willingness to unleash bullet shots. Personally I think Rafiat Imruan or Glory Ogbonna will move quicker with the ball and may deliver more crosses than Plumptre. But when it comes to actual QUALITY of deliveries, Plumptre reigns supreme.
All in all I think we have what it takes to go toe to toe with Australia.
Will Waldrum be brave enough to start Gift Monday or Uchenna Kanu from the start in lieu of Onumonu?
Will he be dynamic enough to shift Plumptre to centre defense and start Ogbonna or Imruan in full back?
Will we see a Super Falcons attacking apparatus able to play to Oshoala’s strengths?
Or is Oshoala even better suited in the flanks? Or will Waldrum pair Oshoala and Onumonu in a two pronged attack?
We will find out when the time comes.
My problem is the fact that most of our players are not that intelligent for us to have the required attacking edge to face a team like Australia head-on…including the ones that call themselves “agba baller”.
Our best chance vs Canada fell to Oshoala……first when the Canadian goalkeeper missed dealing that long ball behind the defence from Plumptre. Just let your feet make contact with the Gk who was already sprawling on the floor and fall over her like the walls of jericho….Mba….she jumped over her like Tobi Amusan flying over hurdles at the IAAF diamond league.
Reaching the ball, unchallenged, at a very acute angle, a considerable distance from goal and 2 canadian defenders already covering the goal in absence of the Gk, she just toed the ball from the left with her right foot….rather than control it, move closer towards goal b4 shooting if she wants to score on her own, or hold it for support to come and fancy an assist…damn it was so annoying coming from a Barcelona player and 5 time AFOTY. Even Opeyemi Ajakaye that started playing football yesterday would play that way.
Compare that to Jermain Seoposenwe’s play for South Africa’s opening goal at the AWCON final vs Morroco, or to Thembi Kgatlana’s play vs Sweden for the opening goal 2 days ago, then you’ll wonder where these SF players leaving their football sneses and hope to find easy peasy chances to tuck into the net at the highest level like the world cup.
I watched the 18 year old colombian rising star Linda Caicedo tearing South Korea apart and I was just like, when will we have female footballers with this much football sense and confidence…???
Our best shot vs Australia still remains to park the bus and try to squeeze 1 point. Open up too much and we will get cremated come Thursday.
You just said the simple truth.We need to pack the bus or get a hellraising
Very possible but now getting a bit worried with all these expression of over confidence.
History has proven that Nigeria’s national teams perform best when they remain humble. I will advice they go same way they did against Canada; being the dark horse with many surprises.
Waldrum should just ignore all advice to go all out attacking, cos we don’t have enough players that can retain possession for good amount of time to maintain an attacking formation. We try that, we will be wotorised beyond recognition, like watery soup that has lost its taste.
He should start same players, except for Abiodun who obviously because of red card is not allowed. In her place, Abiodun can fit in perfectly. Oparanozie and Echegini can come in second half and given some good minutes to strut their stuff if need be.
…. Meant to say her place Ayinde can fit in….
CSN- Sort your lives out people!! Stop messing with my comment! This is Nigeria and we don’t abide with such things! Leave my comment alone!
Hello -Did anyone here know that Canada have a Man playing for their women’s team?
His name is Quinn! This is an ACTUAL MAN OH!!
All I know is that I felt like something was not right with the player who put a very hard tackle in on Oshoala in the first 15 mins of our game against them, at the time, I thought to myself- what a bad tackle because all the studs on one foot were showing in that tackle and Oshoala showed a lot of resilience to carry on after that tackle, I genuinely felt that the player should have been at the very least shown a yellow card even though it was actually a red card tackle in all fairness, but the player did not even get any card for that horror tackle and only got a talking to by the referee
To now find out that even after the injustice of that tackle on Oshoala, the person who put in the dangerous tackle is also a MAN?? The player is called Quinn- please for reference go and watch the tackle on Oshoala again – I mentioned it during the game itself, complaining about the reckless tackle without even knowing that the player himself is a MAN – Chaii only God can help us oh!
These people now have men playing in their women’s only team and we do not even know about it – You would think that there would be a rule at the very least that if you have a man playing in your “all women’s team” you should at least be required to announce the fact abi?
This one the one hand is really infuriating and just shows the sinful world we live in today and the extent these Whities will go to to cheat and try to offend God but also it gives me another perspective on our (Super Falcons) achievement in holding those cheats to a draw oh! The guy played the whole 90 minutes and was not substituted!
Oh Lord – may your Kingdom come and cover every grain of sand and every blade of grass on this our planet, May Your will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Lord!
We thank you for your promise never to wipe out humanity again and we eagerly await your return Lord Jesus!
The reason FIFA and the Canada FA may have allowed this nonsense is to provoke other nations to do same, which will eventually mean accepting /promoting that God forsaking LGBT+ or – agenda. We are getting really close to the time the Bible predicted that the earth will lose it’s salt.
There is a reason many footballers are now gradually moving to Saudi Arabia; brodaman, its not just about the money but words coming from within football circle, suggest many of these footballers are running away from this nastiness called LGBT whatever.
My guy na wah oh!
We need prayers big time to cancel the plans of the enemy, but the thing is that for those guys joining the Middle East move, is that not a case of from frying pan to fire? I cannot elaborate any further but you know what I mean I hope?
This is a football blog site and should not really be used for any other topics – Suffice to say we are fast approaching the end times for real oh!
I think the SF have the quality to beat Australia. Prayer for prayer comparison will put Falcons far above Australia. So we deserve to dream of beating them. But this is football where tactics sometimes speak louder than quality players. If waldrum can get its acts right . Then I see SF wining than contest.
Maybe Nigerians believe Australians are sleeping. All this boasting by the Super Falcons is actually a sign of nerves.