Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum heaped plaudits on his players after their pulsating 3-3 draw against Portugal on Monday, reports Completesports.com.
Rasheedat Ajibade struck in the 95th minute as the Super Falcons clawed their way back from 3-1 down to earn a share of the spoils in the thrilling encounter.
The Portuguese led 2-0 at a point in the game following an own-goal from Chidinma Okeke and Carole Costa , while Michelle Alozie reduced the deficit for the African champions two minutes before the interval.
Read Also: US Summer Series: Super Falcons Hold Portugal In Six-Goal Thriller
Telma Encarnação restored Portugal’s two-goal lead in the 49th minute but Asisat Oshoala and Ajibade scored later for the Super Falcons.
It was an improved performance for the West Africans who suffered a disappointimg 1-0 loss to the Reggae Girls of Jamaica in tneir first game in the invitational tourney last week Thursday.
An excited Waldrum took to the social media to celebrate his players for their superb showing in the game.
“Great way to fight back! Proud of this team and effort! #SuperFalcons,” the American tweeted.
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COMMENTS
Team spirit
The coach still has a lot of work to do to turn the team to a winning unit.
I watched the match and to be honest Im very disappointed with a few things:
1. defence: it was the weakest department in the two matches they played . This could be partly due to the new players added to the team. Their marking was awful and clumsy. They always found it difficult dealing with any type of ball in the vital area. Nicole Payne was energetic as a right full back. Good in marking, and brave going for tackles. But her passes and clearances left more to be desired. I noticed, though, that her performance improved greatly against against the Portuguese girls. Others were slow, and more often than not, cleared most of the balls into path of their opponents. This is one area Waldrum has to work on, if Nigeria is to do well against Ghana.
2. Midfield: Most of their passes were weak, ineffecive and inaccurate. Sometimes, you wonder if there were any professional player in that midfield with the kind of schoolgirl error being committed over and over. We lost possession at will, and this in vital area, exposing the defence, and by the implication, the goal keeper. They held on to the ball unnecessarily, when simple passes would have easily made things better. A lot of time Portugal broke away and threatened, it was because of the balls easily stolen fromm the Nigerian midfield, and this gave their left winger the opportunity to torment Nicole all night. We really missed Halimatu Ayinde and Ngozi Okobi in that midfield.
3. The Nigerian attack was the best thing that spoke for us last night. The wingers especially, Toni Payme and Rasheedat Ajibade were thorns in the flesh of the girls from Lisbon. Payne was particularky awesome, cutting in at will from the left, and beating the backline of the Portuguese time and time again with pace and trickery. He carried Nigeria’s greatest threat , especially in the second half. Same goes for Ajibade. She made some many great decisions , one of them being that curling effort which hit the cross bar. She capped that brilliant performance with that dying minute goal, and to be honest , I literally jumped out of my bed when it came. The attacking department is just okay. But I’ll still recommend that the coach look for an out and out striker, a standing 9 in the mould of Desire Oparanozie, who uses both the feet and the head so well. Many pint point crosses into the box by the wingers were wasted because there was no one to connect.
Overall, I will rate the team 5/10. But the game against USA should be another stone to hone our knife, win or lose.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria put up a spirited display yesterday to send out a statement of intent after coming from a 2 goal deficit to share the spoils 3:3 against a powerful Portugal in a pulsating encounter.
And what is the statement? That they are preparing to take the world of female football by storm in the coming years.
“The target is to move outside of Africa, we have to make Nigeria a world power.” Said coach Randy Waldrum after the encounter.
“It’s not just to qualify, but go far into World Cups and consistently being there.” He concluded.
These sort of bold statements have the potential to rouse and galvanise Super Falcons fans but can he back it up with actions and results?
So far, though we are in early days, the signs are looking very good indeed.
_ Green Shoots of Greatness? _
Three wins and one draw from five games for the Super Falcons can qualify for a blistering start to Waldrum’s career as Super Falcons coach. The outcome of yesterday’s encounter was even more impressive when you consider that Portugal are 9 places ahead of Nigeria in the current Fifa rankings.
And the Europeans translated the gap in ranking to gulf in class when they raced to a 2 goal lead in just 32 minutes to stun Nigeria. Okeke’s own goal in 22 minutes and Costa’s smart finish sent ominous signs of what Nigeria should expect.
After Alozie’s deft drive pulled 1 back for Nigeria in 44 minutes, the match still seemed likely to tip in Portugal’s favour due to Nigeria’s porous defence and Portugal’s tactical superiority and pristine play.
So, it came to no surprise when Telma made it 3:1 for Portugal in 49 minutes. What many didn’t envisage was the never-say-die attitude that would embody Nigeria’s response.
The Super Falcons pressed, probed and powered themselves to the most unlikely 3:3 final outcome. This, following an own goal from Gomez in 52 minutes and a sting to the Portugueses’ tail with Rasheedat’s last gasp 95th minute spick and span strike.
Although a friendly tournament, the Super Falcons applied themselves with great intensity and a determination not to leave this match empty handed.
I think this sort of spirit augurs well for what we should expect from the effervescent coach Waldrum’s Super Falcons in games to come.
What is also refreshing is seeing fresh faces in the Falcons being introduced with visible positive impacts.
Having now lost 1 and drawn 1, Nigeria will target a most unlikely victory against hosts USA in their last match of the Invitational tournament on Thursday.
Coach Waldrum has already identified defensive and other shortcomings of the Super Falcons that he aims to address.
It is almost a foregone conclusion that the USA will win this match. But with the sort of attitude shown by Nigeria and coach Waldrum’s tactical injections, it promises to be a riveting encounter.
You won my heart on this @Deo. Kudos to you.
You see my dear Deo, what Falcons did in yesterday match shows that the coach doesn’t relied on any players.
He gave the new players a chance to prove their worth and we saw that in yesterday match.
The coach have changed the mentality of the Super Falcons players, without our Super star players, we can compete with the best.
People are worried about the midfield and defense forgetting that, Alimatu Ayinde and Okobi were not available while most of the defenders also not available for this tournament this was the reason why Asisat and Ebi flew in before the yesterday match.
My lovely friend Deo, you have said it all and against the USA on Thursday, anything can happen because the spirit of our team is very high now and they want to prove something against the best team in the world.
Hmmm. My darling Deo, oomanimumitayin kę, tori amumitanyin, ara ę lontanjękę.
You see gentleman, I am very impressed and proud of this coach Waldrum team for few things.
N01. Never say die Nigerian/American attitude.
Against Jamaica, Falcons scored twice but the two goals were disallowed and the third hitting the cross bar.
N02. This our new Falcons team is young and experienced but needed more time to grow.
N03. Tactics of the coach. The gaffer is doing well and when the team qualified to the Afcon then, we can talk more of him.
N04. The regular players may find it difficult to break into this new team.
N05. Vision, confidence, humbleness, smartness, ability and winning mentality, this coach has it all.
As we can see clearly now, the regular players in this team are not many and that is telling us that, every one have to fight for a shirt from now on.
Falcons have three reliable goalies but our defense is not good enough also our midfield.
This problem have to be fixed before we meet Ghana. All in all, our new Super Falcons is making us proud so far.
God bless Nigeria!!!
Thanks Omo9ja. There is a sort of excitement that Waldrum exudes. We continue to pray for all our national teams to be vibrant and successful.
You are welcome Deo. I pray so. God bless us all. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Which spirited performance?,is that school girl error, poor passes and lack of communication u called spirited performance. A team that played like that against Portugal will diffinately spell Yeeeh against USA. Wait and see how they will be disgrace against USA if they should play like that. That was one idiot Enakhana of Lagos tv criticizing Rohr when analysing the match this morning. Pls what has Rohr super eagles got to do with falcon match? They shall want every way to destroy that man.. They say they are seeing positives in falcon even if they can loose or drew with unknown football country but not Gernot Rohr super eagles that have been qualifying for every tournament ever since he came on board.
You can’t even trap ball..busy talking
NFF, please put aside your differences and bring back Oparanozie, we need her in that team. Nigeria could have scored lots of goals and probably defeat Portugal last night. We really exposed their defence especially in the first-half.
@Tayo, the main reason people criticize him is we have lots of good players in the Super Eagles compared with Super Falcons but he doesn’t know how to use these players. He doesn’t understand the mentality of Nigerian players and that is why the team’s been struggling. It took the current Algerian coach less than six months to turn around his team. After 2022, Rohr would regret it for not winning any Cup for Nigeria. He is not a great tactician. Someone who coached Zinedane but today, Zinedane is far ahead of him as far as coaching is concerned.
Why do we keep deceiving ourselves that we have lots of good players in the SE???
Thank you Randy for instilling confidence and characters in the girls. I can’t remember the last time our senior national teams came from behind (2 goals down) to snatch a draw against a team rated higher than us. The fact that you gave no excuses and instilled the needed confidence to inspire a team composed of many new faces tells a lot about your personality. I’m sure nff will not dare to mess with your salary because they know Americans or good coaches don’t take sh***
On the other hand, we have another rigid and technically bereft trophyless coach who is comfortable recycling underperforming players and even hailed woeful performance. A coach who gives excuses before and after a match. GR needs to learn some lessons about modern techniques from Randy.May be Belmadi’s boy can meet with you to learn some of these tactics.
You have not even seen him in competitive matches you already declare him the best thing to happen to Nigeria football because of your desperation to discredit Gernot Rhor, that was how your father-in-stupidity omo9ja was always dancing around the cough and slight achievement of the former falcons coach until he Ben Johnson on us on the same issues that Gernot Rhor go through in the hands of the NFF. I will be waiting for you and your likes after Randy has spent a year or 2 on the job.
Thank you Mr. Nice fantastic reply. Lmao!!
Hahahaha….Omo9jas denerby that couldn’t beat any of SA, Cameroon or CIV (teams the even Eucharia Uche and Florence Omagbemi were taking to the cleaners) during his tenure and ended up running away, leaving us on a lower FIFA ranking that he met us….LMAO.
I don’t know who sent them to be making excuses for Waldrum….lmao…ever since the loss to Jamaica, shame jus dey catch them….lmao…their guilt conscience must be biting them hard since the same scenarios they are biting trees about over Rohr are also panning out with Waldrum now….LMAO.
We are being beaten by Jamaica and being taught how to play football with brain by a Portugal that hardly ever qualifies for their continental championship…..teams with Zero pedigree and they are consoling themselves with instilling confidence and character….LMAO.
Help us tell them Rohr’s team doesn’t even subject us to the disgrace of going down by 3 goals to any team in the world….not even Neymar’s Brazil or
Messi’s Argentina.
If we are needing to thank God, the ref, our Goalkeeper and the Portuguese strikers for not humiliating us too much, imagine what will be when we face Rapinoe’s USA or Martha’s Brazil….LMAO