The Super Falcons opened camp in Antalya, Turkey on Tuesday night as they start preparation for the international friendlies against Haiti and New Zealand.
Nine players are already in the team’s camp with more expected on Wednesday (today).
“Camp officially opens today in Antalya, with 9 players already in as at dinner time. Yewande Balogun, Regina Otu, Esther Okoronkwo, Onome Ebi, Etim Inyene, Abiodun Deborah, Halimatu Ayinde, Vivian Ikechukwu, Glory Ogbonna,”reads a tweet on the Super Falcons official Twitter handle.
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Head coach, Randy Waldrum extended invitation to 23 players for the friendlies.
The Super Falcons are camped at the Sense De Luxe Hotel, Antalya.
The nine-time African champions will take on Haiti at the Emir Sports Complex in Antalya on Friday.
The Nigerian girls will later lock horns with New Zealand at the Mardan Sports Complex also in Antalya next week Tuesday.
12 Comments
Asisat Oshoala has not kicked a single ball for Nigeria in 8 months because of club commitments. It will impact negatively at the World Cup in July. As usual the coaches will be blamed and fired
There is a division in the team with players loyal to Ebinand some loyal to Oshoala and Waldrum has no clue in how to handle this coupled with the fact that he doesn’t have any respect or regard for his Nigerian assistants….He will rather consult the old white lady who is his assistant from the U.S……I hope the WC won’t be a shambolic one.
According to some outlets, this beef started as a result of Oshoala being stripped of being the Captain…One Ebi will clock 40 soon and this is her 6th Worldcup if she makes the cut…..Talk about greed and denying younger players of an opportunity.
I have never really Liked Oshoala’s attitude I think she is very arrogant. Moreover she has not performed anything in her last few appearances for SE. If she is causing division she must be excused. We do not need 90’s Eagles mentality in the Falcons
And there is also an issue of the foreign born players not mixing will with the Nigerian born players….. It’s alot going on and when you have a clueless coach like Waldrum, things can only get worse.
Wow!
Arrogant? Upon all she has done for her country, this is the thanks she gets, huh? For the record, there was unity of purpose under her captainship. The fact that she has had a bad injury patch that has impacted her ability to score for Nigeria recently does not mean she has an attitude. Afterall, she is the top scorer in the Spanish league.
You Nigerians are the absolute worst. You treat the greatest Nigerian female footballer of all time with so much disrespect and then expect her to jump when you snap your fingers and perform at the highest levels, injury or not. You treat all your best players like garbage, not pay their match bonuses and stipends for 22 months and then expect them to win things for you?
Well, you will continue to get what you deserve.
And why is this a Randy Waldrum problem? Wasn’t it the wise guys at the helm of the NFF leadership who thought it best to strip Oshoala of the captainship without having the intelligence or decency to inform her about their decision? She found out on the pages of the news media.
You cannot expect Randy to be solving problems caused by the imbeciles at the NFF, especially when there was not thought to the potential impact of such a decision.
The NFF made the decision and caused the mayhem. Let them fix it. Keep Randy out of this. In the meantime, the NFF should figure out a way to pay Randy his salary – the man had been working without being paid for almost 2 freeking years!! Yet the stupid and incompetent NFF people would be blaming him for poor results. What a bunch of morons!
This is where Waldrum comes in…..In most national teams, the coach picks the captain and not the FA and the coach maybe with the help of the FA tries to settle any in team wranglings that might cause disunity in the team. It’s obvious Waldrum is a spineless coach.
And you know for a fact that Randy hasn’t done that already? Is it happenstance that the three people who have been having beef with each other are ALL in Antalya today (Oshoala, Oparanozie and Ebi)?
Do you know the amount of behind the scenes cajoling and negotiating that Randy did to get all three to agree to attend this camp? This is outside of the fact that the NFF chieftains who made the mess decided to foolishly adopt a ‘wait and see’, ‘lets pray about it so God can do it’ approach (which is always their solution).
I think this comes down to the fact that the former NFF board didn’t set a clear guideline for picking the captain. The player’s age and number of years spent in the team (Ebi)? The international profile of the player (Oshoala)? Or the player’s drive and leadership traits (Oparanozie)?
The criteria is obvious with the SE from time immemorial (seniority), but those who kept switching the rules in the SF were confusionists. Oliseh almost destroyed the unity and chemistry in the SE when he suddenly stripped Mikel of the arm band, overlooked Enyeama and handed it to Musa before Siasia reversed it. Thank God, the players involved were mature about it and today Musa is duly the captain.
I hope the ladies will maintain a cool head whoever is picked as they head to the FIFA world cup, cos one can sense the fractures and bruised egos. Some don’t seem committed to the national team any longer.
Well a house dat is divided againist itself can never stand so idont think der is division in the falcons camp even though it can happrn
Good to see Oparanozie is back in the team. I remember she wore the captain’s armband at the last World Cup, which also had Oshoala, and old guards like Ebi, Ohale, and former number 1 goalies, Tochukwu Oluehi in the group.
Ebi has worn the captain’s band, Oshola has, and Oparanozie too has. So, sho’s the real captain, who’s the deputy, and who’s the assistant deputy? No pecking order? This is confusion. At least we know the order in the Super Eagles (Musa – Ekong – Moses – Omeruo – Ndidi). And given the fact that these are women (who can be petty over little things), it creates a breeding ground for disunity, division, and cliques.
On a related matter, it will be quite interesting to see how the formerly effective Oparanozie battles the Number 9 short from the inconsistent Ifeoma Onumonu. She was a good main striker, team player, and captain. Perhaps she was “too spoken” and got axed.