Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum laid into the Nigerian media following Thursday night’s 2-0 win against the Mares of Botswana at the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The defending champions dominated play in the one-sided encounter in Rabat.
It was an improvement from the 2-1 defeat to the Banyana Banyana of South Africa in their opening game of the competition.
Ifeoma Onumonu put the Super Falcons in the lead in the 21st minute when she raced past her markers before putting the ball beyond the advancing goalkeeper Maitumelo Bosija following a delightful pass from hardworking midfielder Halimat Ayinde.
Read Also: Exclusive: 2022 WAFCON: Sweet Victory For Super Falcons Over Botswana –Lawal
Substitute Christy Ucheibe put the game beyond Botswana by netting the second three minutes after the break.
“Media in Nigeria is very negative. We don’t want distraction in our team,”Waldrum said at the post match press conference.
“We are trying to qualify for the World Cup and the teams must be isolated.”
The Super Falcons will take on Burundi in their final group game on Sunday.
18 Comments
God save his head… Loss or draw with botwana…u be gone . Ask rohr .. Burundi wil test ur team again.u can’t lose to south Africa and expect me to say thanks ..wit the quality of players in the team ..
Thank u sport minister for quickly commenting. Now the coach has apologized
Does this man know the history of the Falcons? When people educate you see the history before you take it as criticism. Not underrating any country but he should go back and check history then he will understand that falcons are always demanded to perform well in Africa just like Brazil of South America and USA of North America.
This is why you can’t just hire any American as coach of the female national team. America might be the number 1 in female football but that doesn’t mean they have the best coaches. This fool is only after WC qualification and doesn’t respect the antecedents that have been laid down. Media is very negative??? If the US female team played like the falcons played against South Africa the American media will be beyond negative…..You would have lost your job long ago. This people don’t respect Africa and I blame Amaju for this nonsense. This guy called Waldrum couldn’t even gate a job with any of the age grade national teams in his country despite coaching women’s college soccer since 1989 but can speak rubbish in Africa. This guy has a chip on his shoulders lol. If he was smart he would keep quiet till at least the semi final..
Please, don’t mind him. I no blame am now. If not for NFF that thinks that anything white is better than Africans in all facet of life, the coach will not come here after a horrible performance against South Africa to be talking like this.
The problem with Africa is that we are still troubled by colonial mentality – anything white is good and anything black is bad. By the way who says the Americans, Europeans, or Asians have white skin. Their skin is never white. Africans, for crying out loud, don’t have a black skin. Africans have brown skin. But they will want you to believe that the skin of Africans is black and as so they are of inferior breed, incapable of excellent performance, or doing the extraordinary.
If this coach does not bring the cup, he should be a goner! We expect nothing less. And if he likes let him continue to rely on the old and unfit players in the team. He will just make the job easier for Nigerians. He’s got younger and better players in the team but he puts them on the bench and goes for the old and unfit players.
Josh men. Well said Brotherman. You are one of the few people who make me comment on Nigerian football.
Nigerians you lots are negative. You all will chase this coach away soon. Pathetic. Leave these team let them soar.
So you expect fans not to criticize the coach after the horrible performance against SA? Honestly SA could have won the game 3-0.
He has been supported by the NFF with top friendlies, on time player switches, occasional campings in Europe and then he presents the worst play seen in a long time. Go back to the 2018 Wafcon and 2016 Wafcon and see how the Falcons we’re passing the. Ball around you will think it’s a male team and if I’m not wrong we were coached by an indigenous coach.
So what happened to that’s 2018 coaches
Go and ask Amaju why they fired a winning coach or do I look like run the football house? He is the same one that hired the American.
mumu coach.
If you are a foreign coach will expect you to perform more than the previous local coaches.
Very disrespectful man, doing the same thing that got Rohr the sack.
Very correct coach, don’t mind the deluded press and fans we have in the country, when it’s time to condemn the team in a more positive way, rather you come out with all this radical comments like you at the motor park. please focus on how to make the team successful, yes there was a huge improvement from the first game and i hope to see more positivity going forward. Don’t pay no mind to all the noise makers who probably borrowed Data from there providers to come and comment here
Chuks well said bro. The biggest mistake the coach made was apologizing to the useless press and retracting his previous comments. Now he will have to curtail his utterances and the press will have a field day with him. The press will now have more influence on the team selection bcos now he comes off as being weak. We nigerians don’t like the truth. Nigerians criticize negatively, instead of criticizing constructively and providing possible solutions where they see problems they just condemn the team. Same way they condemned GR making the clueless NFF forced to sack a coach who met all the tatget few weeks b4 a tournament. Same negativity the fans and media metted out on Eguaveon, keshi, shuabu etc. Nigerians are very negative maybe its just the hardship in the country causing it. Is it the junk journalism dat completesports and other media house put out without any research, reference citing or spell checks in dia publications that people should take seriously or people should revere. How is the media helping to improve female soccer in nigeria or sports in general. Isn’t it this same corrupt press that turn blind eyes to corruption or the ones whose policy is “pay for play”. Again the falcon coach should have stood his grounds cos what he said isnt wrong at all and most people know it. A team just played 1 match and the team is written off as if SA aren’t a wirthy foe. Who gave 9ja the monopoly of always winning WAFCON so other countries aren’t improving abi? They will just sit down and watch 9ja walk all over dem bcos our female league is d best in africa or what? People complain dat the team is old (myself included) but the reality is dat the younger players haven’t done enough to dislodge dem hence dia continued invitation to the team and dats a fact. To me the team is progressing well and peaking at d right time. Even if d team qualifies as best loser (which isnt likely) other teams will be petrified to meet the falcons. All the coach is asking is just some support from nigerians and d media, is dat 2 much to ask? I personally believe dis team will get one of the tickets and eventually win d tournament.
Omo! You speak wisdom here o but as a Coach, criticism is expected and it’s part of the game.
My own not to argue, they should put their acts together and stamp their dominance as they did against Botswana. South Africans were likely lucky on the match day due to wrong positional placement and stale selection. Against Botswana, there was upward improvement. Let’s see the choice of players that will prosecute Burudi’s duel. From there, we can constructively peg our insinuation on the media outburst.
God bless Super Falcons
God bless Nigeria
You guys should understand that football changes and improves like technology. Nigeria’s dominance (female team) in Africa cannot be forever. If not all other African nations, most African nations want to take over dominance from Nigeria. For SA to play and win Nigeria it means they really want to take over from us. Nigeria should work on herself to maintain dominance in Africa. The issue of Waldrum saying something against the media or media saying anything against our team shouldn’t be raising the dust in our midst.
My advice is that the media should speak in such a way that no one is demoralized and the coach in question should learn wisdom in whatever the media says. Whoever commenting should comment what will educate and inspire people. Na wey tin I get to talk be this.