Randy Waldrum, the head coach of the Nigeria Women’s National Team, believes that their poor performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Women’s Football Tournament was due to a lack of proper preparation.
The Super Falcons were eliminated from the tournament following a 3-1 loss to Japan in their final group match. This came after they had lost their first two games, 1-0 to Brazil and Spain.
In their fourth Olympics appearance, they were unable to replicate their outstanding performance at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where they reached the knockout stage.
“We prepared for them [all three opponents] based on the fact that we haven’t had a lot of time. We missed the last window before the Olympics and so we missed 10 days of good training before the Olympics,” Waldrum was quoted as saying by ESPN suggesting that better preparation would have helped the team perform better.
Nigeria’s performance at the 2024 Olympics mirrored that of the 2008 campaign, when they lost their first two games 1-0 to North Korea and Germany before losing their final group game 3-1 to Brazil.
The Super Falcons’ focus will now shift to the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, which will be held in Morocco in July of next year.
