Nigeria’s national women’s team, the Super Falcons, is in a renaissance mood after winning their last three international friendly matches played as preparation for the forthcoming Women World Cup scheduled to start in July. Falcons played Costa Rica in February and won 1-0 to begin what is looking like a resurgence of sorts. The team also defeated Haiti 1-0 in a friendly encounter and in the last of the games; Onome Ebi led the Nigerian ladies to whip New Zealand 3-0. Ebi, who many people feel should not be part of the team, scored the very first goal against the co-World Cup hosts.

We believe her wealth of experience is very important to the team but the coach should be able to see how best to deploy her and other ageing players in the squad. We should be proud of Ebi and also it is crucial to remember that many top women’s players around the world played till their 40s. We recall Brazil’s Marta and also Formiga who featured in seven editions of the Women’s World Cup and only retired at 41.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup, to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, starts on July 20 and Falcons will play their first match against Canada on July 21. Australia will play Nigeria on July 27 and the Falcons will play their last game against the Republic of Ireland on July 30. We must stress that there are no easy games in this group. The Nigerians as a matter of fact are the lowestranked team in the group. Canada are ranked sixth, Australia 10th and Ireland 22nd while Africans are 42nd in the latest March 2023 FIFA rankings.

We commend the NFF for staging friendlies for the team and the recent victories are good for their confidence. With about three months until the kickoff, a lot of work is still expected to be done. However, Waldrum should not be carried away with the recent wins just as there must be plans to stage more friendly games with other top-rated teams in world football. Beating New Zealand, ranked 25th, was good but Nigeria should be playing others in the top 15 to get set for the event since the country will play two Top 10 countries in world rankings.

Waldrum must achieve better blending and cohesion before the World Cup. Nigeria has been attending the World Cup over the years without making the expected impact and to do so is not easy. The current team is still a work in progress and Waldrum must get serious to take the country to the second round from Group B and to at least play in the last eight of the tournament. Two months ago, Colombia defeated the Super Falcons, 1-0 in an international friendly. It was one of the longlist of friendlies the Falcons lost just as they also failed to perform up to expectations at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations Cup (AWCON) that took place in Morocco last year.

The team, with a record nine AWCON trophies, struggled to place fourth, picking the very last automatic World Cup ticket for African countries. The team lost three matches in the continental competition to record one of Nigeria’s worst performances at the competition. There are issues about the competence of their handler, Waldrum, who aside from being the Nigeria coach is also in charge of a school team in the USA, which means his job with the Falcons is part-time. There is also the problem of how to blend the young and old players to form a cohesive squad. Some foreign-born players, without the toughness of their African counterparts, are injected into the team while some promising domestic league players are not part of the core team. On the balance of performances, Waldrum has not proven to be the best for the team especially with many top ex-players good enough to handle the team but the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) perhaps feels differently.

Mercy Akide, Florence Omagbemi and Perpetua Nwocha have paid their dues in the colours of the Falcons and any one of them or even the trio can come together to build a solid women’s national team. It would not have been out of place if a decision had been taken by the past administration of Amaju Pinnick but it never happened and the new NFF boss, Ibrahim Gusau, has apparently also embraced Waldrum. The recent successes recorded in tune of games are not enough to make the team excel at the World Cup. There must be efforts to strengthen the Falcons and to adopt tactics that will help to withstand the onslaught of the higher ranked teams in the prelims. To qualify from a group that has two Top 10 ranked teams (Canada and Australia) is not easy while the third, Ireland, are also better rated. Waldrum must work hard to make Falcons ready for the task ahead.