Super Falcons manager Randy Waldrum says he would love to continue with the team after going out of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in a 4-2 penalty shootout loss to England on Monday.
Both sides played a goalless draw at Lang Park in Brisbane over the course of 120 minutes before the Lionesses came out on top in the shootout.
Waldrum’s future with the Falcons is uncertain as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will ultimately evaluate him before the commencement of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in September. The American tactician criticised the NFF before the World Cup for not making adequate preparations and owing a backlog of salaries and bonuses to players and coaching crew as well as himself.
”Certainly, an opportunity to take this team further and go on into the Olympics and try to qualify,” Waldrum said after the game.
“I would certainly love to do. But those decisions are, you know, for somebody else. And I really right now, my mind’s just kind of trying to get through what happened today.”
Waldrum went on to praise the player’s performance at the World Cup and is optimistic about the future of the team after going through the tournament unbeaten over the course of 120 minutes.
”They’ve been fantastic the whole tournament. You know, I, I said to them after the game, we’ve not lost the game,” he continued.
“Realistically, if you look at it, we’ve played four matches against three teams, you know, the Olympic gold medallists. And we played the European champions.
“We had a clean sheet in both of those games. You beat the host nation and you play Ireland that are in the top 20. And realistically, we didn’t lose. So, I’m so proud of them. I’m just… there’s such a bright future for this group.”
????APK! in Lang Park ????️
???????????????????????????? England 0-0 Nigeria ????????
We are out of the #FIFAWWC no thanks to a 4-2 penalty loss to the European champions in Brisbane!
We gave our best, but our journey comes to an end here????????#SoarSuperFalcons | #ENGNGA| #NGA | #ENG pic.twitter.com/MFL07qkGnz
— NGSuper_Falcons (@NGSuper_Falcons) August 7, 2023
Waldrum also asserted that Nigeria going toe-to-toe with heavyweights like Canada, Australia and England is evidence of African teams playing a major role on the bigger stage.
”I hope what we’ve done is shown the rest of the world that football in Africa is relevant,” he said. “I think sometimes because the African teams stay more in Africa playing matches there. They’re not as known, you know, around the world as some of the other teams that that they go all over.
“So, I hope we’ve made it relevant and I hope people have seen that there is talent there and we have the ability and with a little structure and a little organisation and some commitments to provide some resources that we need. I think hopefully people now can see that we can become a major player on the world stage.”
Nigeria’s exit means Morocco are the only African team remaining at the Women’s World Cup and they will slug it out with France in Adelaide on Tuesday.
