By Akinwale Kasali
The 2023 FIFA World Cup has began today in New Zealand and Australia, with both teams co-hosting the World Showpiece recording a 1-0 Win respectively against Female Football powerhouse, Norway and lowly rated Republic of Ireland.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria who are in the same Group alongside, Australia and Republic of Ireland will face Olympic Champions, Canada in their first match of the tournament.
Coach Randy Waldrum has said that the controversy that trailed the team in the cause of preparation for the World Cup has been put behind them, as they are focused on getting the ultimate prize.
He said that the players are in high spirit and are battle- ready to prove their mettle as Africa’s best and also prove bookmakers wrong by getting the maximum point against the highly rated Canadian team.
It would be recalled that Coach Waldrum had called out the Ibrahim Gusau led Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, for refusing to give the Players their bonuses and also imposing players on him.
But this has been put behind him and his team.
Waldrum has consistently expressed optimism that Nigeria will get beyond the group stage at the World Cup, at the very least.
Few days ago, the Super Falcons recorded a 8-1 victory over Queensland Lion in Australia with Barcelona Football Club of Spain forward, Asisat Oshoala scoring a brace, while Ifeoma Onumonu, Toni Payne, Rasheedat Ajibade, Halimatu Ayinde, Uchenna Kanu, and Gift Monday each scored once to boost the team’s confidence ahead of their first game against Canada in the early hours of 21st July.
Payne, one of the goal scorers, revealed her excitement at how the Super Falcons are getting better and improving with every game and training session
“As a team, we played well. Our objective is to improve our system in every game and every training and we did that today. Step by step, we are improving, and we are getting prepared for our first game against Canada.”
Super Falcons defender and former Leicester City Player, Ashleigh Plumptre has expressed optimism that the Super Falcons will make a magnificent performance at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Plumptre said, “Obviously we’ve got our eyes set on the summer but right now we’re trying to just put little details into practice and make sure that come the summer the team is ready to perform.
“Yeah we know we’re obviously against really good competition, we definitely can’t look past that. Pressure is on the likes of Canada and Australia and I know we have some amazing talent in this team, so we’re definitely going to put in some good performances and I think we can cause some couple of upsets,” Plumptre said.
For the Super Falcons to have any hope of advancing past the Group Stage, a victory against the Canadian side will be a morale booster and put on track of booking a knockout ticket, but on Paper, the Canada team is more better and has more pedigree than the Super Falcons putting into cognizance FIFA’s rating and their performance of late.
No doubt, it would be a mountain to climb for the Super Falcons as two of their best players, Rasheedat Ajibade and Halimatu Ayinde would not be playing against Canada having both collected Red Card at the 2022 African Women Cup of Nations, AWCON, tournament.
Despite the absence of both players, the Technical Director of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Augustine Eguavoen is highly optimistic and confident that the Super Falcons will perform well at the 2023 FIFA World Cup.
Speaking to reporters at a recent event, Eguavoen said, “I’m very optimistic that they will perform well. The first game is always very important, the first game will determine how far we will go.
“Because if anything goes wrong in the first game, then the team becomes jittery, but with the quality of players we have, I think they are good enough to handle any kind of pressure and I’m looking at a very good performance.”
Aisha Falode, member of Nigeria Football Federation’s, NFF, Executive Committee has said she is optimistic that the Super Falcons will have an impressive outing at the forthcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Falode said. ”We are still on the path of growth. We are excited that we are going to another FIFA Women’s World Cup and that FIFA has continued to place a premium on Nigeria as a powerhouse in African football”.
“We are excited and also looking forward to an exciting tournament in a historic World Cup of 32 teams which will also be co-hosted for the very first time”.
The match is billed for 3:30am Friday morning.
The Nigeria side would face Australia in their Second Match before facing Republic of Ireland in their last Group match.
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