₦airaland Forum

iamoyindamola:
She said it herself after the final celebration

She wasn’t part of the 2010 winning squad if I’m not mistaken.

daveP:
Nnadozie undisputed. Many of the goals Dede conceded were totally avoidable if she at least moved or dived. She didn't make an attempt that my mum that used to watch Falcons that year used to be pissed sort of. She had good games though but those funny goals conceded, compared to Nnadozie......


Chiamaka is the better GK

For me, my favourite goalkeeper in super falcons history so far (not the most accomplished though) is Alaba Jonathan. Chiamaka and Oluehi comes close then Precious Dede.

iamoyindamola:
Copy and paste analyst
That's her 5th wafcon trophy

She has 4 while Ordega and Ohale have 5.

yinkeys:
Just watched the game again
Plumptre & Alozie were good in the 2nd half
They redeemed themselves in the 2nd half
All of our players were on fire in the 2nd half
Coach also rectified his errors and made the right changes at the right time
What went wrong in the first half ? They seemed clueless or stunned maybe

There were two major problems in the first half:

First, no left winger in the attack.
Given the fact that Plumptre loves to go forward and track back quickly against the speedy/skillful Moroccan winger on her side, she needed support badly. Ihezuo tried to help but it’s not something she’s used to. She’s a center forward.

The second problem was that an Abiodun / Ayinde combination does not work that well for both. The Ayinde Ucheibe combo or Ayinde Echiejini/ Ijamilusi combo (depending on the formation) is much better. So either Abiodun or Ayinde had to be taken out.

yinkeys:
She’s 28 year old
Where has she been since

Injuries.

Hanibal:
How did we all arrive at this "Madugu is not tactically sound" conclusion sef?
This man just won us the Afcon.. Something tactically sound Waldrum couldn't do

Is it the color of his skin?..

Or maybe because he doesn’t have a defensive ideology like Waldrum and Dennerby. I’ll say the man has not done that badly (though there is room for improvement).

He’s played against a top 5 ranked team France in a friendly even with a depleted team and it was a respectable scoreline. Dennerby (a good coach) was also in thesame situation in 2018 (playing France in a friendly) and we lost 8-0.

Madugu also played Portugal (ranked 23rd) in their home without a good number of his players just about less than a day after landing in Portugal and drew 0-0.

Also, Babajide and Echiegini were just the right subs to bring in at that time while taking out Ayinde since we already had Abiodun and we were chasing the game not defending. Babajide was brought in to help Ashleigh on that left while Echiejini was to bring in more creativity upfront.

daveP:
God just dey answer my prayer for setpieces. Next is our female Ororo for freekicks

I think Ashleigh might be one. Not sure, but something tells me so.

lovewins:
Deltamni, BascoVanVeli did you know this?

Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere.

Saw this now.

HeavenlyHolines:
Ajibade didn't have the nerves to play the PK. Thank God for everything, but we still have a lot to do. We need to find a complete replacement for Ohale and another two young creative midfielders.

Opeyemi Sunday comes to mind.

Kibbs:
Esther was the most impactful player on the team. Apart from her PK’s, Ajibade didn’t really do anything spectacular. That was Esther’s award

True. Esther had over 80% of her set pieces (if not 100%) on point in this tournament. Something most players in Nigerian teams struggle with generally.

ComeToJesus:
They didn't drop. Other teams improved and caught up..

Which is a good thing actually. The problem the super falcons had in the era of the Akide’s and Perpetua’s was that then they had no competition in Africa, and since we do not play many friendlies normally we had nothing to check our lapses and sharpen our skills with.
Hence, we got exposed easily at the World Cup especially since we were always in tough groups with the likes of USA, Sweden and Germany.
Now many teams have raised their game and it’s good for the super falcons because iron sharpeneth iron.

Maladaise:
Esther Okoronkwo has announced herself in a big way, a proper BALLER. Asisat Oshoala will be satisfied knowing she can hand the baton of world class quality to Esther.

I wonder why many people are surprised about Esther. She scored many of the goals that qualified us for this tournament. 2 goals at home against Capeverde in our 5-0 win.

When we went away, she was on the bench in the first half and we were 1-0 down to Capeverde in the first half. She came in the second half, tormented the Capeverdians again, provided an assist and then scored the winning goal to give us a 2-1 victory away to Capeverde.

Esther Okoronkwo is who she thinks she is.

Danielnino00:
She's listed on the bench though...

I was expecting Payne to start in her place.. Madugu definitely wants to go physical with Morocco which could be risky, considering that they are expected to have the officiating on their side...
The girls need to be careful with their tackles...


On a brighter note, Fatima Tagnot, one of Morocco's star player isn't starting...not sure if she's on the bench...injury I guess

Tagnot has not been impressive in this particular tournament though.

The high pressing upfront by the likes of Ijamilusi would be vital against that Moroccan defence which I believe is the weakest of all the semifinalists in this tournament.

yinkeys:
Sade Ijamilusi
What a revelation in this tournament
She’s very good

She works so hard. Always full of running. I think she has been the significant difference in that attack after the group stage. She is very good off the ball and I believe if only she becomes as skillful on the ball like Ajibade, Echiejini, and Okoronkwo, she would be a bomb.

yinkeys:
She has played wing back for Nigeria before

Yes. Left wing back not right wing back.

yinkeys:
Toni Payne sister not invited

She doesn’t play on thesame wing as Alozie.

yinkeys:
I have never seen Osinachi Ohale this vulnerable in any tournament
Either Alozie gets beat a lot thereby affecting Ohales game or age is now catching up with Ohale
2 or 3 players in this tournament have gone past her

It’s mainly because of Alozie. Alozie struggles with fast players and long balls, she is however very dangerous when contributing to the attack.

Possible solutions:

Bring in Ucheibe to not only support Ayinde in midfield but to fall back quickly when Alozie gets beaten. That way Ohale would not easily panick if she gets beaten too. This would also mean Echiejini would be on the bench for Ucheibe (tough one) OR

Bench Alozie for the enterprising Oladipo (which might be a more difficult option for the coach at this stage).

lakesidepapa:
They can do that with their male counterpart, it will make them stronger, there is nothing bad in it.

They lose heavily to professional U17’s on a few occasions e.g USA and Australian senior women national teams. Falcons also played U15 boys in the past and the games were tight.

QueenJazz:
I had an interesting thought this morning.

What if our Super Falcons trained occasionally with the men (Super Eagles) so that they can push their physicality, stamina, mental resilience and endurance even further than it is now? How feasible is this approach?

I want to hear the pundits' thoughts on this?

Nah. Women soccer teams the world over, mostly train with U17 professional boys not professional men.

naptu2:
She didn't score in 2012, but she scored 3 goals in 2010. Desire was the highest goal scorer in 2014, but Oshoala (who was in second place) had only one goal less than her. Desire was injured in the middle of the 2016 tournament and Oshoala scored 6 goals, while she scored 3. Oshoala scored 3 goals in 2018 while Desire scored 2.

None of them scored in 2022 (Oshoala was injured at the beginning of the tournament) and Oshoala has a goal in 2025.

I don’t think her club released her for 2012. She was the most inform player for 2012 at the time with fire from the youth competitions while the old super falcons generation of the perpetua’s were slowing down. But if I remember correctly, some reports stated then that Desire wasn’t released to participate in the 2012 edition.

daveP:
Okobi raised a good observation with that tweet. Why are the Naija Journalists in particular barely hyping Halimatu Ayinde despite her b2b show up in the middle of the pack across the last 6years? Why? They hype others but when it's her i can barely see an article or some top top noise or focus on her.

For example, The way SA hypes Mothlalo since 2019.....

I agree with you though on the Mothlalo example, I don’t think it’s like for like. Ayinde does the dirty job in defensive midfield while Mothlalo is a little bit more offensive, probably more similar to the role Echiegini plays in this tournament. People hardly hype defensive midfielders the way they would hype a flashy attacking midfielder. Okobi for instance, was a flashy attacking midfielder for the super falcons.

QueenJazz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsKXvXwiMoI

I just returned from the comments section of this video and I get it now. I get why other African countries hate us. Because we took dey bully them.

But the commentary was bias to be honest especially coming from pundits. To your point however, I would say sometimes I don’t like it that we are everywhere on the internet 🤣🤣 especially with stupid comments you are bound to see from Nigerians many times.

Ghana, on the day they played their best game of the tournament, were knocked out on penalties. Football can be so cruel sometimes.

This was an exciting game. I was glued all through.

Ghana so good in this game. Morocco of course yet again find it difficult against top West African sides as well as top Southern African sides like South Africa and Zambia.

I have watched this referee twice now in this competition and to me she has been by far the best referee in the competition.

maidaboi:
or 3rd place match

Hmmm.

lakesidepapa:
Replace Ucheibe with Abbey

You mean Deborah Abiodun? No please. I prefer Deborah Abiodun in physical games like for instance against a team like Senegal.

vaxx:
that is when cedis was trading at 17 to a dollar but the recent 2025 data , the current GDP is at 138 billion dolls

You have to wait until the end of 2025 or the release of the next IMF report.

vaxx:
Ghana GDP of 30 million population with less arable land and less mineral resources compare to Nigeria remain at 138 billion $ more than half of Nigeria. GDP base on the recent base year .

Ghana GDP as at 2024 is $80 Billion not even up to Ivory Coast (if I’m not mistaken).