ThePreachersSon:
I've always believed a coach knows the players he needs. But some of the players named here don't deserve it. Abi them pay am to feature? Who knows, he no dey take time before them learn the Nigerian style. What do I know sef?

But 5 defender's is risky. Think of injuries, and what if you go far in the tournament, then fatigue comes up.

He should have known better, after he almost lost the AWC that Nigeria wins even before tournament start.

Players like Ini Umotong, Sophia Omidiji, and Dike would have contributed a lot. And I think Nigeria should start wooing Rinsola Babajide of Liverpool, she's good

naptu2:


Desire Oparanozie was made the captain almost 2 weeks ago.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/9458349_2019052216_25_12_jpege6793f682e11a36b0f2c57d3590f745d
This oyibo man came to surpress Nigeria football.

He doesn't mean well



https://www.brila.net/why-dennerby-made-me-falcons-captain-oparanozie/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Tajbol4splend:



NFF guys are getting money from there

naijaseeker:


Who is this Sophia Omidiji self? Who among the strikers can Dike bench seriously? Let's not over celebrate our diaspora sisters

ThePreachersSon:


Sophia omidiji, based in the Netherlands. She's played for PSV Eindhoven, and several other clubs in the Netherlands and Belgium. She's played for Nigeria's under 20, and has been invited for the Super falcons before. Well she may not cut it, but omitting Umotong.....

yummy001:
naptu2, kudos to you for a job well done.

I have been a long time enthusiast of female football right from the days of Ismaila Mabo and the first Nations' cup in Abeokuta. But of recent, I've not been impressed with the evolution of female football in Nigeria over the years. We seem to be taking 2 steps forward and 4 steps backward, forget our dominance on the African scene.

I am not a natural pessimist, but I don't see us going past our traditional position of group stage at the mundial as usual. This is no thanks to our oyinbo coach who seems to lack the knowledge of African female football. As crude as Ismaila Mabo coaching techniques looked like, he had one thing going for him. He understood the nitty-gritty of African female football. Apart from discovering most of the girls of his era, he knew them in and out. He really understood their strengths and weaknesses. He knew who to play in what position, and who and who to combine together. He really brought out the best in those girls.

I believe with patience, time, and the right international grade A coaching exposure, not forgetting non-stop quality friendly matches every now and then, Florence Omagbemi would not only have equalled Mabo's records but surpassed them in flying colours. It still beats me till date how an Omagbemi could be dropped for a Dennerby despite winning her first Nation's cup in style. I guess it is down to our worship of anything foreign at the expense of ours irrespective of the quality.

Sir, please I have 2 questions for you:

(I) Don't you think stripping a veteran like Onome Ebi of the captain's armband and giving it to Oparanozie could affect the morale, bonding and spirit of the team ahead of the world cup? Personally, I think this singular action tells negatively on the man-management skill of the coach. It would have been understandable if Onome was incompetent or indisciplined. To make matters worse, she even stood out as the best player in the mediocre squad that won the last Awcon unconvincingly.

(II) I have been following you on Nairaland for a very long time. Looking at the quality of your posts, especially when reporting female football, are you a professional sport journalist or just a female football enthusiast?

Keep up the good work sir.

naptu2:


Sorry it took so long for me to respond. Yesterday was quite a hectic day.


I have always said that the biggest problem with Nigerian football is not the players or the coaches, but the administration. Poor administration is the biggest thing that has held Nigerian football back. There was absolutely no reason to frustrate Florence Omagbemi out of the job.

Florence Omagbemi was not sacked to make way for Thomas Dennerby. Rather, the NFF and the Sports Ministry failed to do their job, which was to take care of the welfare of the team that won the 2016 AWCON in Cameroon. The players consequently staged a protest in Abuja. Some NFF officials blamed her for the protest. They accused her of failing to control the players.

https://www.completesports.com/nff-dilemma-appointment-super-falcons-coach/

It is quite obvious to all sensible people that the NFF and the Sports Ministry were the cause of that protest and it makes no sense to blame Omagbemi for it. The players are adults and they know when they are being maltreated.

https://guardian.ng/sport/omagbemi-celebrated-by-fifa-rejected-by-nff/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/laloko-blasts-nff-omagbemis-sacking/

The NFF subsequently frustrated her out of the job. They had promised to renew her contract if she won the 2016 AWCON, but they allowed the contract to lapse. In fact, they were owing her and her assistants a lot of money in unpaid salaries and allowances. Many months later, they asked her and other coaches to reapply for the job and they used this to frustrate her out of the job.

Contrast Omagbemi's situation with the case of Desiree Ellis. She played for Banyana Banyana at about the same time that Omagbemi played for the Super Falcons. They both met again (this time as coaches) when the Super Falcons beat South Africa in the semi-final of the 2016 AWCON. Since then the NFF has frustrated Omagbemi out of the job, while SAFA and SASOL (Banyana Banyana's sponsor) have given Ellis everything that she needs to succeed and she has become the first coach to qualify Banyana Banyana for the World Cup.

The NFF was divided over whether to appoint Edwin Okon (who was coach of the team at the 2015 World Cup) or to appoint a foreigner as coach after Omagbemi had been forced out of the job.

Like I said earlier, Omagbemi was not sacked to make way for Dennerby. In fact, the NFF announced Randy Waldrum as coach of the Falcons in 2017. However, the poor administration that I spoke about earlier wrecked that deal.

The NFF announced Waldrum as the new coach without reaching any agreement with him. They merely spoke to him on the phone and then they did not contact him for 3 months after that telephone conversation and so Waldrum abandoned the Super Falcons job and took up a position as coach of the University of Pittsburgh.

https://www.thecable.ng/nff-randy-waldrum-super-falcons

The NFF eventually hired Thomas Dennerby, primarily because he had coached Sweden to the 3rd place in the 2011 Women's World Cup.


I believe that the issue with Thomas Dennerby is quite similar to the issues we had with Manfred Horner in 1988 and Philippe Trousier in 1997. You can have a good foreign coach, but the issue is, will the coach understand our style of football? Will the players understand the way that the coach wants them to play?

I won't take the 2018 AWCON into account because we had a terrible preparation for the tournament. However, for once, the NFF has got it right with the preparation for this World Cup. The Falcons beat Slovakia 4-3, lost to Belgium 0-1, lost to Austria 1-4 and beat Thailand 3-0 at the Cyprus Cup. They lost to China 0-3 and beat Romania 4-1 at the China Invitational Tournament. Then they lost 1-2 to Canada and beat Selfoss (an Icelandic club) 6-1.

They are currently at a two weeks closed camp and they will play more friendlies while in camp. The big question is, will this time together enable the players to understand how the coach wants them to play??


Regarding the situation with the captainship, luckily the two players involved, Onome Ebi and Rita Chikwelu, are very mature players. I don't think that they will create any problems (remember how well they handled the issue of being co-captains). I'm not sure how other players will react to the situation.

Thomas Dennerby strikes me as a logic machine.He has made two decisions that I won't have made, but I can understand why he made them.

Why did he make Desire Oparanozie the captain? He said that he wants a captain that will play always and that Oparanozie gets along very well with the other players.

My interpretation is this. Onome Ebi is the oldest player in the team (she's 36) and she had a long injury lay off 2 years ago. I guess that he believes that she won't have the stamina to play all the time. I don't agree with him, because she was our best player at the 2018 AWCON and I remember how she rolled back the years to mark Thembi Kgatlana (a much younger and very fast player) in the final, but I can understand where he is coming from.

It's quite similar to the issue with Courtney Dike. She's one of my favourite players, but I knew that her position in the team was shaky way back in October/November 2018. She played for Nigeria at the 2014 Under 20 World Cup and at the 2015 senior World Cup, then it seemed like she disappeared. She didn't play for Nigeria at the 2016 AWCON.

Then she reappeared and played in the friendly against France in mid-2018 and then vanished again. She was invited to the Falcons camp in Epe ahead of the 2018 AWCON, but she didn't show up in camp and no explanation was given for her absence. I had been trying to find out what clubside she was playing for since January 2018, but I couldn't find any link between her and a clubside. That's what led me to investigate her situation and I found this.

https://www.nairaland.com/4875509/courtney-dike-now-certified-public

So, apparently she now plays football part-time. I guessed that Thomas Dennerby, being a logic machine, would pick a full-time player over a part-time player and that's what he did.

yummy001:


How the heck did I miss this robust response despite coming to Nairaland everyday? Welldone sir.

Please I want you to answer my second question. I am really curious.