Head coach of the Super Falcons of Nigeria, Randy Waldrum has defended his team’s poor showing and shock defeat against Jamaica, at the four-man Summer Series tournament hosted by the United States.
The Falcons were defeated 1-0 by Jamaica despite heading into the game as favourites.
The margin would have wider but the impressive showing of the goalie which culminated in a penalty save in the first half saved the Falcons blushes.
Waldrum in an interview published on the Facebook wall of the Falcons media officer, said: “I was really proud of the second-half performance. I felt like we showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart in the second half. The first half was too slow, disorganized not like the way we wanted to play. So, we have to learn next time when we come out on the field we start from the beginning.
“There are some positives to take away and again a lot of new players we haven’t seen. So it was a good opportunity to see some of those players.”
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Giving an insight on the next game against Portugal on Monday, Waldrum said there will be changes in the starting eleven.
“Now we have a little understanding and idea of the players we have in camp, after seeing the game and performances so there will be a little bit of change in the line-up because now we have a better idea.
“And I will expect we come out to play right from the beginning try to impose the way we want to play and I felt we didn’t do that (against Jamaica).”
On the goal conceded by the Falcons, he said, “The goal we conceded, I think it had to do with us having two new defenders out of the back four. So, I think the goal came as a result of the disorganization at the back, not being aware of the second ball after Tochukwu Oluehi made the first save.
“But I thought Tochukwu played fantastic, saving a penalty kick, she made a huge save after the penalty to keep us in the game in the first half. She played well but I think the back four are young so we have to take sometime and get it organized especially since we don’t have (Onome) Ebi, (Osinachi) Ohale here, the anchor of the backline, we just don’t have that right now.”