ANDREW EKEJIUBA
The poor results by Nigeria’s national teams in the international window in June continued in the early hours of Friday as the women’s national team, Super Falcons, suffered a 1-0 defeat to Reggae Girlz of Jamaica in the first of their three games at the 2021 WNT Summer Series.
Deneisha Blackwood scored the only goal of the game in the 50th minute of the match with a simple side-footed effort after she was left unmarked by a flat-footed Nigerian defence.
Neither side were able to break the deadlock in the first half but arguably the best chance fell to Blackwood who saw her penalty saved by Nigeria goalkeeper Tochukwu Oluehi in the 26th minute.
The Falcons rallied to salvage a draw in the game as substitute Michelle Alozie saw her left-footed screamer come off the crossbar in the closing minutes of the second half.
The Jamaicans were desperate to grab a second of the night with forward Olufolashade Adamolekun who has a Nigerian father – a former footballer himself – and a Jamaican mother intelligently lobbed the ball over the despairing Oluehi in Nigeria goal. Luckily it nestled on top of the goal post.
Nigeria will face Portugal in their second game of the tournament on Sunday night, followed by a meeting with world champions United States at the Q2 Stadium in Austin on June 17.
Meanwhile, Super Falcons head coach Coach Randy Waldrum said he was proud of the players’ second half performance against the Reggae Girlz.
Waldrum in his post-match interview admitted that the first half was slow and his players were disorganized.
“I was really proud of the second half performance. We showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart in the second half.
“The second half was much better, I was more pleased.
“The first half was too slow, disorganised. It was not the way we want to play.
“We have to start from the beginning (of a match), not from the second half.”
He blamed the goal conceded by the team to new defenders who are playing with the team for the first time and also praised goalkeeper, Tochukwu Oluehi.
“She played fantastic, she saved a penalty and made a huge save after that to keep us in the game in the first half, to give us a chance,” the coach stated.
“She played really well, but the back four was just young and it will take some time to get it organised.”
The American noted that he will rotate the squad in their second game against Portugal.
“I will expect we will play a little of our game right from the beginning. We have to impose the way we want to play early on.”
The nine-time Africa champions will take on Portugal on Sunday in their second game at the ongoing Summer Series.