Nigeria’s female national tam, Super Falcons’ coach, Randy Waldrum has served up a strong hint that his side will adopt an ‘explosive start’ to their next match at the Summer Serie Invitational in United States of America, as he wants them to hit the ground running in the clash with Portugal.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, while speaking in the wake of Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Jamaica in their first match of the competition in Texas, USA, Waldrum admitted that his side had a slow start to the encounter, which eventually haunted them.
Although the American soccer tactician conceded that his players had a better impact in the second half, he reckoned that their poor show and slow performance in the first half accounted for the defeat, as The Reggae Queens struck the game’s only goal in the 34th minute of play.
While adding that he was proud of his players’ second-half performance, Waldrum added that Jamaica’s match was as a result of poor understanding and lack of organsisation among his aray of newly invited defenders.
He praised Spain-based goalkeeper, Tochukwu Oluehi for pulling off a series of great saves, including a first half penalty, and reasoned that the squad will do better in rising to the occasion in their next match against Portugal on Sunday.
Waldrum concluded: “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, not from the second half. (Oluehi) 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.
“She played really well, but the back four was just young and it will take some time to get it organised. 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.”
