Madugu Explains What Led To Falcons World Cup Miss
By Saheed Afolabi
Nigeria coach, Justin Madugu has narrated what led to the Falcons World Cup miss following the playoffs defeat to South Africa in Casablanca.
The Super Falcons won’t be at the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time in history since the inception of the competition in 1991.
Despite the setbacks, Madugu apologized to Nigerians that it was never the intention of the team to disappoint the nation while admitting the team did their best which wasn’t enough to see them qualify for the Intercontinental playoffs.
Madugu explained that the team came into the encounter with a determined mindset to qualify but wastefulness in front of goal and individual errors gave the South Africa the edge.
The gaffer said if the Falcons had sticked to the game plan then the situation could have been avoided.
“I will like to apologize to Nigerians over our inability to make it to the World Cup. We are very sorry. It was not our intention. We came, did the best that we could do but our best wasn’t enough. We are very sorry for that and we take full responsibility for everything that happened.
“We came into the game determined to make sure we give our all, and try as much as possible to win. From the way the ladies play, they gave it their all too. We had chances, still the conversion was another problem and we made some errors at the back. They capitalize on that and they got the goals.
“It’s something that we really regret, we feel sorry about because it was more of individual errors in decision making that accounted for what happened.
“We had the game under control and momentary loss of concentration. If we had kept to the game plan, just do the basics and simple things I think we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation.”
He defended the choice of Michelle Alozie at left back position which contributed to making her win the player of the encounter against Zambia.
“It’s unfortunate that it had to happen the way it happened. Even in the left back position, Michelle was given player of the match in one of the games we played. Like I said, it’s not about the ability to play in that position but it had to do with individual positioning and errors. If we take the right decisions and do the simple things, that we needed, this things were avoidable.”
Madugu believes missed chances was the biggest factor in denying Nigeria a World Cup place.
“Of course, we will say we have goal scoring problem, because we have not been clinical in front of goal. We create several chances but we are very wasteful with the opportunities that always come our way. If we are clinical in front of goal, we will have scored a lot of goals.”
Nigeria will now shift focus on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics qualifiers set for October 2026.
