Super Falcons head coach Randy Waldrum is confident that Nigeria’s women’s national team will show a marked improvement in their fitness level and concentration when they trade tackles with South Africa, Soccernet.ng reports.
Nigeria host the Banyana Banyana at the MKO Abuja Stadium in Abuja in the first leg of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
To get to this stage, the Super Falcons defeated Cameroon’s Indomitable Lionesses 1-0 at the same venue in February in the third round of the qualifiers.
However, the Super Falcons dropped level, especially physically, in the final quarter of that encounter and nearly fell to a late equaliser that would have knocked them out.
A repeat of that weakness against South Africa, who are the reigning African champions and Super Falcons’ most notorious nemesis, could be costly.
Waldrum admits he noticed the loss in concentration in his team and vows that the Falcons will do better against the Banyana Banyana.
“The last 20 minutes of that match we kinda just hung in,” the American gaffer said in his pre-match press conference as monitored by Soccernet.ng.
“It does opened up a few opportunities (for Cameroon) in the game. So it’s just one of those things we have to try and get the team to play the full 90 minutes and 120 if it takes that.
“You can’t relax at this level and facing this kind of competition because it just takes one opportunity.
“It’s something we have to try and improve on in every match. And that is one thing as we left the match, we talked about the last 20 minutes not being good enough in that match.
“I think it does back to being clinical early because, in the first half, we probably had three, maybe four really good scoring chances. If we had scored two or three of these, the game would have been over by halftime.
“So, it works both ways, but we will certainly look to take care of that.”
Nigeria’s Super Falcons have missed the last three editions of the Olympic Games, making their last appearance at the 2008 edition.