Nigeria women’s national team handler coach Randy Waldrum remains confident that his team can confront any team in the world regardless of their rankings as they take on Japan today, in their final Group C game of the women’s football event of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Nigeria have lost their first two games at the tournament to Brazil and Spain (1-0 each) but there are still hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the competition.
However, their destiny is not totally in their hands as they need to beat Japan while also hoping Spain will beat Brazil that could see them finish second in the group or even qualify as one of the two best losers into the next round.
After their defeat against Spain on Sunday, Waldrum, who led a zesty Super Falcons team to Paris has refused to undermine his team’s prowess.
Though the Falcon’s last appearance at the Olympics before now was in Beijing in 2008, they can bank on the history of reaching the quarter-finals of the Olympics tournament in 2000 when they also beat Japan in the process.
They notched Africa’s first win at the tournament with a victory over Japan and qualified for the knockout stage for the first, and so far the only time.
Waldrum, is the second coach, after the late Ismaila Mabo, to lead the Super Falcons to both the World Cup and the Olympic Games.