By Harry Awurumibe
For the ardent followers of women’s football in Nigeria, it was not a big surprise that Nigeria’s Super Falcons failed to fly high in the 14th edition of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco and also missed a place in the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
This is even as the reigning African champions wobbled and fumbled out of the biggest women’s football competition in Africa (WAFCON) and failing to qualify for next year’s World Cup by losing three out of five matches and also playing the most disgusting football in Morocco.
Nigeria’s journey in the competition ended in the quarter-final stage after suffering a 1-0 defeat in the hands of arch-rivals Cameroon’s Indomitable Lionesses at Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca last Sunday.
The painful loss to Cameroon ensured that Nigeria did not reach the semi-final of 2026 WAFCON for the first time in the team’s history and it also made the country to miss out in the automatic ticket for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World.
However, Nigeria again failed to utilise the lifeline provided by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to stage a two-match mini-league for the four quarter-finals losers to fight for the two African tickets for the FIFA Inter-continental Play-off later in the year as Nigeria lost 2-1 to South Africa in the Play-off match at Moulay Rachid Stadium in Casablanca on Thursday night.
The latest loss to Banyana Banyana ensured that the Super Falcons led by coach Justine Madugu like his predecessor United States of American-born Randy Waldrum in 2022 WAFCON returned home empty-handed.
A closer look at Nigeria’s overall performance in 2026 WAFCON showed that Madugu’s team created many unwanted records in the 28 years history of WAFCON and 35 years of the formation of Super Falcons by failing to reach the semi-finals, lost yo debutants and failed to qualify for the World Cup since 1991.
The Super Falcons were very poor in all their five matches including the 1-0 victory over Zambia on August 1, and 6-2 walloping of hapless Egypt on August 5 in the group stage even as the team could not recover from their opening match 3-2 defeat by debutants Malawi on July 28 in Rabat.
As stated above, the Super Falcons’ WAFCON crash and 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup miss did not come as a shock for ardent followers of women’s football in Nigeria and across the world because of the actions and inactions of those charged with the responsibilities to manage the senior women’s football team and the role played by the players themselves.
Coach Justine Madugu’s Magic Wand:
As the saying goes: “A coach is as good as his or her last match”. This becomes even more realistic as many football followers believe that Madugu’s lack of tactics and technical ineptitude cost Nigeria in the competition
Technical experts and football analysts have picked holes in his poor tactical variety, predictable route-one play and poor defending and awful finishing of his players which they said combined to make Super Falcons very vulnerable in all five games played by the team.
These experts also pointed to Madugu’s
tactical and strategic failures, saying that the Super Falcons play were very predictable all through the competition as the gaffer relied heavily on a basic route-one style that opponents easily neutralized.
With his team accused of having a record of poor conversion of the chances they create, they also failed to capitalize on high possession and numerous goal-scoring opportunities.
According to experts Madugu’s Super Falcons defensive lapses and disorganized structural defending were the reasons the team conceded crucial goals from set-pieces like the one that resulted to Cameroon’s lone goal victory over Nigeria in the quarter-finals tie.
The last year’s Ballon d’Or nominee coach was accused of over-reliance on aged player and past glory as Madugu maintained a system reliant on individual brilliance rather than modern tactical evolution which failed to work in Morocco as most of the star players struggled throughout their stay in the tournament.
By his own admission, Madugu told Nigerian sport journalists who questioned his inclusion of some match-rusty, injured, recovering and old players, although he argued that: “women’s football is different, the older, the better”.
Also, Madugu’s WAFCON 2026 squad was criticised heavily by football analysts and sports journalists especially women’s football writers who argued that Nigeria was going to Morocco
with different category of players based on different realities which were beyond the control of most of the players who merited their inclusion in the 25-woman WAFCON list.
In fact, one analyst argued strongly that Madugu selected only nine fit and in-form players for the biggest continental women’s football tournament
namely defenders Oluwatosin Demehin and Shukurat Oladipo; midfielders Rasheedat Ajibade, Christy Ucheibe, Toni Payne and Jennifer Echegini as well as forwards
Uchenna Kanu, Omorinsola Babajide and Joy Omewa.
He also included three veterans in defender Osinachi Mavis Ohale, midfielder Halimatu Ayinde and former African Women
Footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala because of the confidence, experience, wisdom and proven skills to provide cover and encouragement to the
But the only challenge was that a game of football with such high intensity requires speed and these three were no longer in their prime, they were overworked especially Ohale and Oshoala and it proved costly at the WAFCON.
Truly, four players who were recovering from injury lay off but who Madugu included in list struggled throughout the tournament despite
pushing themselves beyond their limits as defender Michelle Alozie, midfielder Deborah Abiodun, playmaker Esther Okoronkwo and attacker Chinwendu Ihezuo.
In the same vein, two competitive “game time challenge” players defender Rofiat Imuran and power-forward Gift Monday only got a limited game time at their overseas clubs prior to their invitation.
However, criticisms followed Madugu’s inclusion of some players like forward Folasade Ijamilusi playing in the obscure
Chinese women’s football league which cannot be monitored in Nigeria just as the invitation of defenders Glory Ogbonna and Sikiratu Isah as well as veteran winger Francisca Ordega.
Despite the uproar which greeted his WAFCON 2026 squad, Madugu maintained that his wards would perform like they did last year but it was not to be as the Super Falcons became the shadow of their former selves this time around with all the gaps identified by critics manifesting at the biggest stage in Morocco.
Players’ Faults in the Debacle:
Speaking of the Super Falcons’ performance in Morocco, the signs were there that the team will not do well based on the lackadaisical attitudes of the players invited to camp.
It was an open secret that some Super Falcons players were more active in the social media than in the pitch as some became “Content Creators” and invaded Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter among others for the entire week leading up to the start of the tournament.
Yet, other Super Falcons players became movie producers, dancers, singers, hairdressers, make-up artists, designers and everything in between to the detriment of football.
Worse, one week after the NFF opened training camp for the team in a 5-Star Hotel in Casablanca, players failed to hit camp, a situation that made NFF cancel the international friendly match between the Super Falcons and Ghana’s Black Queens initially set for Saturday, July 18, 2026, at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco.
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In fact, some players arrived Casablanca camp on the eve of the team’s departure to their Rabat centre, making the coach not to field top players in the 3-2 loss to Malawi in the first match and Nigeria never recovered ftom that shock.
Indeed, some players have given the country there best service and should retire or be retired by coach Madugu but he still included them in the WAFCON squad and the result is there in the open for all to see.
**Awurumibe is Africa’s Women’s Football Expert
*** Next Up: The Role of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and NSC
