Former Super Falcons striker Desire Oparanozie has called for a major overhaul of the Nigerian women’s national team, including the appointment of a properly qualified coach, following the team’s failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Nigeria’s hopes of reaching the tournament in Brazil were ended on Thursday after the Super Falcons suffered a 2-1 defeat to South Africa in their World Cup play-in encounter.
Banyana Banyana took control of the contest after the break, with Thembi Kgatlana opening the scoring before Refiloe Jane doubled South Africa’s advantage.
Christy Ucheibe pulled one goal back for Nigeria deep into stoppage time from the penalty spot, but the late response came too late to change the outcome.
The defeat brought an end to Nigeria’s remarkable record of appearing at every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1991.
Reacting to the setback, Oparanozie said the Super Falcons failed to show sufficient urgency from the beginning and only responded after finding themselves in difficulty.
“It was a disappointing result for the Super Falcons,” Oparanozie said on Brila FM.
“The South Africans put up a good game for 90 minutes.
” I wished the Super Falcons players started the game the way they ended it because it was evident that they only react to situations.”
The former Nigeria international believes the team needs a fresh direction, with younger players brought into the squad and better technical leadership put in place.
“Moving forward, I think right now the team needs fresh young players and also the team needs a qualified guardian,” she added.
Oparanozie’s comments come after what has been a difficult WAFCON campaign for the nine-time African champions.
Nigeria began the tournament with a shock 3-2 defeat to debutants Malawi, before recovering with a narrow 1-0 victory over Zambia.
The Falcons then produced their most convincing performance of the group stage by defeating Egypt 6-2, raising hopes of a strong finish to the competition.
Those expectations were, however, dashed in the quarter-finals when Cameroon secured a 1-0 victory to eliminate Nigeria.
The result meant the Super Falcons failed to reach the WAFCON semi-finals for the first time since the competition’s inaugural edition in 1998.
Nigeria’s failure to overcome South Africa subsequently completed a disappointing campaign and ended their long-standing presence at the global women’s football showpiece.
South Africa and Ghana will now represent Africa in the intercontinental play-offs, where they will compete against teams from other confederations for places at the 2027 World Cup.
Morocco, Algeria, Malawi and Cameroon have already secured automatic qualification for the tournament after reaching the WAFCON quarter-finals.
For the Super Falcons, attention now turns to rebuilding a team that has dominated African women’s football for decades but faces a major transition following its historic World Cup setback.
