Tayo Ogunseye
Super Falcons head coach Justine Madugu has attributed Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup to individual errors, lapses in concentration and poor decision-making by the players.
The Super Falcons’ hopes of securing a place in the FIFA Intercontinental Qualifying Tournament were ended on Thursday night after they suffered a 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the CAF playoff in Casablanca, Morocco.
Nigeria had earlier missed out on automatic qualification for the global showpiece after losing 1-0 to Cameroon in the quarter-final of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON).
Madugu, who guided the Falcons to success at the previous edition of the continental championship, cut a disappointed figure during the post-match press conference as he apologised to Nigerians for the team’s failure.
This will be the first time the country will be missing from the World Cup since 1991.
“First of all, I have to apologise to Nigerians for our inability to make it to the World Cup. We are very sorry, and it’s not our intention,” Madugu said.
The coach insisted that the team had been in control of the match against South Africa but threw away its advantage through avoidable mistakes.
“It’s about individual things. We had the game under control, but momentarily lost concentration and tried to do something that was unnecessary. That always results in the kind of goals we concede.
“If we had kept to the game plan, just done the basic and simple things, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation.
“We couldn’t keep our heads and tried to do something out of the ordinary, and we made mistakes that resulted in what happened.”
Madugu also suggested that a psychological issue could be contributing to the team’s recent defensive lapses, pointing to possible complacency or overconfidence.
“It’s more of a mental thing. The players have to look at it and get out of it because we concede goals in a manner that is very unusual.
“This is a team that, in the past, we don’t concede goals. All of a sudden, I don’t know. It could be complacency, it could be overconfidence, and we end up making unnecessary mistakes that are not necessary.
“It is something that is very worrisome, and something must be done about that. It’s more about individual errors, individual errors and individual errors,” he lamented.
With the Super Falcons now out of the race for the 2027 World Cup, Madugu said he would await the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation regarding his future with the national team.
“I will await whatever decision the NFF takes,” he said.
