Yet that's just what happened on Monday, despite Nigeria's departing for the Mundial Down Under under a cloud, with head coach Randy Waldrum in open conflict with the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).
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Brave Nigeria defy challenges to excel at 2023 Women's World Cup
If anyone had predicted that, come the Round of 16 of the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, Nigeria would have European champions England on the ropes, few would have put any faith in such a forecast.
Brave Nigeria defy challenges to excel at 2023 Women's World Cup
It was embarrassing and distressing alright, though — rather lamentably — not the most unimaginable scenario for an African country heading to a major tournament.
Even so, the Nigerian contingent put all that noise behind them, choosing to focus on the task at hand when they finally arrived for the World Cup — and what a run it ended up being!
Despite being the lowest-ranked side (40th) in Group B — with two of the others positioned in Fifa's top 10, the third occupying the No.22 spot — Nigeria managed to navigate their way through that three-game opening round without defeat, a feat they'd never prior achieved.
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They drew their first and last group matches, impressively scraping a point each off Olympic champions Canada and debutants Ireland, but it was the game sandwiched by those two — versus hosts Australia — that really saw Nigeria grab the headlines.
It was, ultimately, the only fixture the Super Falcons won at the tournament — only their fifth in 30 World Cup outings — yet that 3-2 upset of an Australian team backed by a very partisan crowd at Brisbane's Lang Park won't be forgotten very quickly.
Defeat at the same venue days later to Sarina Wiegman's England stopped Nigeria from matching their all-time best finish at the World Cup — the quarter-finals in 1999 — but the victors would be the first to admit how expensive the result was for them.
The biggest price England had to pay was the loss of their best player, Lauren James, for the quarter-final duel with Colombia (and, quite possibly, any game at the World Cup they might play beyond that) — more on that shortly — but, even without counting that particular cost, England would still feel quite heavily the toll of this truly draining clash.
The Lionesses had their way against China in their last group match, hitting them for six, but their next opponents ensured they didn't have it all their way. England expectedly shaded possession and attempts on target, but Nigeria struck the woodwork twice — as close as you could get to scoring without finding either goal or goalkeeper.
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And the brave Africans didn't just win the physical battle; they took the psychological one, too, at least until the shootout that decided the game.
It's the only plausible explanation for James, one of England's classiest and most composed players, committing the most blatant of fouls by planting a foot in the back of a visibly bemused Michelle Alozie near the end of regulation time.
That reduced England to ten women, holding on for almost the entirety of extra time. They also missed the first of their penalties, but, to their credit, recovered to win it.
Losing, though, takes no gloss off Nigeria's performance. If the Falcons had, prior to the tournament, demanded what was owed them by their country, they played like they owed their country everything. For that, and more, it's only right that they receive their due — just as, worthily, they've received their flowers from the rest of the world after their exit.
Even more impressively, they did much of it without their best player, Asisat Oshoala.
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Oshoala is one of the finest footballers in the world, and certainly the greatest in the history of the African game with her record five continental Player of the Year awards, but she hasn't been on the pitch as often as Waldrum would have wanted at international tournaments during his tenure.
She only lasted a game at 2022's Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), ruled out thereafter by injury. Nigeria stumbled to their joint-worst placement at the competition — fourth place — dethroned by South Africa, and overtaken also by relative lightweights Morocco and Zambia in the final reckoning.
Oshoala returned action afterwards, but the wear-and-tear of a Double-winning campaign with Barcelona left Waldrum needing to manage her minutes to maximise what his best attacker could offer. And Oshoala's biggest contribution was what eventually proved the winner against Australia, side-footed in from a tight angle — almost a replica of the goal she scored against South Korea at the previous World Cup — just nine minutes after coming on.
Given how wildly the conflict raged between Waldrum and the NFF before the World Cup, next to be sorted out, logically, would be whether the former continues in his job — which he might have lost just before the World Cup, but for a stay of execution.
Whatever his grievances may be, Waldrum — who only accepted the position on the second time of asking, in October 2020, having turned it down three years prior — doesn't seem too keen to follow the example of predecessor Thomas Dennerby, the Swedish trainer who quit on the heels of Nigeria's last World Cup appearance.
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“I am proud of my team. I want to stay with this team and continue working towards the Olympics next year," Waldrum revealed, after Nigeria's elimination.
You'd imagine, too, that he'd want a taste of silverware — at the Wafcon and/or African Games that come up next year — a luxury not many coaches of the Falcons have gone without.
"But that," concedes the 66-year-old father of one, "is not a matter for me to decide."
It is, of course, the NFF's call to make.
And while Waldrum may not necessarily be in the federation's good books regardless of what he has just achieved, surely, his players — and most, if not all, Nigerians — will be rooting for him.
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By: Enn Y. Frimpong
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