The Nigeria national women's team coach has seemingly made a cheeky remark after denying Banyana Banyana qualification for the Paris Olympics, insisting that "football is played with your head."
The story
Desiree Ellis' side suffered a rare disappointment, as all their hopes of qualifying for the Olympics later this year completely evaporated on Tuesday evening.
Banyana played out to a 0-0 draw with the Super Falcons at Loftus Verveld but the victors advanced thanks to their 1-0 win over the South Africans in the first-leg.
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The result marked Banyana's second successive failure to qualify for the Olympics, having also missed out on the trip to Tokyo in 2020.
Nigeria will now play at the Games for the first time since 2008 in Beijing, while Mzansi will turn their sights on the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, although the revised dates for the tournament are yet to be confirmed after they were postponed due to the Olympics being scheduled for the initial period of June and July 2024.
Nevertheless, Falcons boss Randy Waldrum was in a jovial mood after neutralizing Eliss' team and made a rather cheeky remark immediately after getting the result. The American made a reference to former Italy star Andrea Pirlo, which seemingly suggested that his side outsmarted Banyana :“Football is played with your head. Your feet are just the tools," Waldrum wrote on X.
“Football is played with your head. Your feet are just the tools.” – Andrea Pirlo
— Randy Waldrum (@CoachWaldrum) April 9, 2024
Meanwhile, Ellis was hugely disappointed with the outcome, insisting that the defeat was hard to put in words.
“It is a big disappointment, not just for us but for everyone involved in women’s football because we did not go in 2020, it was a similar situation. It will take a while to recover from this,” said Ellis, according to Hollywoodbets Sports Blog.
“It is difficult to explain because of the expectations that we have for ourselves and that the rest of the country have for us, we felt we disappointed everybody. I don’t think you can explain disappointment but you hurt so badly inside that you almost don’t know what to say,” the Banyana mentor added.
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