Six observations from Nigeria's Super Falcons defeat to South Africa's Bayana Bayana

Nigeria's Super Falcons suffered a reality check in their opening game of the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations following a 2-1 loss to South Africa.

South Africa had good statistics and performed better than the Super Falcons in the first half with the Bayana Bayana having 59.6% of the ball possession.

BSNSports.com.ng here presents the five observations from the match.

1. Defending Under Pressure:

The two centre-backs were a mess, failing to cope with the speed and skill of the

The captain Onome Ebi was unaware of her surroundings for the first goal and out of position for the second. She lacked positional awareness and the speed to match the athletic South Africans.

The goalkeeper was also at fault and I believe this aspect is very important and needs to be improved if they will do well in the competition this year.

2. Sloppy Falcons' Passes:

The Super Falcons were sloppy in their passes. They lost the ball at dangerous positions and were leggy at the back against a younger South African girls.

3. Oshoala Isolated Most Times:

Asisat Oshoala was most times left to chase lost causes as she was isolated upfront. The early injury she copped admittedly slowed her down and was eventually subbed off in the second half.

The Barcelona Femeni star was disappointing before she went off in the second half. She had a couple of half chances in the game but could not make it count.

4. Improved Second Half By Bayana Bayana:

The South Africans started slowly but grew into the game and when the momentum was built, they hardly let the Super Falcons into their half.

5. Technical Formation:

Coach Randy Waldrum was wrong with his formation for not bringing in Monday Gift who did well in the Nigeria Women Premier League been the high goal scorer. Monday Gift is so crafty to destroy the defence of Banyana Banyana.

6. Building Up Play From The Middle Of The Park:

The Super Falcons really struggled to start off great attacks from the middle of the park in today's match. The Nigeria Women couldn't come up with neat passes from the midfield to create goalscoring chances for their forwards in the match. They lacked creativity which affected the Super Falcons' forwards terribly against South Africa. I think the Super Falcons need to work on this aspect of their game ahead of their upcoming matches in the competition.

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