{"id":69894,"date":"2025-07-07T14:50:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=69894"},"modified":"2025-07-07T14:50:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:50:27","slug":"wafcon-2024-oparanozie-flags-super-falcons-defensive-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/07\/wafcon-2024-oparanozie-flags-super-falcons-defensive-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"WAFCON 2024: Oparanozie Flags Super Falcons\u2019 Defensive Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Njoku Chijioke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former Super Falcons captain Desire Oparanozie has raised concerns about the team\u2019s defensive lapses ahead of the 2024 Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), warning it could derail their title ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Oparanozie, reflecting on recent performances, said the team\u2019s lack of defensive cohesion is troubling. \u201cThe Super Falcons have been leaking goals, and this could be a major issue for them in the tournament,\u201d she noted, urging better organization and communication at the back.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcons, aiming for a record-extending 10th WAFCON title, are grouped with Tunisia, Botswana, and Algeria.<\/p>\n<p>Oparanozie\u2019s warning highlights the urgency to shore up the defense before facing tougher opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Justine Madugu has acknowledged the challenge but remains optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>The team faces Botswana next, and a win could boost their chances of advancing to the knockout stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Njoku Chijioke Former Super Falcons captain Desire Oparanozie has raised concerns about the team\u2019s defensive lapses ahead of the 2024 Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), warning it could derail their title ambitions. Oparanozie, reflecting on recent performances, said the team\u2019s lack of defensive cohesion is troubling. \u201cThe Super Falcons have been leaking goals, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":69895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69896,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69894\/revisions\/69896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}