DAILY TRUST
Without a doubt, most Nigerian football fans are apprehensive as the Super Falcons go to the battlefield again against the Banyana Banyana of South Africa on Tuesday in Pretoria with the hope of breaking the Olympics jinx. It is now an open secret that the best two female football teams in Africa are locked in a fierce contest for one of the two tickets to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. Having navigated the other stages of the qualifiers, the two giants have come face to face in a two-legged playoff which began last Friday in Abuja.
Unfortunately, the Super Falcons who used to be a dominant force in Africa are presently walking a tight rope because the result they managed to grind out in the first leg of the playoff of the Paris 2024 qualifiers at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja isn’t good enough.
Although the Banyana Banyana have considerably closed the gap on the Super Falcons, many Nigerians still believed that the former African champions would get a decent result to make the return leg a formality. However, when it mattered most, the Super Falcons struggled to a one nil victory which came from the spot.
To make matters worse, the Falcons weren’t super as they literally handed over the second half of the match to their opponents. They were lucky to escape with the maximum points. This explains why the Banyana Banyana are still exuding so much confidence. They are now banking on home advantage to get back their pound of flesh.
Well, the Super Falcons know what is at stake. Having failed three times consecutively to qualify for the Olympics, the nine-time African champions need nobody to tell them that the battle of Pretoria is a must-win. It is on record that after three appearances at the Olympics at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, they have failed to reach the next three editions which is London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. This means for 16 years, Nigeria has not featured in the women’s football event at the world’s biggest games and this is definitely a sad commentary on the powerhouse of African football.
