Echoes from the past as Nigeria faces African champion again

Tpowerhouses in Africa’s women’s football, the Super Falcons of Nigeria and Banyana Banyana of South Africa will clash today in the first leg of the doubleheader qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics Games in what appears another chapter in their long- standing rivalry.

20 years ago, the two teams were involved in the battle for the ticket to the Athens 2004 Olympics Games. Then, Africa had just one ticket allocated to women’s football. The Super Falcons, led then by the duo of Coach Ismaila Mabo and Dan Evumena ( both late), were able to secure a valuable draw in the first leg played in Johannesburg.

As expected, the build- up to the second leg at the Abuja Stadium, which was barely one year old, was massive.

The Banyana Banyana, led then by their flamboyant captain, Portia Modise, stormed Abuja telling everyone that the ticket was theirs. To show their readiness for the battle, the South Africans picked one of the biggest hotels as their base camp. After three days in the hotel, and with 24 hours to the big tie, officials of Banyana Banyana pressed the alarm bell, alleging that seven of their players were involved in food poisoning.

It became a major issue, which attracted the attention of world football governing body, FIFA and in less than six hours, a directive came from FIFA’S headquarters in Zurich that the match be moved from its original Saturday to Tuesday to allow the ‘ seven’ players recover. Tuesday came, and the South Africans said they were not ready, claiming that their players had not fully recovered. The game was moved to Thursday.

While the drama was playing out, players and officials of the Super Falcons were busy celebrating victory ahead. To them, the South African team was already depleted, and as such, the match would be a ‘ walkover’ for Nigeria.

However, when the encounter eventually began, the South African players, who were alleged to have been involved in food poisoning, turned the Super Falcons to training materials, dictating the pace around the pitch.

If ball possession was all a team needed to seal victory, the South Africans would have picked the ticket even in the first half of the match.

Coach Mabo and Evumena had to dig deep in their armoury in the second half to find a way for the Falcons to get the lone goal that secured their passage to Athens 2004 Olympics.