Banyana’s Olympic hopes may rest again on Nigeria

SOUTH African football is again on a collision course with Nigeria.

In the recent Africa Cup of Nations, Bafana Bafana lost 4-2 to the Nigerians in a penalty shoot-out when the semifinal ended 1-1 after extra time.

Now Banyana Banyana could come up against the west African nation to decide their fate in trying to qualify for this year’s Paris Olympics.

Banyana continue their journey this afternoon, when they take on Tanzania in Dar es Salaam in the first leg of the third round of the African qualification tournament.

The second leg will be held next Tuesday in Mbombela, and if they get through these fixtures, they will go into the fourth and final round, where they will face the winner of Cameroon v Nigeria in early April.

There are only 12 countries who can qualify for the Paris Olympic women’s soccer competition, and Africa have two of those berths.

Banyana coach Desiree Ellis and her team brought great joy to Mzansi with their extraordinary performances in last year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Having lost to Sweden in their opening match, they drew 2-2 with Argentina and then beat Italy 3-2, thereby becoming the first-ever South African senior football side to advance to the knockout stages of a World Cup – with Bafana having failed to do so in 1998, 2002 and then 2010 on home soil.

While Banyana went down 2-0 to the Netherlands in their last-16 encounter in Sydney, they had become the pride and joy of South African football.

Now they are trying to make up for missing out on qualification for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by going through to Paris 2024 – having featured in the 2012 and 2016 Games.

Coach Ellis has picked a strong squad for the two Tanzania encounters, including overseas-based stars such as Thembi Kgatlana, Jermaine Seoposenwe and Hildah Magaia, and will hope that they can make it through to the decider against either Cameroon or Nigeria.

Banyana will surely hope it’s the latter, given what happened with Bafana at the Afcon earlier this year.

Let’s hope if that is the case, Banyana can then get one back over Nigeria and compete at the Paris Olympics in July and August.