SIXTH TIME LUCKY
Banyana Banyana lost the first five Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals they played in prior to finally lifting the trophy in 2022.
1995 Nigeria 4-1 South Africa (first leg) South Africa 1-7 Nigeria (second leg)
This was the first competition that Banyana entered after readmission to international football and it proved a chastening experience in the final. In those days the championship was a knockout spread over six months with two legged ties, rather than the single tournament we have today, and Banyana ousted Zambia and Angola before moving onto the final against the Super Falcons, where they were truly humbled 11-2 on aggregate.
This was essentially a qualifier for the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where African had just one entrant.
2000 South Africa 0-2 Nigeria Match abandoned on 75 minutes
Banyana were back in the final five years later in a tournament they hosted, with the decider played in Vosloorus. Once again they came up against the Super Falcons and while the defeat was not as heavy as the previous time, it was still reasonably comprehensive with the game ended in embarrassing fashion as rioting South African fans forcing its abandonment on 75 minutes. Nigeria were rightly declared the winners as the scoreline at the time of the disruption stood.
Current Banyana coach Des Ellis played in this game, as well as both legs of the 1995 final.
2008 Equatorial Guinea 2-1 South Africa
It took eight years for Banyana to return to the final as this time they come up against hosts Equatorial Guinea and there host questionably legalised Brazilian, Spanish and Cameroonian players.
Very few had any real ties to Equatorial Guinea but that didn’t matter to the football association, who were only interested in flooding their squad with players who could not but it in their own national teams.
On top of that controversy, Equatorial
Guinea also naturalised Bilguissa and Salimata Simporé ahead of the 2008 Wafcon tournament, two Burkina Faso-born sisters who were superb in the competition.
They were later dropped by Italian-born Brazilian coach Marcelo Frigerio when he took over as he told media back home they were actually men. Banyana fell behind in the final before Noko Matlou, then playing as a striker, equalised. But Genoveva Añonman scored the winner midway through the second half.
2012 Equatorial Guinea 4-0 South Africa
Four years on, same country, same opponent, same result, though this time the loss was a little more emphatic. Only four of the squad of 21 players that Equatorial Guinea had at this tournament were born in the country. It was a farce that CAF allowed to carry on too long without punishment, but the side were later banned from competing in qualifiers for the 2012 and 2020
Olympics, and the 2019 Women’s World Cup, once FIFA did the job CAF would not do.
It did not help South Africa at the time as they were well and truly crushed by the ‘United Nations’ side in the final. Just last year the side were humbled 9-0 by Nigeria, and 5-0 by Tunisia in February this year, which shows how they artificially increased their strength.
2018 Nigeria 0-0 South Africa Nigeria won 4-3 on pens
The closest Banyana previously came to the gold medal was at the 2018 tournament as they held Nigeria to a goalless draw in the final but then lost the shootout.
They had beaten the Super Falcons 1-0 in the pool stages but looked shattered once they made the decider, and could not summon the energy to win again. A shoot-out is always a lottery and Lebo Ramalepe and Linda Motlhalo were the unlucky players to miss in the decider.