Two powerhouses 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 double-header 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.
 
After the encounter, Modise wept profusely in a chat with The Guardian. “Every time, Nigeria will beat us to the ticket and go out there and fumble at the world stage. We came with a game plan to stop them here in Abuja, but we have missed it again. They (Falcons) should be on the watchout for us in the nearest future.”
 
A visibly relieved Coach Mabo said after the match: “We nearly fell to the trick of the South Africans but God saved us today.”  Between 2004 and now, both teams have met on several occasions with Nigeria having a slight edge over the South Africa.
 
One of such encounters was the semifinal tie at the 2016 African Women Championships in Limbe, Cameroun, where Desire Oparanozie’s lone strike gave the Coach Florence Omagbemi-led Super Falcons the ticket to the final.
 
South Africa has been on the rise recently and have closed the gap on Nigeria, who for decades were the undisputed number one women’s team in Africa.
Nigeria have won nine out of the 12 contested Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles, while South Africa emerged victorious the last two times the teams met.
 
Banyana Banyana are the reigning African champions, having defeated the Super Falcons 2-1 on their way to lifting the title in Morocco two years ago.
In September, 2021, the South Africans came to Lagos and inflicted a 4-2 defeat on the Super Falcons in the final of the Aisha Buhari Invitational Tournament at the newly refurbished Mobolaji Johnson Arena. It was the heaviest defeat the Falcons received from an African team and the first on home soil.
 
The stage is set once again, and the South Africans are boasting of beating the Super Falcons in front of their home crowd today to make the second leg in Pretoria an easy job.
 
But the Super Falcons have vowed not to allow a repeat of what happened in 2021 in Lagos. The Nigerians missed the last three editions of the Olympic Games, and have vowed to cage the boastful Banyana Banyana in today’s encounter at the MKO Abiola Stadium.