Super Falcons and their South African foes, Banyana Banyana believe there is life after their botched campaign for the African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) title in Morocco.
Nigeria was looking for an unprecedented 11th title at the ongoing AWCON, but their campaign was halted in the quarterfinals by Cameroon, while South Africa, who were looking for their second crown, were stopped by hosts, Morocco.
Now for either of the sides to get the consolation of a Brazil 2027 World Cup ticket, that team must win the battle between the duo tomorrow in Casablanca.
The game scheduled for Casablanca is a game the teams see as a must win, but they agree that it would not be easy going their recent history.
Nigeria and South Africa have met four times in the last four years, with the Super Falcons winning three and one ending in a draw. The statistics do not actually paint the true picture as the games have always been closely fought encounters.
Following Nigeria’s ouster from the AWCON on Sunday, Super Falcons Coach, Justine Madugu, vowed to appease Nigerians with the World Cup ticket, assuring that he would correct the poor marksmanship that worked against his team in the last match.
Madugu told espn.com: “We have a second chance and we will give it our all. We do not want to disappoint and go the same way as the men. We’ll do our best to make sure we go through the playoffs.
“I quite understand the pain everyone is going through. We know what it means for all of us and the country. I apologise and take responsibility for that.”
Also sure that the Super Falcons will make it up to Nigerians with a World Cup ticket, star striker Asisat Oshoala appealed for total support from Nigerians. She said: “The only thing I can say right now is that we need their support. The World Cup ticket is at stake, so this is the time when we really need everyone to back the team.”
“We already know the Super Eagles didn’t qualify, so we know what is at stake and how Nigerians feel about this. We are sorry we lost this one, but in the next game, we will put in more effort and try to win.”
To midfielder, Christy Ucheibe, the only way to get the World Cup ticket is to focus entirely on the clash with South Africa and forget the pains of the quarterfinal loss.
She said: “We’re just going to focus on the next game. For the playoffs, we will do our best to ensure that we qualify for the World Cup.
“We are so sorry that we couldn’t defend the title and we want to apologise to everybody. We know this is the first time we are not qualifying for the World Cup directly. We just want to say we are sorry.
“We promise to do our best in the next game for us to be able to qualify for the World Cup in 2027.”
While the Super Falcons say that they are thinking of what would have been, their opponents, the Banyana Banyana are looking for a win that would halt their losing streak to Nigeria.
To achieve that, South Africa’s Lebohang Ramalepe has urged her teammates to be mentally ready for a grueling encounter.
She said: “What is required is mental toughness. As a team, we just need to ask ourselves: what is it that we want?
“If we go into the next match with the mentality of ‘all is lost’…no, we still have a chance, all is not lost,” Ramalepe said.
Veteran defender, Bambanani Mbane, echoed Ramalepe’s views, while urging Bafana Bafana supporters to rally round the team.
She said: “We must go into the game with a positive mentality, believing that we can beat Nigeria.This Nigerian team are not fantastic as they demonstrated in their games so far, so we must play to win.”
The winner of tomorrow’s game will progress to the first phase of the inter-confederation playoffs, which will involve teams from Asia, South America, and Oceania (OFC).
If they survive that stage, they will then qualify for the second and final phase of the inter-confederation playoffs.
