Sports Revelation Online ..breaking authenic sports reports
From Harry Awurumibe in Rabat
Nigeria’s senior women’s football team Super Falcons are just one match away from making history as the champions of Africa for the 10th time in the history of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) if they beat host country Morocco in the epic final of WAFCON 2024 today at Olympic Stadium Rabat, Morocco.
This is even as the team’s new head coach, Justin Madugu, is 90 minutes (or at most 120 minutes) away from creating his own story should the Super Falcons defeat the Atlas Lionesses to lift the coveted WAFCON 2024 trophy in Rabat on Saturday night.
Nigeria’s Super Falcons, the most successful women’s national team in Africa, have won the WAFCON trophy for a record nine times, and a 10th title will seal the country’s place as the elite team in the anal of women’s football history in Africa dating back to 1991 when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) sanctioned organised women’s football in the continent.
Twice, the Nigerian team was the sole representative of Africa in the first and second FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in 1991 and 1995 in China and Sweden, just as the country’s respectable 3-3 draw with Canada in the 1995 edition forced FIFA to increase Africa’s representatives to two ahead of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in United States of America (USA) where Nigeria reached the quarter-finals stage before the now suspended Golden Goal rule helped Brazil knock out Nigeria. Ghana was the second African team in the competition in 1999.
Nigeria announced her arrival at the world stage by recording two big victories in the group stage over North Korea and Denmark, results that encouraged FIFA to increase Africa’s slots in the subsequent FIFA Women’s World Cup finals.
Without doubts, Nigeria has bestrode African women’s football turf like a colossus and has won the WAFCON titles for a record-extending nine times, a feat that will take other countries in Africa a very long time to achieve even as the team has won the coveted trophy back to back more than once.
But it has been seven years since the Super Falcons last won the WAFCON title, and it was in 2018 in Ghana under the guidance of Sweden-born former head coach Thomas Lenhart Dennerby, who achieved that feat within a short period of 18 months on the job.
Meanwhile, his successor and United States-born Randy Waldrum, who had a cat and mouse relationship with his employers the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) lost the trophy in the last edition also held in Morocco in 2022, where Nigeria lost three matches in a tournament for the first time.
Now, Nigeria under a new gaffer, Madugu wants to reclaim the title that slipped out of her hands in 2022 under Waldrum’s team after the team lost to South Africa 2-1 in the group match; Morocco 4-5 on penalties and 1-0 defeat by Zambia in the 3rd place match respectively.
Interestingly, NFF has tagged the Super Falcons quest to win the 10th title in the 13th edition of WAFCON a Mission X, mandating the team to win the coveted trophy without any excuses. For this reason, the Super Falcons will take the battle to the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco today from the blast of the whistle as they intend to give no inches or allow room for error in tonight’s clash of two heavyweights in Rabat.
The encounter with the hosts Morocco guarantees a full house at the magnificent Olympic Stadium in Rabat, where the King of Morocco lives, but the Super Falcons will be in no mood to be brow-beat or shouted out of sync as they fight to notch up their superlative numbers, including picking up a record-extending 10th continental title.
The Super Falcons are determined to cross this one more hurdle as captain Rasheedat Ajibade who is firmly on track for the Player of the Tournament Award, having won Woman of the Match Award thrice in five matches, and forward Chinwendu Ihezuo who is also in contention for the Top Scorer’s Award with her three earlier goals, one behind Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak, will play the game of their lives today to lead Nigeria to victory over Morocco.
However, both teams boast of title-loving veterans and ambitious young blood, and there is no dearth of motivation or encouragement from both the Nigerian and Moroccan governments, and by extension, the football federation of both nations as well as the football fraternity.
Nevertheless, like most championship games of this nature, the match may be decided from the bench and this is where both Nigeria-born coach Madugu and Morocco’s Spanish coach Jorge Vidal will be tested today.
Vidal led his country to win the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand two years ago, and there is hardly a bigger line that can be included in a coach’s resume than a World Cup triumph.
He has led the Atlas Lionesses with a firm hand and injected pace and purpose into their game, and they appear even stronger than the team that defeated nine-woman Super Falcons after a penalty shootout in a semi final match in Casablanca three years ago.
Yet, the attention of pundits across the globe has been drawn to the person of coach Justin Madugu, previously seen only as assistant at major competitions, who is now dictating the pace of things at Africa’s flagship women competition.
Madugu has brought to enduring reality the tactical philosophy of ‘take it one game at a time’, playing to his team’s strength in each game, and despite loads of cynicism about his capabilities before the commencement of the tournament, four of his five opponents (bar the Lady Fennecs of Algeria who played the Super Falcons when the nine-time champions had already secured passage to the knockout stages) have left for the dressing room with bleary eyes.
Surely, he will play to his strength in this final match as well, meaning that all calculations, expectations, and projections of the opposition will be neutralised and rendered ineffective with his own superior tactical acumen.
Madugu has done well for himself so far as Super Falcons under him have played a total of 11 Grade A matches, including international friendlies, won eight, drew two and lost only one away to Les Bleues of France at Angers on November 30, 2024, barely a month of his temporary appointment.
He will be putting the cherry on the cake if he outsmarts Vidal today in Rabat as he has done to other high-profile coaches like Dr. Desiree Ellis of South Africa, Nora Häuptle of Zambia, who are still wondering what hit them when they played against Nigeria in the semi-final and quarter-final matches at Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca recently.
Already, CAF on Thursday, appointed a Namibian official Antsino Twanyanyukwa to be the Centre Referee for Saturday night’s potentially-explosive encounter which is attracting a lot of interest and a record worldwide television viewership because of the two finalists Nigeria and Morocco.
But if past records are anything to rely upon, Atlas Lionesses have no chance against the Super Falcons as history has it that except the fluke 5-4 penalties defeat of Nigeria in WAFCON 2022, any match between Nigeria and Morocco has ended in hammering of the Atlas Lionesses with the 8-0 mauling of the Moroccans in the opening match of the 1st WAFCON at Ranchers Bees stadium in Kaduna, Nigeria in October 17, 1998.
African legends Nkiru Doris Okosieme, daughter of former Green Eagles great Cyril Okosieme and sister to ex-Super Eagles winger Ndubuisi Okosieme, scored a brace in the historic match as forwards Patience Avre and Rita Nwadike weighed in with a brace each too while Mercy Akide and Florence Omagbemi scored one each.
Two years later, at the second edition hosted by South Africa, the Falcons again whipped the Atlas Lionesses, this time 6-0, with a brace each by the fabulous Mercy Akide and Kikelomo Ajayi, and one each Maureen Madu and Nwadike.
However, times have changed and today, Madugu and Vidal will lead their teams to once again fight for not only for the trophy at stake but the One Million Dollars Prize Money and bragging rights of the Best Women’s Football Team in Africa.
Let the Game Start.