AWC disaster: Weep not for Super Falcons By KAYODE KETEFE It has often been said that from the highest to the lowest, there is but a step. This is the aphorism that immediately came to this writer's mind the moment the female national team, Super Falcons, was consigned to the fourth position in the just concluded African Women Championship, after losing to Lionesses of Cameroon. The Nigerian side came into the competition as the defending champions and hot favourite to retain the title. The Super Falcons had won the six out of the past seven African titles before the Equatorial Guinea 2012 debacle. Imagine the hitherto all-conquering Super Falcons finishing the fourth best team in Africa! Well, to soccer pundits, the plight of the Nigerian female side might not be a sudden step into soccer infamy as it first appeared. A number of telltale signs had offered an inauspicious prescience that the days of Nigerian domination of African women soccer were numbered. The first jolt into reality of our waning fortune came in 2008 at the sixth edition of the AWC, incidentally hosted by the same Equatorial Guinea, where we managed what we then regarded as a shocking third place, having succumbed to the host by 1-0 defeat at the semi-final. It was reckoned that defeat was just a one-off aberration that would not threaten our unassailable status. The confidence was promptly returned when we reclaimed the golden cup two years later from "megalomaniac" E/Guinea as we beat them 4-2 at the final of 2010 AWC hosted by South Africa. That assuaged our feelings and restored our pride. Shortly after, we went to Women World Cup, Germany 2011, where it appeared we were just there to make up the number. We shrugged off that disappointment as inconsequential, after all we were still the undisputable African Champions, Let the country like USA, Germany, and Japan etc be calling the shots at the global level. We would hold sway over African territory. We kept the complacent, non-challant attitude and did nothing about domestic female league that had collapsed for lack of sponsors. We still believed we were the Numero Uno in women football on the continent. Then, another disaster struck, Ghana Black Queens prevented the Super Falcons from qualifying for All-Africa Games in 2011. That was a shocker which we also glossed over; we reckoned we would redeem our pride when the "real" chips were down. Yet, another setback occurred when the Lionesses of Cameroun dealt to us a fresh mortal blow. They knocked us out of qualification for London Summer Olympic! That was too much, the incensed Nigerian Football Federation responded promptly with its customary medicine-after-death methodology by sacking the Falcons coach, Uche Eucharia and appointed the veteran, Kadidri Ikhana, in her place. With Ikhana in charge, the AWC 2012 came and the bubble finally burst. The truth we had hitherto refused to face dawned on us. We suffered a loss to Banyana Banyana of South Africa at the semi-final and lost even the face-saving third place match to Lionesses of Cameroun! We were at last forced to eat the humble pie and admit our team is no longer among the best three in Africa. Goodbye, at least for now, to our Africa women soccer suzerainty. While it is true that we cannot realistically hope to win forever and that other African nations should be expected to catch up with us sooner or later, yet the gradual decline chronicled above should have been arrested earlier with strategic planning if we are a serious nation. Anybody that watched the final match between the newly -crowned African Champions, Equatorial Guinea and the South Africa which the former won 4-0 would most probably come to the conclusion that our defeat by the South Africa in the semi-final was indeed, a blessing in disguise. It saved us a possible ignominious rout from the new masters of the game, Equatorial Guinea. The mentality of the Nigerian players vis-a-viz their South African counterparts on the eve of the semi final match is also instructive here. One of the Super Falcons players was quoted on a radio interview to have said "South Africans are our wives, we will always beat them!" whereas a veteran Banyana Banyana midfielder, Portia Modise, said "We are so keen to get the win over Nigeria and give South African football fans lots to be proud of as the win will allow our team to make the final." Which team would you say possessed serious attitude, the winning mentality and focus to triumph? But there is still hope to return to the top, the performance of the younger generations of footballers, the U-17 team national team tagged Flamingoes and the U-20 team, Falconets, at recent global championship have been inspiring. The Falconets reached (at least) the semi-finals of the last two U-20 World Cups while Flamingoes reached the quarter finals of the last two U-17 World Cups. This, fortunately, offers the hope that if we harness the potentials of the young footballers and put in place efficient soccer management which has been our bane, we will not only return to the zenith of African women football, we would also belong to the elite category at the global stage. |
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