By Harry Awurumibe
Never in the history of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup has an African country made a podium finish nor played in the semi-final stage not to talk of the prestigious final.
The best finish for an African nation was the quarter-final performance of Nigeria in the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup in United States of America (USA) when the better forgotten “Golden Goal” ensured that Brazil rather than Nigeria qualified for the semi-final.
The knockout stage of the 1999 Women’s World Cup consisted of three single-elimination rounds leading to a final and a third-place playoff. Following a tie in regulation time, two 15-minute periods of extra time would was used to determine a winner.
For the first time in Women’s World Cup history, the Golden Goal was used during extra time to instantly decide the winner in sudden death and it was Nigeria that fell victim of it for the first time in the freezing night at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Landover in Washington DC.
The epic quater-final match on July 1, 1999 was full of drama with Nigeria surviving Brazil’s early blitz to bounce back from three goals down to level scores at 3-3 to drag the tie to extra time, thanks to the spirited efforts of the Super Falcons trio of defenders Prisca Emeafu, midfielder Nkiru Okosieme and forward Nkechi Egbe’s goals.
In the 63′, 72′ and 85′ respectively. Brazil’s striker, Cidinha scored twice in the first 22′ of the match and was joined by forward Nenê in the 35′ to give Brazil a 3–0 lead at half-time but Nigeria had to substituted goalkeeper, Ann Agumanu-Chiejine for Judith Chime aka Kamala and they began pressing Brazil early in the second half.
The Super Falcons however scored their first goal in the 63rd minute, Emeafu taking advantage of a defensive mistake, and added a second through Okosieme’s shot off a rebound in the 72nd minute while Egbe scored the equalizing goal for Nigeria in the 85th minute with a far-post strike from 14 yards (13 m).
The goal forced sudden death extra time, which Nigeria would play with only 10 players after forward Patience Avre was ejected by referee Virginia Tovar of Mexico in the 87th minute for receiving a second yellow card.
Sadly, Brazilian midfielder Sissi, who had assisted two of the first-half goals, scored the golden goal from 22 yards (20 m) in the 104th minute to win the match 4-3 for Brazil with half of the 54,642 fans at the stadium rooting for Nigeria.
Nigeria’s feat made the country one of the top seven quarter-finalists which also qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics alongside hosts Australia, who were eliminated in the group stage.
Since that third edition of the women’s mundial, neither Nigeria nor other African countries that have represented the continent in the Women’s World Cup final, have reached the quarter-final stage.
Also, the performance of three African representatives in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France was notting to write home about, although both Nigeria and Cameroon managed to reach the Round of 16 where they suffered humiliating defeats to crash out while South Africa did not fair better as the Banyana Banyana lost all three matches in the group and headed home without a point.
With the expanded field, FIFA has allocated four slots to African continent with Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa and Zambia representing the continental football governing body, the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
A closer look at the capacity of an African team to mount a podium challenge in Australia and New Zealand revealed that it will be an uphill task for the African teams reach the quarter-finals if they make it to the Round of 16.
This is because all the four African representatives are drawn in difficult groups, at least on paper and will have to fight like never before at the world stage to navigate their way through to the Round of 16 first before thinking of going further in the competition in Down Under.
Nigeria, the brightest prospect of an African team to make impact in Australia and New Zealand will however compete in tough Group B with co-host Australia; reigning Olympic champions Canada and Republic of Ireland, a situation which makes it very important for the nine-time African champions not to be complacent till all three group matches are played.
For Zambia making her debute in Australia and New Zealand, it will be a tall order to get out of Group C comprising former World Cup winners Japan and emerging European powerhouse Spain as well as North Americans Costa Rica. It will be hard for Zambia to progress further after three group matches.
South Africa has a mountain to climb when the Rainbow Nation confronts Sweden, Italy and Argentina in Group G. The reigning African champions will try to avoid the repeat of four years ago in France where they did not win a single match.
In Group H, two-time World Cup champions Germany will certainly dominate South Korea and Colombia hence Morocco, another African debutant at the mundial has no chance on paper to make it to the Round of 16 from this tough group.
The above pairings showed that African teams will have to rely on mother luck than tactics to come out of their groups especially as only two teams will make it out of the eight groups A to H to make up the Round of 16.
It does not require a soothsayer to predict that Canada and Australia have better chances to qualify from Nigeria’s Group B while Japan and Spain will dominate Group C at the expense of Zambia.
In this vein, Sweden, Italy or Argentina have better opportunities to qualify from Group G than South Africa while Germany and South Korea or Colombia will make it to the Round of 16 from Group H at the expense of Morocco.
But, as an African and die-hard women’s football aficionado, I will want the four African representatives to prove my predictions wrong and create history in Australia and New Zealand the same way the Atlas Lions of Morocco did in the FIFA World Cup final Qatar 2022.
In Qatar, Morocco stunned the world and surprised themselves by going all the way and only losing in the semi-final stage and also to Croatia in the 3rd-place match to finish 4th in the world.
Can Nigeria’s Super Falcons under the American gaffer Randy Waldrum; Zambia’s
Copper Queens managed by Bruce Mwape; Banyana Banyana of South Africa led by Desiree Ellis and Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses handled by coach Reynald Pedros drive the four African representatives to do better than the 1999 quarter-final performance of Nigeria under veteran coach Ismaila Mabo who died earlier in the year in his Jos home.
The next few days will show if African teams will rise up to the occasion in Down Under.
* Awurumibe is women’s football aficionado
