Daily Independent (Lagos)
25 November 2008
Super Falcons' hope of a sixth African Women Championship (AWC) victory in a row crashed on Tuesday as the team suffered an embarrassing 0-1 defeat in the hands of the host team, Equatorial Guinea in the ongoing Championship.
Nigeria, before the match, has threatened not to honour the encounter because of Confederation of African Football (CAF) refusal to conduct a gender test on two Equatorial Guinea players.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has protested to CAF on Monday asking the continental body to conduct the test because it felt two Equatorial Guinea players', Binguisa Simpore and Salimata Simpore, gender were doubtful.
CAF, however, deferred ruling on the matter till next month when the body executive body meets.
Falcons confirmed the fears of all and sundry that retaining the trophy will be impossible as it lost on Tuesday.
A well taken free kick from the left flank by captain Anonma Genoveva in the 58th minute of play, which keeper Precious Dede had no answer was enough to send the host country to its first ever final of the tournament.
From the reaction of spectators, particularly the indigenes, the goal was the tonic to send them to wild celebration and silence some critics that women football was the birthright of Nigeria.
In spite of the defeat, it was Falcons best performance of the tournament and a balanced game, which came alive in the second half.
For Nzalang Nacional beating the African champions was a dream come true, evident from the tears that freely flowed from the eyes of captain Genovea, who best summed it up as a dream come true.
"Nigeria is a big country filled with experienced players. But for this tournament, we prepared extremely hard and I am happy it is coming in my time," she said in the post match conference.
All over capital Malabo, it was jubilation galore that must have continued to the early hours of this morning.
For the Super Falcons, it was a sad way to end the campaign, but a wake up call for the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to reorganise women football for the future.
For the Nigerian team, it has the third place match to redeem its lost image even though it had its eyes set on retaining the trophy it won two years ago. It would meet the winner of the South Africa versus Cameroon match on Friday that was still going on as at press time.
In his response, Chief coach Joseph Ladipo aka Jossy Lad, did not blame his girls, saying it was a game that had been won and lost.
"Everybody saw what happened on the pitch. We lost and that is what I can say even though I must commend our opponents," he said.
For the records, Falcons has won the championship five times and have only suffered two defeats right from 1998, when the tournament was founded by the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) to promote women football.
The first country to defeat Nigeria was Ghana at the 2002 edition.
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