The Journey:
The world went agog a couple weeks ago when the world discovered 3 out of the four teams representing Africa had made it to the second round for the first time in history in the most dramatic ways.
Nigeria, who was in a group dubbed the group of death, opened the tournament with a goalless draw against the Olympic champions Canada, before beating the co-host nation, Australia at home before over 40,000 spectators. Nigeria thereafter secured another goalless draw against the debutants Ireland, getting the desired point needed to qualify.
The Bayana Bayana put on an impressive display in their first match against the European powerhouse — Sweden before losing out to a 90th minute header from Amanda Ilestedt. They regrouped again in the second match and deservedly went two-goals ahead against Argentina, however they lost concentration and allowed Argentina to score two quick goals.
Saving the best for the last, the African champions displayed another mouthwatering performance against Italy, coming back twice to secure a 3–2 win against the Europeans.
Morocco were the wonders of the tournament. After bowing to the Germans in the first match, losing 6–0 to the two-time world cup winners that was looking for another star on their jersey, Morocco secured a narrow 1- 0 win in their second match against South-Korea and needed a win against Colombia, a tough team that had beaten South-Korea and Germany.
Hoping that Germany loses to South-Korea, a miracle happened and Morocco got one; after scoring a rebound from a penalty. They defended with their lives to secure a 1–0 win while South-Korea locked the Germans to a 1–1 draw sealing Morocco’s qualification and the German’s elimination.
The Hurdles:
Despite this impressive display, the African teams faltered in the second round. Morocco could not withstand the French dynamic powerhouse with Les Bleus firing at all cylinders to score three goals in 8 minutes before adding a last one in the second half. Despite conceding an early goal from Jill Roord strike, the current African champions pushed Netherlands to the brink, as the 2018 African player of the year- Thembi Kgatlana was a constant thorn in the heart of the Dutch defence, at least until the South-African made an error in the 69th minute that enabled the Dutch double their lead and guide themselves to a deserved victory, ending the adventures of the Banyana queens who played entertaining football till the last minute.
If anyone had a shot at the quarter-finals, it was the Super Falcons. Yes, they were facing the current European champions, Lionesses who were also one of the tournament’s favorites but despite a faulty WAFCON outing, the group stage performance was enough to boost the morale of African queens. The Super Falcons started on the front foot, as Mary Earps had to save shots from Uchenna Kanu and Ashleigh Plumptre in quick succession before being saved by the crossbar from the English-Nigerian defender.
The Lionesses grew into the game with Rachel Daly getting a shot and Chiamaka Nnadozie being alert to Russo’s raging shot after pouncing on a defensive error from the almost flawless centre-back, Blessing Demehin.
The game was balanced and one of the major highlights was the Super Falcon’s midfielder- Halimatu Ayinde marking out the England playmaker — Lauren James, an act that frustrated Lauren James. This frustration led to a careless stamp on Michelle Alozie, and of course was rewarded with a red card. The Falcons could not take advantage of this number deficit as the Lionesses defense marshalled by Bronze, Greenwood and Bright took pleasure in soaking in the discordant pressure from Falcons while hitting them on the counter. A rodeo that was repeated till penalties, but it was far from over.
When Georgia Stanway lost the opening penalty, it looked like heaven was smiling on Nigeria, but they could not take advantage as both Desire Oparanozie and Mitchell Alozie lost their penalties. Kelly’s record breaking penalty sent the Lionesses to the quarter-finals , condemning Nigeria to another second-round exit.
Going Forward:
Despite the early exits, all the African teams were in the first 16 teams at the World cup power ranking for the participating counties, with Nigeria finishing in the 9th position ahead of powerhouses like Germany, Brazil, Canada who didn’t make it out of the group.
Nigeria also moved up in the official FIFA rankings to 32nd from 40th, maintaining their spot as the highest ranked team in Africa. South-Africa moved 9 spots up from 54th to 45th, while Morocco and Zambia moved 14 spots and 8 spots respectively.
This indicates how much potential there is in Africa and how immensely progressive we could be with the right investments, structures and administration. Most African federations are still plagued with paucity of basic infrastructures, unpaid salaries and more derogatory occurrences like sexual abuse; all these are deterrent to the exponential growth the teams could experience and they have to be combatted if success is to be achieved on global stages.
There has to be a lot of pipeline development, deliberate resource distribution to the local leagues, investment in the CAF women champions league and other catalysts that will enhance the potential of the continuous development of African talents.
All the African teams will focus on the next task which is the Olympic qualifiers. Unlike the world cup, there are only two slots to be picked and it is going to be the battle of the best, but if the world cup performance we just witnessed is a sign of things to come, then Paris should be ready for another exhilarating performances from the African teams.
