Super Falcons Crash As Equatorial Guinea Rules Africa
Staff Writer
By Obi Martins Okafor.
The Super Falcons seem to be acquiring a sour taste. Following their semi-final defeat in the hands of the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, the Kadiri Ikhana female team went down flat in the hands of their familiar rivals, Cameroon, by a lone goal.
The Falcons fell 1-0 to a 31st minute strike by Gaelle Enganamouit to finish their worst-ever AWC in fourth place. The Lionesses outplayed six-time champions Nigeria to avenge a 2-1 defeat in the group stage of the tournament. Cameroon also eliminated Nigeria from the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers. The Falcons are due back in the country on Sunday but the future of Coach Kadiri Ikhana very uncertain.
Elsewhere, Hosts Equatorial Guinea won the 8th African Women Championship. They defeated South Africa 4-0 in the final match played in Bata yesterday. It is the second time that the Equatorial Guineans would win the competition while Nigeria remain the all-time winners with six title under their belt.
This decline must come as a wakeup call for our football administrators, who have failed to capitalize on the strength of our female football and consequently allowed it to decline to such a state of mockery.
This is the time to go back to the drawing board which is very common in the speech of our administrators and tackle the problem from the grass root to the rehabilitation of the female league.