Paris 2024: Super Falcons Condemned to Win against Japan Tonight

Femi Solaja

Against two consecutive defeats at the ongoing Women’s Football Tournament of the Olympic Games, the Super Falcons are condemned to win to be mathematically sure of qualification into the event’s next round.

The Nigerian team had suffered two narrow defeats first against Brazil in the opening match, followed by another lone-goal loss to World Champions, Spain on Sunday.

However, reports from the camp of the Falcons last night paint the picture of players who believe they can do the needful by beating Japan in commanding fashion at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes this evening to earn a place in the quarter-finals, albeit as one of the two best third-placed teams heading into that stage.

Japan fell hard to the Super Falcons in a Women’s Olympic Football Tournament match in Piraeus, Greece in 2004, when Vera Okolo’s strike was the only goal of the match and earned Nigeria all three points.

That win, which also handed the Super Falcons their only quarter-final berth at the tournament so far, is also the only victory the nine-time African champions have celebrated at the Olympics since they started participating 24 years ago.

“Victory over Japan is possible. We will work hard so that we can accomplish that. The Super Falcons have done it before and we can do it again,” said captain Rasheedat Ajibade.

Ajibade, Asisat Oshoala and Chinwendu Ihezuo had gilt-edged opportunities to become only Nigeria’s fourth-ever scorer at the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament, but none was able to utilize the chances that came their way in the game against world champions Spain on Sunday.

Mercy Akide-Udoh, the elegant forward who is now FIFA’s Goodwill Ambassador for Women’s Football, is the run-away top scorer for Nigeria with four goals. She netted two at the Sydney Olympics, in the 1-3 losses to Norway (in Canberra) and the USA (in Melbourne). She also scored twice in Athens four years later, in the 1-2 defeats to Sweden and Germany.

Four-time African Player of the Year Perpetua Nkwocha trails with two goals, scored in the 1-3 defeat by China in Canberra in 2000 and the 1-3 loss to Brazil in Beijing eight years later.