On the 2024 Olympic qualifiers against Nigeria
This week, we are playing against Nigeria in the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers, and these are big matches for Banyana Banyana because we need to qualify for this tournament after winning Wafcon and doing well at the FIFA World Cup last year. My first experience of playing against Nigeria in the Olympic qualifiers was in 2004. The first leg was played at Caledonian Stadium and we drew 2-2, with Portia Modise scoring both goals for us. We went to Nigeria for the second leg, and when we got there, we had food poisoning. We were all sick and the match had to be postponed three times. On the day we were supposed to play, the stadium was packed, but we didn’t show up because we were still in hospital. The situation was bad and there were so many things happening. Nigerian fans thought we were playing mind games with them, but when they came to the hospital, they realised that we were critically, ill especially myself.
I remember Ria Ledwaba (SAFA official at the time) coming to visit me at the hospital to say a few prayers. At that time, I knew that if I didn’t make it, it would have been bad for football. We almost died, but by the grace of God, we survived. Three days later, we went back to the stadium, and we only had a few players who were fully fit to play. Despite that, we had to honour the fixture. We played the match and we lost 1-0 from an offside goal. Fran Hilton-Smith, Portia and all my former teammates can attest that the goal scored by Nigeria was offside. We let them go through to the 2004 Athens Olympics. As a former Banyana Banyana player that played against Nigeria, the current players must know that they need to beat Nigeria this week so that we can heal from what happened in 2004. We owe it to ourselves to beat Nigeria and qualify for the Olympics. We know that we have qualified before, in 2012 London Olympics and 2016 in Rio, but this one is very special because we have already set the trend as the best team on the continent. I want us to heal our wounds from what happened in 2004. Some of us who went to Nigeria and spent days in hospital fighting for our lives need to move on from that experience. As a former player, I take women’s football very seriously and every competition they play, I support Banyana Banyana. They need to represent us well and I know this Banyana team will do well this week. Everything they do, I support them, and this means a lot to us South Africans. Banyana Banyana are trendsetters in African football. We need to qualify for this tournament, and we have the talent to do the job. Coach Desiree Ellis knows what is at stake. We need to qualify so that we can erase what happened 20 years ago.
