By 

Eniola Olatunji

The “Jollof war” between Nigeria and Ghana will be ignited Thursday when Defending Champions, Falconets of Nigeria file out against the Black Princesses of Ghana in the finals of the 13th All African Games female football at the Cape Coast Stadium in Ghana at 9pm Nigerian time.

Nigeria is chasing the title for the fourth time having won the maiden one in 2003; 2007 and August 2019 in Morocco. Cameroon had beaten Ghana 1-0 in 2011 finals; but Ghana took the title only once beating Cameroon in a revenge melee in 2015.

That 2019 Nigeria had walloped Algeria 3-0 in the semifinals; Morocco lost the other semifinal to Cameroon 1-3 before clinching the Bronze with a 2-1 win over Algeria and after a pulsating 0-0 AET Nigeria beat Cameroon 3-2 on penalties for their 3rd title. 

Ghana piped Ethiopia by a lone goal; beat Tanzania 2-1; drew 1-1 with Uganda at the group stage before dazing the Senegalese babes 3-1 in the semifinal.

Nigeria surprised Morocco 2-0 and then slammed Senegal 4-0 with Egypt now known for several tournament withdrawals at the age group missing out before Nigeria outplayed Ugandan babes with two second half goals in the semifinals.

Although the 3rd place match will be decided at the same venue at 5pm Nigerian time the focus is the finals as the Nigeria Ghana rivalry in sports deepens along with which country has the best Jollof Rice which is an African food delicacy making global attention.

The credentials of the Falconets in football actually make Ghana look like minnows of the game. Nigeria had played their first International game on 7th April 2002 slaughtering Mali 6-0; their biggest win was against Sierra Leone 10-0 in a match played in Nigeria in 2014 though Nigeria bowed to the high tech Japanese football 0-6 in New Guinea on 13th November 2016.

Wikipedia informed that Nigeria appeared at the African U20 world cup finals 10 times and won all the 10 times in 2002; 2004; 2006; 2008; 2010; 2012; 2014; 2015; 2018 and 2022.

Nigeria qualified for every edition of FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup but were only runners-up twice losing each time to Germany in 2010 and 2014.

It could not be confirmed from records the actuality of Ghana’s adventures as the team appeared five times at an advanced stage of the African world cup qualifying stage but I can confirm that Ghana U20 women went six times to the U20 women’s world cup finals but were ousted each time at the group stages.

Nigeria’s highly technical Coach, Chris Danjuma had warned that home advantage will not intimidate his wards who scored 8 goals from 3 matches conceding no goal at all or with three clean sheets meaning that the Falconets defence is super but it took football skills reading to bring in two substitutes who gave 2-0 victory against Uganda in the semifinal. Danjuma quickly said his players will fire like a soldier from the waist and from all angles contrary to their game against Uganda.

Ghana scored 7 goals and conceded 3 goals from 4 matches played with the 1-0 victory over Ethiopia as their clean sheet meaning the Ghanaian defence may run over time shift to hold Nigeria at the finals. Will Ghana emerge the only team to score against Nigeria at the finals?