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The Super Falcons, high on confidence, flew into the country at lunchtime with a strong 45-member delegation and declared they were here on a mission to seal their place at the 2013 finals in Equatorial Guinea.
There have been rare meetings in the qualifying stages of this competition between the Mighty Warriors and the Super Falcons with their clashes often confined to the All-Africa Games tournaments and the 2004 edition of the African Nations Cup.
But tomorrow Rose Mugadza’s charges come face-to-face with the continental giants in a match in which the Mighty Warriors would have to look beyond the Super Falcons status and avoid being intimidated by the West Africans’ previous achievements.
The Super Falcons have also been to the World Cup finals on a regular basis.
But as Mighty Warriors technical advisor Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe has been stressing all week, “this a new game altogether” and the hosts would just have to draw inspiration from the Biblical David who slew Goliath.
The continent’s best men’s team Cote d’Ivoire with a galaxy of stars led by Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure were also odds on favourite to lift the African Cup of Nations but it was little Zambia who ran away with the title in the final in Gabon in February.
Now the Mighty Warriors believe they can also cause one of the biggest upsets of the women’s game with a victory at Rufaro tomorrow.
But the Nigerians led by Swedish-based veteran Perpetua Nkwocha appear to be already looking beyond the Zimbabweans if the confidence they showed at the Harare International Airport yesterday is anything to go by.
Nkwocha, a four-time Confederation of African Football Player of the Year is one of two players together with Gloria Ofoegbu who ply their trade in Sweden in a star-studded outfit.
The Super Falcons veteran also spoke about tomorrow’s showdown with the Mighty Warriors.
She said although she has played the Mighty Warriors opposition before, she did not know much about the current squad and was here to atone for the disappointment of failing to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics Games.
“We are here to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations. We failed to qualify for the Olympics and this game is very important to us. Zimbabwe is not a weak side as all African teams are improving,” said Nkwocha.
Her coach Ikhana Kadiri, with 32 years coaching experience said although he had spent much of his three decades in charge of men’s teams including former African champions Enyimba, he was confident of his team arguing that “football is the same whether it is men’s or women’s.
“The match means a lot, it’s a two-legged match and will determine which team qualifies for the Africa Cup of Nations and is very important.
“I am new in the job but not new in coaching where I have coached for 32 years and there is nothing different coaching men and women’s football. I have brought three foreign-based players and two of them play in Sweden and one in Turkey. Everybody wants to win and achieve success and Perpetua is happy to be playing for her country again.
“We respect Zimbabwe very much they have been playing for some time now but at the same time we have come here to win and we don’t want anything beyond that and maintain prestige.
“In football there is nothing like underdogs and we have just come to get our three points. We believe Zimbabwe have been in women’s football for a long time now and they are improving and if they continue like this they will become big,” said Kadiri.
Online Reporter