Down to the wire, by Patrick Omorodion

The Bible tells us in Luke 21:19 that “By your endurance you will win your lives”. It explains the importance of perseverance and enduring spirit in overcoming life’s challenges.

When you are faced with life’s challenges and you decide to face the challenge headlong without chickening out, you are bound to succeed.

It may be this belief that inspired Justin Bieber, a Canadian singer to write the song ‘Never say never’.

A few lines of the song goes thus: See, I never thought that I could walk through fire, I never thought that I could take the burn, I never had the strength to take it higher, until I reached the point of no return.

This is the situation with the Super Eagles whose matches in the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers have been wobbly and heartbreaking.

This is the same team that qualified for the 2018 World Cup with a match to spare. Two editions later, their qualification is not guaranteed until the last matches of the group which ends in two days.

Last Friday they went to Polokwane in South Africa, the new ‘home’ of Lesotho for Matchday 9 of the qualifiers with most Nigerians, including this writer, never believing that South Africa will drop any point after they suffered three points deduction for fielding an ineligible player to give the Super Eagles any glimmer of hope to sail through.

At the same time, Bafana Bafana, were playing a supposedly away match against Zimbabwe, who like Lesotho, were ‘banished’ from their country due to poor stadia, at home in Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.

The South Africans who are still seething over the points deduction that brought them back from 17 points to 14, were already counting their chicks even before the remaining two eggs (qualifiers) were hatched.

Why wouldn’t they? Of course they were meeting the whipping boys of the group, the spineless Warriors of Zimbabwe, whose spears were too blunt to cause any damage to The Boys The Boys, the Zulu interpretation of Bafana Bafana.

They had beaten the same Zimbabwean team 3-1 when they hosted them in June, 2024. So they thought the three points were already in their kitty.

The Warriors were already down and had nothing to lose but told themselves they must play for the pride of their nation.

One man the South Africans will forever remember as their nemesis if they fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup is a man named Washington, the son of Arubi, the Warriors goalkeeper who made great saves when everyone at the arena on Friday had shouted ‘goaaaaaal’ a couple of times.

Arubi knows the South Africans and their style of play so well because he plies his football trade in the rainbow nation with Marumo Gallants F.C. in Bloemfontein.

Interestingly Arubi who has been capped over 32 times for the Warriors since his debut 20 years ago is 40 years old, about the oldest among players campaigning in the African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted in three countries, USA, Canada and Mexico for the first time with a record 48 teams.

This is also the first time Africa will be represented by nine teams, and possibly 10 if an African team emerge the winner of the intercontinental play-offs to be conducted after the current qualifiers.

This is the reason why diehard football fans are angry with the wobbly performance of the Super Eagles.

They can’t fathom the fact that the team are struggling in a group with countries like Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Rwanda that have never qualified for the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup, how much more win it.

It is much more painful that at a time nine countries will carry Africa’s flag at the World Cup, Nigeria may not be counted among them the way the qualifiers are going.

Even when FIFA sanctioned South Africa and deducted three points and three goals from their total haul, fans were still sceptical that the Super Eagles could make it out of the group.

Before Friday’s matches, the prayer by Nigerian fans was that South Africa and Benin Republic should lose their matches to give the Super Eagles who must beat Lesotho to have any chance at all. The Super Eagles took the fight to Lesotho and new invitee, Akor Adams scored what fans normally describe as insurance goal after the captain, William Troots-Ekong scored a penalty.

Lesotho pulled one back following a goalkeeping error by Stanley Nwabali who committed another howler a few minutes later but the shot by a Lesotho player just went off mark by inches. That could have ended any hope for qualifying and making the last game against Gernot Rohr’s Benin Republic in Uyo on Tuesday a mere academic exercise.

With Group C campaign going to the wire on Tuesday, the horse race is between Nigeria, South Africa and leaders Benin Republic on 14, 15 and 17 points respectively.

The destinies of Nigeria and South Africa are in their own hands while Benin Republic have Nigeria, playing at home in Uyo to contend with.

As it is now, the calculation, and of course prayer, for Nigeria’s Super Eagles to qualify for the World Cup Bafana Bafana must draw or lose to Rwanda while Eric Chelle’s lads must beat Benin Republic at least 2-0 to avoid head to head calculations.

I believe that the Super Eagles caused this battle to be taken to the wire by not winning their home matches that were theirs to take. If they qualify on Tuesday, it will be a football miracle and the toughest they have passed through since they started qualifying for the World Cup in 1994.

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