The 10th edition of Africa's flagship women's football competition kicks off in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, October 28 2012.

Hosts, Equatorial Guinea are in Group A alongside South Africa, DR Congo and Senegal.

Defending champions, the Super Falcons of Nigeria are placed in Group B alongside Ethiopia, Cameroon and Cote D Ivoire.

African powerhouse, the Black Queens of Ghana failed to qualify for the tournament, they were eliminated by Cameroon.

Can the Super Falcons clinch a 9th continental title? Or will a different team emerge as champions? Find out within the next 2 weeks.

The opening day fixtures:

Equatorial Guinea v South Africa
Venue: Nuevo Estadio De Malabo, Malabo
Time: 2:30pm

Senegal v DR Congo
Venue: Nuevo Estadio De Malabo, Malabo
Time: 5:30pm


Here are Nigeria's fixtures:
October 29: Nigeria v Cameroon
Venue: Nkoantoma Stadium, Bata
Time: 2:30pm

November 1: Ethiopia v Nigeria
Venue: Nkoantoma Stadium, Bata
Time : 5:30pm

November 4: Nigeria v Cote D' Ivoire
Venue: Nuevo Estadio de Malabo, Malabo
Time : 5:30pm
Note: All times are in Nigerian time.

Below is the 21 woman squad list of Nigeria's Super Falcons:

Goalkeepers
Precious Dede (Bayelsa Queens)
Ebubeleye Whyte (Rivers Angels)
Tochukwu Oluehi (Sunshine Queens)

Defenders
Helen Ukaonu (Sunnana SK, Sweden)
Joy Jegede (Delta Queens)
Ebere Ngozi (Rivers Angels)
Evelyn Nwabuoku (Rivers Angels)
Onome Ebi (Attesihir Belediyesi, Turkey)
Josephine Chukwunonye (Rivers Angels)
Gladys Akpa (Sunshine Queens)

Midfielders
Esther Sunday (Sunshine Queens)
Onyinyechi Ohadugha (Rivers Angels)
Rita Chikwelu (Umea IK, Sweden)
Stella Mbachu (Rivers Angels)
Ogonna Chukwudi (Umea IK, Sweden)
Glory Iroka (Rivers Angels)

Forwards
Perpetua Nkwocha (Sunnana SK, Sweden)
Azizat Oshoala (Rivers Angels)
Ebere Orji (Rivers Angels)
Emueje Ogbiagbveha (BIK, Kazakhstan)
Ngozi Okobi (Delta Queens)

The breakdown of the squad list shows that Rivers Angels has 9 players, Sunshine Queens has 3 players, Delta Queens has 2 players and Bayelsa Queens have 1 player. There are 6 foreign based players. Former Enyimba FC coach, Kadiri Ikhana, is the team's coach.

semid4lyfe: Just like the last AWC hosted by Equatorial Guinea in which there was a media blanket on the competition by the host, I doubt we'd see matches of this edition on Tv.

The squad is decent but I notice some notable Super Falcons players like Desire Oparanozie, Osinachi Ohale, Faith Ikidi are not in this team.

Still, I wish the Falcons the best.

I think the aforementioned players in bold were not released by their foreign clubs because they claim that the AWC is not in the FIFA calendar, so they weren't under any obligation to release the players.

It is just ridiculous . CAF should have made efforts to include the tourney in the FIFA calendar, just like the Nations Cup.

My favourite players : Desire Oparanozie and Francesca Ordega are not in the team.Not even the beautiful Rebecca Kalu. I am not wathcing the AWC!! >:

That beautiful no 10 in d pix is Rebecca Kalu.

Any link to see the match?

Day1 results:

10-28-2012 E.Guinea 1-0 South Africa
10-28-2012 Senegal 0-1 RD Congo

What is better in sports, Nigeria or Niger?
Best Regards, Mookla Duplova.

What you see reflects what your heart is like. [img]http://www.forexchartingsoftware.info/pc.gif[/img]

duplovam: What is better in sports, Nigeria or Niger?
Best Regards, Mookla Duplova.

Nigeria is definitely better than Niger overall in sports.

I see that u are a new member. Welcome to Nairaland, hope you will have fun on this site.

FIFA has allocated 3 spots to Africa for the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada. This means that the 2 finalists and third-placed team at the 2014 AWC qualify for the World Cup.

This news is surprising since African teams have only reached the knockout stages once- in 1999, when Nigeria was knocked out in the quarter-finals by Brazil. Meanwhile, Europe will have potentially 8 slots, which makes up 1/3 of the teams for the tourney.
The number of participating nations has been increased from 16 to 24. Therefore, there will be a round of 16 for the first time in the history of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

I know that Nigeria's Falcons as always, will grab a WWC ticket, having learned (hopefully) from the failure to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.