‘Big Boss’ Stephen Keshi has qualified Nigeria to the 2013 AFCON and the next poser is if he could now win the top prize in South Africa, writes Samm Audu.
The Super Eagles have won the Nations Cup twice with the last being 18 years ago when incidentally Keshi was captain of the team.
His contract clearly stipulates a semi-final target at South Africa 2013, but recent noises by top officials including the country’s sports minister suggest they want Nigeria to go all the way and win a third Nations Cup trophy.
After the catastrophic outing by Nigeria at the London Olympics, the country’s top officials are desperate for heroes to show off so as to keep their plum jobs.
As a coach, this will be Keshi’s fifth AFCON having assisted both Jo Bonfrere and Shuaibu Amodu in 2000 and 2002.
On both occasions, Nigeria reached the last four, while he crashed out in the first round with Togo and Mali at the 2006 and 2010 tournaments, respectively.
For many, Nigeria remain one of the biggest underachievers in African football despite the huge promise they have shown for many years.
German coach Berti Vogts guided the Eagles to the 2008 Nations Cup and after their laboured flight was cut short by the host country Ghana in the quarterfinal, he lost his job.
Against most odds, Nigeria placed third at Angola 2010 and coach Amodu was then shown the exit door as the 2010 World Cup fever caught up with everyone in the country.
Preparation for the forthcoming AFCON will be crucial to how far Keshi could go in South Africa.
The Eagles will play a friendly on November 14 in Miami against Venezuela, a decent South American side, while a two-week training stint in Europe for the players in the domestic league is also on the cards.
Depending on where the team will be based for the first round of the tournament, Nigeria also plan to set up a training site in Zimbabwe or Mozambique, going by the proposal before the NFF.
The NFF have done well to prepare the various national teams adequately for major competitions and so the build-up to the 19th Nations Cup is not expected to be any different.
The AFCON will afford Keshi at least two weeks to work with his best players. This is something of a luxury when the longest time he has had with his players from Europe has been a week to a major qualifier.
And the team will be better for it if they then reach at least the last four in South Africa as they would have stayed together as a team for an additional three weeks.
This can only stand the Eagles in good stead for their 2014 World Cup qualifier at home against a re-energised Harambee Stars of Kenya.
Keshi must be clear on how he wants to go about his toughest coaching test yet.
Will he go with committed but not very experienced players from the NPL or will he give another chance for the Europe-based stars to prove they are ready to put their body on the line for Nigeria as they did against Liberia?
Despite the flattering 6-1 home win over Liberia recently, the Eagles still remain very much a work in progress.
The defence, especially at right back and in the centre, is vulnerable, while Keshi’s Eagles are still in dire need of a creative central midfielder in the mould of the great Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha.
Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi is not this player. He has already been tried out in this role with very little success.
Nosa Igiebor is too attack-minded to assert himself in midfield, but the versatile Fengor Ogude and Raheem Lawal may well be the missing link.
Lawal has finally sorted out his club problems, while Ogude is fit again and could shine in the role to dictate the game from midfield if given the confidence to do so.
Another cause for concern is that the Eagles are still not playing as a team and have relied mainly on individual brilliance to get by. This is an age-long problem.
The time these players have played for each other, Nigeria won the 1994 Nations, qualified for the 1994 World Cup and clinched an historic Olympic Gold in 1996.
This is a coaching problem and if Keshi can fix it in South Africa, Nigeria’s long-suffering fans could well have yet another reason to maintain that the team would have won this same competition in 1996 but for a senseless boycott.
