There has been panic in the land (rightly so) since last Saturday when Argentina’s goal-scoring machine Kun Aguero scored four goals in Leicester City’s 5-1 away loss to Manchester City in a Barclays English Premier League match. The popular thinking of soccer-loving Nigerians is that with Aguero in form, the Super Eagles will be in trouble at the Russia 2018 World Cup, given his devastating combination with Lionel Messi.
It will certainly not be the first time we have confronted the Argentines. Both teams have squared up to each other eight times since the USA ’94 World Cup. Apart from the September 11 international friendly, which the South Americans lost 4-2, the score line in games involving both teams are usually close. But the incredible form of the Manchester City striker suggests that he could take things a notch higher at this year’s Mundial.
Aguero has scored 29 goals from 33 matches this season. Awesome average, no doubt, but he could still be policed by defenders. Aguero detests being man-marked and it affects his concentration, which is good for the opposition, unlike Messi who enjoys such attention, which he sees as his best chance to show his class and style.
Aguero is stocky, but falls easily with the slightest touch to gain referees’ favours. He likes running in between defenders to elicit a tackle, which referees respond to. He is not a fast runner and doesn’t need a high back-lift to riffle home the ball. He could be an unselfish striker, if he finds better placed mates to score goals.
Past results between Nigeria and Argentina don’t suggest high scoring matches, since both teams’ players know what is at stake. Besides, Aguero is injury-prone. His record of being literarily patched up to make Argentina’s squads to big competitions is legendary. I don’t expect him to recreate his Manchester City form because the Argentines don’t have the kind of quality midfielders (Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Oleksandr Zinchenko) which The Citizens in the blue side of Manchester have. Aguero operates best when the supply of passes splits the defence. Indeed, three of Aguero’s goals were goalkeeper’s errors with the last goal, Aguero’s fourth but Manchester City’s fifth, zooming over the head of Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. Did I hear you sigh? I recognise your worry but I’m sure that goalkeeping won’t be Eagles’ albatross in Russia.
Aguero won’t be left unmarked by all the countries in Group D in Russia. Marking marksmen comes with crunchy tackles. This is where Aguero has problems coping while playing for Argentina. And when he is injured, the Argentines fall apart, reminiscent of what happened when Nigeria whacked them 4-2 last November in Russia. Aguero was taken to the hospital at half-time, with scores in favour of the Argentines.
Since that game, the Argentines have been talking, the latest being one of the world’s greatest players, Diego Armando Maradona, who rued the defeat by insisting : ‘’We have no midfield deserving of the name. Today, except for Lionel Messi, people have lost respect for the Argentina team.
“Nobody is afraid of us. Look at the last game with Nigeria. We almost conceded eight goals. You know what happened in my time in a game like that. But Sampaoli is lucky. If the baby (Messi) is on fire, he will cover for all the mistakes. We have a 60 per cent chance of becoming champions (at the World Cup).
“Why? Because the others can make up the choir, but they can never replace him as the singer. He’s the only singer. It hurts me a lot, but the reality is that it’s going badly for us and I don’t see a way out. The title would be ‘After Messi what next?’
“After Messi, there is nothing. It is embarrassing to rely on Icardi. Pipa (Higuain) is 10 times better than Icardi. That guy (Sampaoli) doesn’t know anything, the only thing he knows is what he’s going to eat at his friend’s house. Pipa has to have a new chance.”
Hahaha, Maradona has added another dimension to the World Cup countdown, with the rascally one stating categorically that the coach isn’t good enough for the stars in the team. Is this the cutting edge Nigeria has to exploit to beat the Argentines? Maradona isn’t a novice in the game. His fears about the players suggest that Higuian, who has been shut out of the squad under Sampoli, will trouble the Nigerians. I’m standing with Maradona on this, given Higuian’s records in Europe.
Is anyone shocked that Maradona didn’t talk about Aguero, preferring to discuss Higuain? Aguero used to be Maradona’s in-law but that marriage has crashed and Maradona’s daughter is looking elsewhere for marital bliss.
Higuain scored a brace against Tottenham Hotspurs in one of the UEFA Champions League matches but hit a penalty kick on the upright of the goalpost. This penalty loss prevented him from scoring a hat-trick. Pundits feel strongly that Aguero is a better striker than Higuain and would rather look at Maradona’s submission as expected , considering the animosity between them. There are other Argentines who could also hurt the Eagles, such as Paulo Dybala.
My excitement is that the Argentines are scared stiff about Eagles’ unpredictable performance. The Nigerians raise their game based on the opposition’s pedigree and it could be dangerous for Argentina, if they flounder in their first two matches. Argentina FA chieftains are miffed that Spanish side FC Barcelona rejected their appeal to sparingly use Argentines in their squad. Laughable; isn’t it? Barca pay their wages and the players should reciprocate with their best performance. Which European team will have Messi and not play him if he is fit? The club fans will cause mayhem, especially if the team loses at home. Barca’s revenue would dwindle if the team falters by doing Argentina FA chiefs’ biddings.
The La Albiceleste also know that they have two major weaknesses which could cause them problems at Russia 2018. The first is that like Barcelona FC, Argentina relies on Messi’s creativity and goals. The second, Higuain and Aguero seem to have the natural instinct to converge centrally, which starves their game of width, so they may struggle against centrally-packed defences. The Super Eagles would do well to take note of this.
Suddenly, Nigeria seems to be the country to beat for not just Argentina but Croatia, which is Eagles’ first game on June 16. The Croatians, like the Argentines, finished second behind Iceland in the qualifying series. They know what to expect, leaving Eagles as the underdogs, knowing that the Argentines are veterans of the Mundial.
‘’That’s right, but we’re always ambitious, we’re going to be world champions and I respect that,’’ Croatia’s manager Zlatko Dalic told Sportske Novosti.
‘’I am ambitious and want to do all the best and the best. The first goal must be to pass the group. The first match against Nigeria will be the decider. They are the key to everything. Then Argentina is where we cannot look for much. They will be the easiest, because we have nothing to lose. The last is against Iceland, and it is possible that everything will be resolved.’’
The good thing about the pre-World Cup hypes is that our players and indeed the coaches have kept mute, preferring to be modest in their submissions about our chances at the Mundial.
Nigeria’s biggest weapon towards a hitch-free Mundial is the synergy between the NFF and the coaches on the one hand and rapport between the manager, Gernot Rohr and his players. It is heartening to note that such troublesome areas as the prompt payment of the team’s entitlements have been resolved. We hope that the government would release the team’s cash and not bore us with the talk of a Treasury Single Account (TSA), whose process is cumbersome.
The 31 other countries don’t have such financial difficulties, knowing the importance of the competition. Government should design a format that will ensure that funds released for sports are brought from the source and accounted for at the end of the competition. Cash earmarked for participating teams is documented on the FIFA website. The extras from gate takings, television rights and merchandising will be made public by FIFA and accessed on the body’s website.
