IT was a nightmare for FC Barcelona’s fans in Italy after the most exciting side to watch squandered on Tuesday a three-goal margin secured in the first leg against Roma FC in one of the quarter-finals fixtures in the UEFA Champions League. For most Barca fans, their team is complete, with Lionel Messi playing. And the Argentine never fails for both club and country. Indeed, Messi has scored goals that have left spectators amazed.
Messi ranks close to Cristiano Ronaldo in no particular order because both make the game exciting. Messi passes the ball in the vintage Barcelona tiki taka playing style until when he pops up to score a goal. But Ronaldo emerges from Real Madrid’s superb decoy moves, which he may not initiate, to score goals which leave defenders dumbfounded. Both players are reliable. They carry their teams when things go wrong and have incredible passion for victory, which rubs off on the others.
When Messi and Ronaldo are off form, Barca and Real Madrid suffer. You won’t blame them because their mates know their worth and play to their potential. Who doesn’t want to win matches and trophies? Real Madrid are not as potent as they were last season because Ronaldo hasn’t recovered from his injury which arose from games that he played for Madrid and Portugal. He is getting better and Real Madrid are better for it.
But Juventus FC of Italy gave Ronaldo something to ponder over- he was effectively checked. But he rose to the occasion by stepping forward to convert what many thought was a controversial penalty kick. That goal earned Real Madrid the semi-final ticket on goals aggregate, having won the first leg in Turin 3-0, only to be beaten by Juventus 3-1. Only Ronaldo could have converted such a penalty kick, given the rift surrounding English referee Oliver Michael’s decision, with most pundits asking if he could have made such a decision, if it happened in the Madrid side’s 18-metre box. Sheer hypothesis. Michael’s decision was correct. I digress.
And so, on Tuesday night when the Italians had Messi inside the defensive web, Barca was rudderless, leading to their exit from the most prestigious European club competition. Italians are reputable man-markers. They sat back to fashion out how to mark Messi. They compelled Messi to abandon his ball distribution to look for the vital away goal from the centre forward position. The Italians kept the ball away from Messi’s playing area, making Barca vulnerable to the three goals which the team conceded. Had Barca registered Phillip Coutinho for the UEFA Champions League, Roma wouldn’t have succeeded in eliminating the Catalan side.
Barca needed a player used to taking charge of a team playing badly under pressure. Coutinho would have freed Messi from the trap by scoring the vital away goal from either a long range shot or one of the free kicks. Barca missed cup-tied Coutinho.
What the Italians showed the world, especially Super Eagles coaches and players, was that marking Messi starts with ensuring that the team doesn’t play in his favourite areas. They didn’t give any particular player to mark him. They chose to ensure that m he doesn’t go on his characteristic dribbling runs to wreak havoc. Messi needs space but the Italians choked the place, forcing him to search for the ball, which isn’t his strongest asset.
Interestingly, Roma had to change their game plan to stop Messi and his rampaging teammates just like the Super Eagles will need to do against the Argentines – if the need arises at the World Cup.
Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco’s eureka moment came at five o’clock on Sunday morning. Unable to sleep after Roma’s home defeat by Fiorentina, Di Francesco found himself jotting down various ways in which he could stop Barcelona.
‘I couldn’t sleep, plus I’m a bit insane, so I got out of bed and drew up possible schemes for the Barcelona game, different looks that would put them under pressure in different ways. And this came to me. Had it not worked, you would have killed me,’’ he said after Tuesday’s game.
Most impressive about Di Francesco is the way he coached a completely new game plan to his players in just two training sessions.
‘’We had a long way to go after the first leg but all credit to the coach because he invented this formation two days ago, he drilled it into our heads and it worked wonders,” said midfielder De Rossi. I have never seen Barcelona struggle so much. We pressed them throughout the game from the first minute. It was the first time we played with three at the back and we did great.’’
Nigeria are the Argentines’ last World Cup opponents, but they would be driven by vengeance to beat the Super Eagles, even if they beat Iceland and Croatia, which could spell doom for Nigeria at the Mundial. We need to learn how to handle special players. This starts with watching how they play to cage them like the Italians did to Messi.
However, Nwankwo Kanu’s profound submissions to Eagles stars ahead of the Mundial in Russia, if heeded, could be the fillip the Nigerians need to cause the biggest upset in the history of the competition.
“This team is very good. No need comparing them with any other set of Eagles’ players because those are different era. Right now we have to look at the present team and see what they are capable of doing. For me, it is a very good side. There are no stars in the team but they will excel as a unit,” Kanu added.
”This is the first time I am seeing a team and not stars coming together to play for the Eagles. Those on the reserve bench are as good as the ones on the pitch. They are also very young and energetic, while the few experienced players will provide the needed balance. What is important is to pick one or two lessons from the friendly games.
“We should not get carried away by the results but use the games to build a strong side. A lot of countries are also watching us; so whatever we do in those games is what they will use against us. And I am sure the experienced coach will add value to the team.
“My advice is that the players should know that they are going to Russia to represent the biggest country in Africa, the giant of Africa, Nigeria. Putting on the green and white jersey should mean more to them than personal glory. They should know that playing for the country is bigger than playing for their respective clubs. So they should go to Russia and make Nigeria proud.”
Good talk Kanu at a sporting event in Lagos where Peter Rufai admonished the players thus: “I think the team is doing what it ought to do by playing friendly matches. The team has been preparing well and we will all agree that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has done well by organising friendly games for the team in different parts of the world that will enable the Eagles grab different experiences. The coach and his crew will also be able to design a tactical formation that will benefit the team.”
Eight goals against Falcons
The deafening noise from football enthusiasts since France beat Super Falcons 8-0 wasn’t unexpected. As African champions, Falcons ought to have buckled their shoes to give the French a good fight. It wasn’t going to happen because the Falcons have been out of the game for over two years. What happened against France is the price for inactivity. I hope our soccer chieftains have learned the desired lessons.
Falcons players have cried since they became Africa champions two years ago that they needed to be kept busy with local competitions and quality friendly matches, such as the game against France. But NFF chose to first get the domestic league back by inaugurating a league board, which has Aisha Falode as its boss. Falode’s committee has done the needful by getting sponsors for the domestic game and bringing fresh ideas that led to the commencement of the domestic league last week.
The eight goals drubbing by France should inform the need to reengineer the squad, which should start with getting new players to replace those who can’t compete at the highest level. We need new players who can only be discovered from a good monitoring system with set rules of what to look for in the new-look squad.
Interestingly, the new coach saw it all. He must have taken note of the weak areas. I hope NFF can direct the new manager to watch the domestic league. Signs of what happened in France stare us in the face. We have overcome so many because we are talented and more experienced. If we don’t take radical steps to improve, we would soon lose our champions tag for the also-ran teams.
NFF chiefs should ensure that players who are retiring or cannot fit into the manager’s plans should be on coaching courses so that they can be drafted to the domestic league clubs. We must stop this idea of using and dumping our heroines, in this case after winning laurels for the country. Good experience for the Falcons. They now know how others felt when Falcons whacked them by the same score and even more.
Watch out France, the Falcons will be back to fight you till death.
