Our players have started again. They are boasting about their potentials to play in the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup. They reckon that only Argentina stands on their way to qualify atop the group. There is nothing wrong with these players expressing their wishes. My worry is that they are raising the hopes of millions of Nigerians.
I’m not too sure we have the fans who would accept a poor outing. Please, players and coaches, tread with caution. It is better to shock the fans with a superlative outing than to raise their hope, dash it and cause pains. A word is enough for the wise, as they say.
It is true that the Eagles are not the only ones talking about the World Cup fixtures. My fear is that these other countries’ fans seldom take the law into their hands, like ours. Our fans seem to have this mob mentality.
Wonders cannot stop happening here. I read in Monday’s newspapers Samson Siasia’s revealing remarks on some of the bench warmers invited for the Eagles’s World Cup task in Brazil, beginning with the opener against Iran. Siasia’s comments were germane, except that he listened to nobody when he held sway as Super Eagles coach.
Siasia should spare us his analysis, having failed to accept pleas from concerned Nigerians to recall Vincent Enyeama to the Eagles camp. Siasia started the process of shutting out stars, such as Obafemi Martins. Nobody could talk to Siasia when he was coach. If Enyeama had manned the goalpost against Guinea in Abuja, Nigeria would have qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
Siasia was the biggest culprit in picking half-fit players to the Eagles. In his Eagles were many clubless players. He had a fixation for his under-aged achievers, even when many of them had lost their form at their clubs in Europe. His camp was more or less a rehabilitation centre.
I hold Siasia responsible for the failure of the youths discovered by the late Yemi Tella to graduate into the Super Eagles. It really hurts that members of the 2007 World Cup winning squad do not form the pivot of the Brazil-bound Super Eagles, despite the impeccable soccer they played in Asia under the late Tella.
I recall my altercation with Siasia in Beijing over his decision to bench Osaze Odewingie and Victor Anichebe. He asked me to face my media job. Thank God, Siasia ate the humble pie when Osaze and Anichebe scored in the next game against Belgium, after his bench warmers flopped in the previous 2008 Beijing Olympic Games tie.
It is clear that nothing would be done to the 30-man list to include Ikechukwu Uche and Chinedu Obasi, not forgetting Brown Ideye. Uche and Ideye scored for their Spanish and Israeli sides last weekend. We are being told to pray and support the squad. Will I join the prayer sessions? God forbid. Football allows upsets, but not when the team is lopsided – as ours.
My worries stem from the fact that our best striker on the list, Emmanuel Emenike, was benched in the Fenerbahce FC of Turkey’s last game, raising the poser about his fitness – less than 20 days to Nigeria’s first game.
How about those players who ignored the coaches’ directive to join the team in London for the May 28 friendly against Scotland from their European clubs, only to call him to announce that they were in the country? The puzzling aspect is that the players expected that their tickets back to London would be paid for by the NFF. What a cheek. Who knows when they sneaked into the country and what they have been doing? Argentina’s gazelle Lionel Messi joined his mates in Argentina’s camp on Tuesday, underscoring the importance he attaches to the Mundial.
Another bone of contention is what our invited players are doing between now and when they converge in England on May 26, ahead of the May 28 international friendly against Scotland. Last Saturday, I watched Ecuador drill Holland in a titanic clash that ended 1-1. Both teams played with contrasting styles, yet it was the Dutch who struggled to cope with the doggedness of the Ecuador lads, who muscled out their hosts. The Dutch were rescued from a home defeat by the sublime skills of Robin Van Persie, who riffled home a belter, having controlled perfectly a long ball from his side’s defence.
What amazed me in this game was the passion exhibited by both teams’ players, in spite of their hectic European season. The speed of the game was frightening. It gave me concern against the backdrop that most our Eagles stars have not seen regular action.
The lame excuse that it could be an advantage to us is spurious because it is little that an unfit player can do. No matter how compact and united a team is, it still needs the brilliance of exceptional players to make the difference during matches, like we saw with Van Persie’s super strike against Ecuador.
Only fit players can strike the ball with such accuracy. Listening to the commentators during Saturday’s game in the Netherlands, one heard how both teams were preparing to storm Brazil. As at Saturday, both coaches knew those to make the final 23-man squad, unlike Nigeria, where those to make the cut would emerge 24 hours to FIFA’s June 2 deadline for lists’ submission. In fact, for Holland and Ecuador, their players will hit Brazil departing from their home countries.
Can we say so for our Super Eagles? If the coaches’ plans are to be taken seriously, the Eagles will fly straight to Brazil from the US. What a pity. We will be subjected to the agony of watching other countries send forth their soccer ambassadors with pomp and ceremony simply because we have an insensitive government that cannot provide its citizenry with a national carrier.
Indeed, in the days ahead, we would see pictures of countries with national carriers emblazoned with such countries’ colours. The chosen aircraft will take their players and officials to Brazil. Can Nigeria assign any aircraft to such designs? Or are we thinking of storming Brazil on commercial flights? The England side was decked out in suits before heading out of London this week. It was colourful. Their suits fitted.
Then, I asked, what will be the Eagles’ national dress? Agbada or Babariga? The conservative England management has begun talks with their manager Roy Hodgson to extend his stay till Russia 2018 World Cup, despite the fact that the Englishman would be 71- years-old at that time.
They have hinged their negotiations on the fact that Hodgson has listed an England side for the future with nine of them being under 21 years. Can we say so of the Eagles? What is the average age of the Super Eagles? Did the coaches consider that before picking Nigeria’s 30-man squad? It simply means that the results of the 2014 World Cup for the England FA chiefs don’t matter.
The FA men are planning for the future, having seen a manager guide England through an unbeaten World Cup qualification series.
Are we thinking along this direction like the English? Have the Nigerian coaches picked players that suggest that they are looking into the future? Do we depart from Brazil in crisis? Do we expect the coaches to give their best when their future isn’t cast in stone? Will we return to the proverbial drawing board? Isn’t it about time we build on the gains of major competitions? Will Brazil be another battle ground to wash our dirty linens in the public? Aminu Maigari and his board have complimented Stephen Keshi thorough the rejuvenation of the Super Eagles. They have crossed swords during the relationship. But it helped the Eagles to achieve the feats that we craved for.
Let us continue with them. They will get better. Let us pray the voice of reason prevails after the Mundial, irrespective of our lot. Oba Khato Okpere, Ise!
