Tag: unbelievable

It is unbelievable but it happened. There

was panic in the land in the days leading

to Nigeria’s last group game against Ethiopia. If we were anticipating a marathon race, it would have been right to dream of a Nigerian upset, which in any case would have been far-fetched. Expecting an Ethiopian upset for Nigeria in football was simply unacceptable.

People nursed fears about a likely exit of the Super Eagles. Many wanted this writer’s position on the outcome before it was played. One felt insulted but retorted by asking my enquirers what the sum of two added to two is. They became furious but I cooled their angst by stating that if the Eagles couldn’t beat Ethiopia, then we had no business remaining in South Africa. Some agreed, although many hissed as they walked away.

Beating Ethiopia should be a stroll in the park. The logic of the fear of minnows should be buried when it comes to football between two countries. The Ethiopians won’t flinch if the challenge is on marathon, because that is their forte.

We should play against Ethiopia in such big soccer competitions celebrating the emergence of new stars and not struggling with established players. When such things happen, they only help to gauge the development of the game here.

Stories that should gladden our hearts from matches against Ethiopia should be that goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama headed two corner kicks into the match in the closing minutes of routing.

One laughs each time we resort to prayers before matches, especially given the injustice in the way the coaches picked the players for this assignment. The coaches would have to explain to Nigerians how they could keep injury-hit Gabriel Rueben in the squad and drop Dike, who has tremendous ability to play for the team.

Again, the inclusion of such players as Oshinawa Juwon leaves much to be desired, especially when we have Taiye Taiwo sitting at home. The coaches would have found Taiwo very useful to fix the team’s wobbly defence. They wouldn’t have had any second thought fielding Taiwo. His inclusion would also have offered the coaches the opportunity to play him on the left side of the midfield, like Shauibu Amodu used him in some matches. Taiwo, if taught on how to direct his shots from set-pieces, would have been an asset to the Eagles, especially against Cote d’ Ivoire on Sunday.

Where do we start to assess the Eagles? One won’t want to join the legion of buck-passing critics. What is, however, clear is that we need to tinker with our coaching crew. The composition will be determined by those who recruited these ones in South Africa.

It is difficult to explain why the coaches pulled out a striker for a defender, with one Ethiopian out with a red card. Shouldn’t the coaches have introduced another striker and asked the players to shoot at the goalpost, knowing that the man there wasn’t the regular goalkeeper? After all, we could have scored a goal or two to top the group. Who knows, it could have been more.

It is true that we have to build new players. But those in South Africa have limited abilities. Victor Moses showed that he plays with a thinking head. He made the difference and it looked simple despite the apprehension for 78 minutes.

Twice he undertook to rescue the team with his audacious dribbling skills that earned us the two penalty kicks. He didn’t need anyone to ask him to take the kicks. Moses conceived what he wanted to do in his head, teasing the naïve Ethiopians to launch the bad tackle and masterfully tucking the ball into the net twice that he struck it for Nigeria’s wining goals.

The Eagles played badly against Ethiopia. They were nervy and lacked the imagination to organise and string passes to rip the opponent’s defence apart. We didn’t see any off-the-ball runs such that when Moses surged forward in the dying minutes, he ignored his freer mates to take the team’s destiny in his hands by refusing to lay the pass for a better placed striker. Moses may have saved the day, yet it is important that the coaches correct this flaw as the Ivoirens are too experienced to fall for Moses’ trickery in the penalty box.

We played slightly better in the defence. We were also able to plug the gap between the defence and the midfield, yet there is the urgent need for our strikers to learn how to make the decoy runs that would open the gaps in the opponent’s defence.

Football is a very cruel game. Many may tip the Ivoirens to roast the Eagles. It could just be a mirage as our players know how to play such prestige games. I foresee the game on Sunday between Nigeria and Cote d Ivoire going into a penalty shootout.

Our players know that the Ivoriens are better than them. The fear of avoiding a heavy defeat will push our boys beyond our expectations. My worry is that we could lose the next game after beating Cote d Ivoire because we would have given it our best shot.

Would this scenario be worth the effort? I don’t think so. But looking at the fixtures, one was happy that if we beat the Ivoirens, we are likely to meet South Africa in the semifinals because I feel that they could upset the Malians in their quarter-finals tie. Let us not count our chicks before they are hatched. I digress.

From what we have seen so far and from the few matches we have also watched the Eagles play at the AFCON 2013, one fact sticks out and clearly so – there has been no significant improvement on what ex-Eagles coach Shuaibu Amodu achieved for the national team.

If anything, the performance of the national team has been on a downward spiral. The more you expect a change, the more things remain the same. We have retrogressed from a fairly average team to outright mediocre outfit bereft of ideas and initiatives.

While we may not be shedding tears for Amodu, our hearts bleed for what has become of our once darling national tea, the Super Eagles. So sad.

 

Where is Shuaibu Amodu?

I have searched in vain for former Super Eagles chief coach Shuaibu Amodu’s comments on Nigeria’s matches. I also tried to reach him on the telephone. No dice.

So, where is Amodu? No one seems to know but if I know him very well, he would be hiding in Okpella, doing his business and enjoying himself.

Amodu is not one to condemn his mates. He would throw his salvo at the administrators. I expect him to break his silence if NFF and NSC chieftains try to make the coaches the fall guys, in the event that the Eagles don’t meet our expectations.

It’s clear that the domestic league cannot produce the talents to seize the stage like we saw with Clement Temile at the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations. Temile was a local boy with Bendel Insurance FC of Benin when Adegboye Onigbinde picked him to give Tarila Okorowanta a fight for the right flank shirt. Temile was introduced when Tarila was fumbling. Temile went on to win the golden boot as the top scorer of the competition with three goals.

When Amodu described our local league as dead and its products unfit for the big stage, this writer lashed him. Amodu described the Eagles as a bunch of average players and got the stick from everyone.

Amodu remains the best Nigerian coach in terms of achievements. Need I list them for anyone to appreciate what I’m saying? Take a bow, Shuaibu Amodu.