I doff my hat for Nigeria’s Super Eagles for their superlative performance against Spain in the ongoing Confederation Cup tournament. For the first time in so many years, I watched full- stretch a match involving Nigeria’s national team without having to take any pain killer. It was an entertaining match in which the Eagles showed good fighting spirit and that hunger to conquer regardless of the quality of the opponent. I saw a Spanish side that was rattled, a wily veteran coach who ran out of ideas until the lucky Fernando Torres came in to do the damage. Experience, we are told, is the best teacher and the Nigerian team lacked it in abundance. It could be seen from the unnecessary misses in front of goal by our attackers who were clearly goal-shy. Stephen Keshi must have learnt by now that when the chips are down, experience naturally comes into play. In fact, the goal that sank Nigeria in the game with Uruguay was scored by their veteran striker, Diego Forlan, who was playing his 100th game for his country. He brought his wealth of his experience to bear and the only time he struck, it got the desired impact. While I commend Keshi and his team for nurturing the team to a competitive level, I still believe that the team needs some re-jigging if we are to make any impact in the 2014 World Cup. Nigeria has a rich retinue of professional footballers plying their trade in some of the best and competitive professional leagues in the world. Osaze Odemwingie, Shola Ameobi and a host of others readily come to mind. I noticed that most of them were left out. If we had had a team that was a blend of experience and talent yesterday, Nigerians would have woken up celebrating this morning. This is where I want to implore Stephen Keshi and his coaching crew to consider bringing in some of the experienced players we have to compliment the team. I want to make it clear here that I do not support indiscipline on the part of players and I would always subscribe to any punitive measures put in place to check defaulters. However, any punishment meted out should be seen to change the attitude of the player. Kareem Benzema is a typical example of a player who has had spats with his coaches and has been in and out of the French national team. Today, he plays a key role in the French national team. When a coach embarks on ego-tripping in the name of dealing with players, it becomes counter-productive because it goes against the national interest. Having said this, it is important that we focus on the forthcoming world cup tournament which is just around the corner. This is no time for experimenting. Brazil, the host for next year’s event already has a team in place and we all can see the team evolving and getting better by the day. Also, at the rate the Japanese played Italy the other day it shows that next year’s tournament is not going to be easy. I want to see a Nigerian team that will surpass the quarter-final stages reached by both Cameroon and Ghana in previous World Cups. Yes, it is achievable. Good luck to the Super Eagles.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 15:36:21 +0000
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