Well-done Super Eagles One of my readers had sent a text message urging me to “Use your weekly column to tell Keshi to look for a goalscorer, an intelligent striker who can dribble defenders and squish water from stone in front of goal against Super Eagles opponents.” His appeals aptly summarised the mixed feelings of many Nigerians towards Eagles’ participation in the Confederations Cup. The Eagles involvement has expectedly divided Nigerians sharply rather than unite us. Fierce debate has continued to rage among Nigerians on whether the team deserved commendations or condemnations for putting up such impressive or unimpressive performance in the Brazil tournament of champions. We heard debates and saw headlines like; ‘We lost because of dearth of proven strikers’, ‘We missed some key players’, ‘The strikers were profligate in front of the goal’, ‘Our boys tried’, ‘We fielded eight home-based players’, ‘We are rebuilding’, ‘Bonus row distracted players,’ among others. But, irrespective of our convictions, there seems to be a unanimous feeling that our strikers killed us in the tournament. We had blunt attack, an obvious indication that Eagles now lack furious attackers to convert impossible chances. We did not actually see that dogged fighting spirit that made Super Eagles the champions of the continent in South Africa early this year. Our attackers in Brazil did not put up that above the shelve performance, the trademark of Nigerian strikers. The players and technical crew had while reacting shared the same impression. From Mikel Obi, to Vincent Enyeama to the head coach, Stephen Keshi, the consensus was that we must hold the strikers responsible for our failure to scale through the second stage of the tournament. We would not have only done better against Uruguay and Spain but would have also gotten a more favourable result with a sharp attack. It was so bad that many believe that Brown Ideye may have played himself out of the team with his below average performance. Indicting his strikers, Keshi also blamed his ordeal on the spate of injuries that depleted his team, lamenting: “I can’t imagine that my top striker, Emmanuel Emenike, will miss some of the goals that we missed. Even Ogenyi Onazi was sorely missed, Victor Moses would have ruined any team here and, of course, several other players that should have been here could not make it, owing to injuries.” Poor Keshi! But, despite his lamentation, he did not win the sympathy of many who felt he bungled the outing with his over-inflated ego in managing the senior players that would have enriched his bench instead of the largely inexperienced home-based players he paraded in that tournament of champions. If Emenike was injured, was Ike Uche or Obafemi Martins equally injured? According to report, their exclusion was their failure to convert the chances in South Africa during AFCON and in Calabar during the World Cup qualifiers against Kenya. But, was their flop more disappointing than the chances Ideye wasted in AFCON, in qualifier clashes and the Confederation Cup? In our frustration, we have clamoured for the return of Peter Osaze, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, or the Utaka brothers and Martins, among other erstwhile clinical strikers. But, are they actually the reliable legs we need to turn around our misfiring attacking department? We forgot quickly how we crucified Osaze for allegedly scuttling our ticket to the Burkina Faso/Equatorial Guinea 2012 Nations Cup. We forgot how Yak almost ruined our 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers chances in the match against Rwanda, ending his days in the team. As we search for the sacrificial lamp in our Brazil outing, we have already expectedly provoked controversy. Keshi is on the hot seat again. There was hi-tech propaganda against him. Rumour millers had it that the federation is just waiting for a documented evidence to confirm the damaging allegations of his involvement in getting 40 per cent of the allowances and bonuses from each of the players? The same rumour had it that the federation wants to nail him over his alleged involvement in the transfer of the home-based players to Europe? We have equally heard that the federation in collaboration with the Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi want to forcefully frustrate Keshi with the fresh speculation of hiring a foreign technical adviser for the Eagles, leaving him with the option of either to work under the expatriate coach or quit. The authenticity or otherwise of the allegations only lies in the womb of time. Beyond the impressions trailing Eagles participation, the takeaway should be that the tournament should naturally improve the market value of our players in Europe. We will be surprise if European clubs did not fight for the signature of Godfrey Obabona or Sunday Mba. We should be disappointed if some of our players in obscure clubs in Norway, Portugal and Ukraine did not join better clubs. However, days are disappointingly gone when Eagles coaches face strong selection dilemma over which striker to invite or exclude. Regrettably, we don’t just have reliable strikers now to crown our emerging tactical and skilful efforts with goals. Our participation in the Confederations Cup has ended the illusion that as continent’s champions we have a crack team. The outing was a revelation to Keshi that there was limit to experimentations. A big stage like the Confederations Cup was the wrong place. He gambled with inclusion of Gambo. He should improve in his players’ managerial ability and essentially learn the lesson of stooping to conquer. What would Keshi do if Balotteli is a Nigerian? Above all, there are prospects of a team that can rule the football world especially the sublime skill Eagles display against Uruguay and in the first half against Spain. Beyond all these lessons, did the federation actually utilise the platform to leverage on certain things. Did the eggheads take time to study what makes Brazil football and administration consistently thick? Did they really parley with its participating counterparts for future cross-fertilisation of ideals and programmes? Would there be any prospect of playing friendly matches as a product of the cross-fertilized idea the federation shared with its counterparts. We can only watch but the Super Eagles deserve a part on the back. We owe them a well-deserved commendation.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:10:44 +0000
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