With 193 days to the start of the World Cup in Brazil, Nigeria can hardly wait to know which team they will face at the football fiesta next June. Featuring in their fifth World Cup finals, the Super Eagles will be going to the competition for the second time as African champions – following their Africa Cup of Nations successes in 1994 and 2013. But being Africas numero uno will do Nigeria no favour with the draw holding on Friday as FIFA prepares to seed the hosts, Brazil, and the seven best-ranked teams in the October 17 world rankings. The latest rankings, released on Thursday, will not be used to determine the draw, FIFA has said, insisting on the October rankings. The football body has also opted to shelve the criterion of weighing teams performances at previous World Cup finals. As it stands, hosts Brazil and the top seven teams in October – Spain, Germany Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland – will be in Pot A on Friday. The rest will share the other pots based on geographic and sports criteria. Nigeria will definitely be up against any of the seeded teams and, possibly, face the likes of Italy, Mexico, France, England or Portugal at the group stage. While Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama may have voiced the mind of many Nigerians that they would not appreciate facing Brazil at the group stage, some football tacticians have waved the fear aside, saying the African champions will have no place to hide if they must impress at the world stage. I want to play big games against the best players in the world but I would like if possible to avoid finding myself in the pool with Brazil because they are the host country. Everything will be done to ensure Brazil get out of the group. I love the World Cup, but I do not want to fall into the group of death, the Lille shot stopper had said after helping Nigeria beat Ethiopia to qualify for the World Cup. Nigeria had only progressed to the second round of the World Cup on two occasions at the 1994 and 1998 editions, failing to advance from the group stage at the 2002 and 2010 editions. At both most recent tournaments, Nigeria finished last in a group which had Sweden, England and Argentina in 2002 and occupied a similar position in 2010 after playing Argentina, Korea Republic and Greece. Enyeamas compatriot, John Ogu, sounded bullish after the team qualified for the World Cup, insisting that all what Nigeria would need at the tournament would be to believe and approach every game with determination. The World Cup is a different ball game from the qualifiers so we expect to get a tough draw. I cant predict which teams well meet but I dont let that bog me. Every other team will be watching out for us just as were monitoring the build-up to the World Cup, the Académica de Coimbra midfielder said. We played well against Italy and beat Ethiopia home and away, that should be enough warning to any team that were not sleeping. Adegboye Onigbinde, who guided the team at the 2002 World Cup, said there would be no point in Nigeria hoping to avoid big name teams at the draw ceremony. He was certain the team will get one of the toughest teams to contend with at the group stage. The World Cup is for tough teams so when Nigeria is playing they should expect to meet other tough teams, the former FIFA technical committee member said. There is also no reason for apprehension when the FIFA rankings were released. Nigeria have never been seeded for the World Cup and FIFA has strict guideline on how a team can be seeded. If we dont meet the guidelines, we dont get seeded. The issue that we dropped in the ranking is a different story all together. We cant expect to gain points in the rankings if we dont beat some of the teams above us in the ranking. A former coach of the Flying Eagles Ladan Bosso was of the opinion that Nigeria should have gained points in the latest rankings but he was not bothered if the team was not seeded for the draw. Bosso said, Im waiting to see who were going to meet because, at this stage, no team is a pushover. But we need not worry too much; the Eagles performance I saw against Italy in the friendly was world class. Ill advice the Nigeria Football Federation that instead of worrying over which team well meet they should plan to organise top grade friendly games for the team as preparation for the World Cup. Although we played well against Italy, there were lapses in the team which any opposition can exploit at a competitive meet. I could have said we should pray to avoid this team or that team but if we must be champions, we have to beat the champions. Save for the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals, only seeded teams have won the World Cup since 1962. Argentina were not seeded at Mexico86 before winning the title and no team was seeded at the 1970 edition also in Mexico when Brazil won it.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 23:31:42 +0000
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