THE NATION SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2012
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T was six days after President Barack Obama won re-election to lead the United States of America for a second term and a couple of weeks following Hurricane Sandy. A 12-hour flight from Lagos took us to Atlanta, Georgia and we then proceeded to Miami, State of Florida for the international friendly against Venezuela. Arrangements were seamless as expected and the Nigerian delegation then got ready for the match against the La Vinotinto after a couple of training sessions. Wednesday night’s (Thursday early morning in Nigeria) match was meant to set in motion the preparations of the Super Eagles for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations championship in South Africa next year (19th January – 10th February, 2013). Before leaving Nigeria, I received several e-mail and phone sms messages asking why we were going to play Venezuela when in fact, the Africa Cup of Nations would be against African opposition. Of course, the standard response was that you can only play those you are able to reach agreement with pertaining to venue, time and date, and general logistics. Also related to this is the fact that it is not only those within Africa that you MUST play ahead of a tournament involving African countries. International friendlies are meant to test strength generally, against teams that can provide quality opposition, afterall, they also
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do pity Super Eagles' coach, Stephen Keshi for being under intense pressure to raise a quality team to go to South Africa early next year and do what is considered in some circles to be an impossible. The impossible task he is saddled with by the sports egg heads in the land is to win the 2013 African Cup of Nations despite not having the necessary wherewithal to do so and the presence of insurmountable obstacles could only make one but to pity him. It is note-worthy that his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), are not on the same page with their parent body on the win-the-trophy syndrome and would grant Keshi a shoulder to cry on as the country counts down to the great kick- off in South Africa in January. The contract Keshi signed for three years is to qualify Eagles for the Nations Cup, get at least to the semi finals and then go on to qualify for the 2014 World Cup holding in Brazil. Winning the Nations Cup trophy is not a must for him and the sports big wigs have gone beyond their brief in tasking the coach to go to the former apartheid enclave and do the impossible. The contract has not been amended or tinkered since it was penned in Abuja sometime ago to my knowledge and those who want Keshi’s lads to go and win the Cup in February are wishful -thinkers and not realists. The NFF, on our behalf, has, through the jaundiced contract, conceded the trophy to other fifteen qualifiers before the first ball was
Inside The
Glass House WITH AMINU MAIGARI
American Wonder! are football teams. The match against Venezuela fitted the bill and gave us the kind of overview we wanted. The same day we played Venezuela in America, the United States senior team (whose next games are in the CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup) were away to Russia (whose next games are in the European qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup); Argentina (whose next games are in the South American qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup) played against Asian giants Saudi Arabia; Portugal (whose next games are in the European qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup) tackled African side Gabon; Cote d’Ivoire (also playing in the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa) were away to Austria (whose next games are in the European qualifiers for 2014 FIFA World Cup). Georgia, who have their next games in the European
qualifiers for 2014 FIFA World Cup, hosted Egypt (an African side that failed for the second successive time to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations); Algeria (heading to the Africa Cup of Nations) hosted Bosnia (playing in the European qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup); Uruguay, playing in the South American qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, were away to Poland, who are in the European qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and; Tunisia, heading to the Africa Cup of Nations, played Switzerland, who are involved in the European qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I have given these instances to buttress the point that the confederation from where your opposition comes from doesn’t really matter, at certain times. That is why we are working round the clock to ensure that the Super Eagles play African opposition
onwards, in readiness for the Africa Cup of Nations. It is not the result from Wednesday’s match that mattered (though we all love the victory). What mattered was the fact that the Eagles played a good game, even with a number of debutantes, and gave a good account of our football and defended the green-white-green credibly. Goalkeeper Austin Ejide only confirmed what we have always known: that he is a good goaltender. His reflexes were as sharp as ever and he made a number of great saves. Perhaps, I should then talk about the first-timers. Shola Ameobi, joining the group for the first time, showed strength and ball sense, while Solomon Kwambe and Bright Dike also gave good account of themselves. When I was told about Coach Keshi bringing a Bright Dike that we had not heard anything about previously, I was anxious to see how he would fare. He
didn’t do badly on the day. Kwambe did his level best at right back, and showed tremendous awareness and intelligence to assist for the first goal, scored by Brown Ideye. F o r m e r j u n i o r international Ogenyi Onazi started his first match, and won applause from several quarters. He was agile, strong and ambitious. His goal was a beauty. Umar Zango, home boy, was also diligent and useful. In his return to the team for the first time in two years, Obafemi Martins showed his usual strength and persistence, and was a constant threat before he left the pitch. Elderson Echiejile, at left back, was fearless and forayed upfront in a beautiful way. Ideye was his bustling self, and I am sure he was quite happy to score his first senior team goal (few people remember that Ideye and Echiejile played in the Nigeria U-20 team that reached the quarter finals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada in 2007). The Dynamo Kiev boy gave a good account of himself. So did Raheem Lawal, whose talent and capabilities we first saw at the Africa U-23 Championship in Morocco towards the end of last year. Yet, the day belonged to Nosa Igiebor, who drove from box-to-box and scored a wonder goal. His ballwinning mentality was superb and his touches took out the opposition smoothly. He worked and worked and
Keshi’s contract won’t make Eagles Champions-1 AKINLOYE
AT LARGE
08050246155 atlarge84@yahoo.com kicked in the qualifiers and would take a special divine grace to change the course of history. With the terms of the contract, we have shot ourselves in the foot and added another year to ones we have gone without the continental trophy and may have to wait for more years if our eyes remain closed to the right way contract should be penned. Nigeria has operated in the real of limitation in last seventeen or so years with the defeatinflicted contracts we signed with our coaches after the era of Dutchmen, Clemens Westerhof and Bonfrere Jo, and it is the major reason we had been third best in the continent since Tunisia’94. Giving targets is a crucial p a r t o f m o d e r n management of human resources. It may have received great acclaims in the board-rooms for the successes it has achieved over the years and made great men and build institutions; yet it cannot shed the fact that it operates in the realm of limitation if wrongly applied. The aim to take part in
any competition is to win the top-most prize and not to be an also-run. Sportsmen no longer go to the Olympic Games to play the second fiddle in modern times. With billions of naira to be won, athletes now target only the top prize in competitions and go as far as doing the unthinkable to get to the top and remain there. O u r f o o t b a l l administrators should move away from the ancient Olympic motto of being happy in participation and quit setting self-defeatists targets which had only succeeded in dragging our game to the pit. Setting limitations as terms of contracts will only drag our football deeper in the mire. It will have occasional stir when our ranking will improve only for it to go down again as if it is a game of see-saw which is the past time of children. The contract which the NFF signed with Keshi is the greatest obstacle standing between Nigeria and the Eagles winning the trophy again for the third time in South Africa early next year and will ensure we remain
trophy-less in more Nations Cup tournaments to come if our soccer wigs do not remove the limitation from future contracts. Money and time will be invested in preparation for the tournament in Faro, Portugal and it would be like pouring water in the basket. Eagles will be getting ready for an exercise in futility. The effort will not be crowned with success and it would have been better not to have qualified and the players stay with their different clubs rather than preparing for a tournament which had been lost even before the first kick is taken. Every act undertaken on earth, though physical, has its spiritual connotations and the spiritual, as it is written in the Good Book, controls the physical. The spirit behind the contract and its terms will not work for a third win for the senior national team. It cannot go beyond its brief and can only keep its part of the agreement everything being equal. Also, it is not automatic that Eagles will get to the semi finals. They still have to earn it. Aside adequate preparation, everything must go well b e fo r e a n d d u r i n g t h e tournament. Misfortune must be shut out of the team and they must cut back on mistakes which reared their ugly heads during the qualifiers when poor goal keeping denied victory at crucial moments.
Goals must continue to rain in consistency with their last outing which produced six goals in sharp departure from their history of barren draws.
never got tired. There were those who said the central defence pair of Azubuike Egwueke and Godfrey Oboabona must sit up. Surely, they must. But we must concede that they gave their level best and intervened at some critical periods, though they need to be more agile and alert to the opposition onslaught. One is quite delighted that the victory was achieved despite the absence of several first team players, such as John Mikel Obi and Victor Moses of Chelsea FC of England who both pulled out. Not invited but also definitely in the first frame are skipper Joseph Yobo (Turkey), goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama (Israel) defender Efe Ambrose (Scotland); midfielders Kalu Uche (Turkey) and Obiora Nwankwo (Italy), strikers Ikechukwu Uche (Spain), Ahmed Musa (Russia), Osaze Odemwingie (England) and Emmanuel Emenike (Russia). There are also players like Obinna Nsofor (Russia) Fegor Ogude and Dickson Etuhu. We are indeed blessed with an embarrassment of riches. All that is left is for the technical crew to throw the door open for everyone they feel are good enough to fight for shirts as the Nations Cup camp opens in December. Tribute to R. B. Jah It was on Monday while in the United States of America that I learnt of the demise of Chief Ralph Beresford Bamidele Johnston, a former Board Member of then Nigeria Football Association in the late 1970s, serving under the late Sunday Dankaro. No doubt, he was much more known as the Team Manager of the Green Eagles team that cruised to Nigeria’s first Africa Cup of Nations triumph, at home, in 1980. The Sunday Dankaro administration laid a solid foundation for the emergence of a very strong Green Eagles, and the team signposted its potentials by winning bronze at the Africa Cup of Nations in 1976 and 1978, before lifting the trophy in 1980. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
•Keshi