A new Eagles shall rise from the debris of Angola 2010!
Categories: General
Written By: Segun Odegbami
I believe Nigeria will do very well at the World Cup in 2010. I have always believed so. As things are shaping out now, I can already see that success in South Africa will come with a heavy price. That price will be an almost certain ‘failure’ in Angola. Before I am accused of being a prophet of doom let me attempt a quick explanation.
I congratulate Amodu Shuaibu and his technical aides for their endorsement by the NFF as the team to take Nigeria to the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup. Every 4 years when the two championships take place one after the other the African Cup of Nations effectively serves as the best preparation for African teams in the championship that have also qualified for the World Cup. Angola 2010 should, therefore, ordinarily provide Nigeria with what the country has not had in its World Cup campaign so far – the time to build a team that can reflect its true capability as an authentic contender for the priciest trophy in world football. So far, considering the staccato manner of the team’s performances in the qualifying campaign, and the general impression that the team needs major fundamental technical tinkering with to be able to make an impact at the World Cup, it is my humble opinion that the team faces a major challenge here to do well at the African championship.
What is Nigeria’s ambition going into the African Cup of Nations? Is it to win it? Or is it to use it to develop a team that can do very well in the World Cup? Or is it both? I ask this question because my humble assessment of the present Super Eagles tells me the team cannot win the African championship in Angola and also go far in the World Cup without introducing major changes to the team. With the present high level of financial and motivational incentives available to the team, such changes must be in the other areas of player-content and team style and tactics! Are there some players out there somewhere in the world of football that should be in the team that are not there? If so where are they? I doubt if there are any such new players that have not been caught in Amodu’s radar considering the variety and number he has invited and used throughout the qualifying series. In that regard what Amodu can do now is revisit his rich chest of Nigerian players and with his technical team start to re-evaluate all the players. He will find many he had hurriedly dropped for one reason or the other that can still serve the team well. I specifically can name Chidi Odiah, Chinedu Ogbuke and Ikechukwu Uche.
In the area of playing style I know this is intrinsic. It is either you know it or you don’t. In this area, with all due respect, Amodu needs a little more support which his technical team has not been able to provide him. He should go get it now. I need say no more.
So, what should Nigerians expect into the immediate future as the 2010 campaigns draw closer. For the Angolan campaign, without the benefit of time to effect major changes to the team in player quality and style, Nigerians should start to reduce the level of their expectations. The country stands little chance of winning the championship, at least not with the way the present team has been playing. I hope that failure to win the African Cup (even if that’s not necessarily his mandate) will not spell another round of calls for a new technical crew before the World Cup.
On the other hand there is enough time between the end of African Cup of Nations and the start of the World Cup to introduce major changes to the Super Eagles that can transform the team. And that’s why I believe that a team will be built from the lessons and ‘failure’ in Angola and be reflected subsequently in the performance of the Super Eagles by June 2010.
We are going to the African championship blinded by the euphoria and the sentiments of a World Cup qualification success. We are like a pregnant woman that delivers a baby and forgets the pain of childbirth. The price the country will have to pay is a likely poor showing in Angola from which shall arise a new team that will take us to the zenith of the 2010 World Cup!
November 28th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Who says we cannot fail in both places? We failed at Mali 2002 and the team was dismantled (which is part of the problem of the national team today- the interrupted transition of the 1994 team to a new team) and we went on to fail again at Korea/Japan 2002 when Baba Onigbinde was used to replace Amodu/Keshi and Oliseh/Finidi were checked out for being rude (?) to late Ishaya Mark Aku (like they were his employees)
Segun, you have not said enough. Which pattern of play should the team adopt? Who should not be in the team? Kanu? Taiye Taiwo? Come out and speak up because you are involved. Or forever hold your peace.
We can also do well at both tournaments(Nations Cup-Semi Final, World Cup- Q/Final) this current team can do it- with NFF and Amodu being bold and ready to do the right things -discipline is key and extra tactical thinking is required, let the need for a technical adviser to support the team leave the realm of rumours and become a concrete decision - fast
December 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with Adokiye Amiesamaka’s suggestion that Stephen Keshi and Samson Sia-Sia [and also Kalinka] should be brought on board to assist Amodu, with Amodu remaining the head man and I wish to add the following in support.
1. The loud cries for a foreign coach may indicate nothing more than a deep seated, volcanic, and disgraceful inferiority complex, a desire for a “white man” to lead the Super Eagles to WOZA 2010. How would most people react if one were to suggest that the Ghanaian coach, Sellas Tetteh[former Julius Berger player, Sia-Sia’s friend and contemporary], a black man, who just led the Ghana U20 team to win the U20 World Cup in Egypt to take over the Super Eagles? At least he has a record of success at international tournament level, even if at U20 level, better than most of the European names being touted. The foreign coach is always a white witchdoctor [apologies to Troussier] that would assure instant and magical success. This even may be an indication of an atavistic urge to enthrone fetishism in football; all is well if a foreign coach [a white man] is in charge. Perhaps the white man [through no fault of his], in another sense, has been downgraded into nothing more than a fetish object or talisman. What a shame.
2. If at all a foreign coach would be appointed, he should be appointed after WOZA 2010[if necessary], and he must come to live and work in Nigeria, like Father Tiko. Would any of the names being touted agree to sign up under such conditions? Are they really committed to Nigeria? Let him earn respect, under Nigerian/African conditions, by qualifying Nigeria for World Cup 2014. Amodu deserves maximum respect and benefit of doubt for qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup on two occasions. We pay the white foreign coaches a great deal more money than black Nigerian coaches and don’t even pay Nigerian coaches on time. If blacks were treated this way in a “white” country, we would accuse and condemn white people of racism. We have degraded and turned local coaches to 2nd class citizens in their own country. We then turn around to say that the players don’t respect the local coaches, when the administrators lead in disrespecting the coaches by not paying them their pittances [in comparison to what our administrators pay foreign white coaches] in good time. If a local coach had performed as poorly as Berti Vogts did in AFCON Ghana 2008, his name would be anathema forever amongst the ‘foreign coach by force’ brigade. He would be cited as an example of why a local coach should never lead the Super Eagles to any tournament.
3. If one may speak frankly, we flatter ourselves in Nigeria to believe that the truly big name coaches are desperate to take charge of the Super Eagles. Within the football world, Nigeria is viewed as a dysfunctional and under achieving country with abysmal organization. Carlos Alberto[1970 Brazil World Cup winning captain], a very short term coach of the Super Eagles once said that there is no organization at all in Nigerian football. No gainfully employed big name foreign coach will take up the Super Eagles job. Amongst the unemployed coaches even, only those with little or no job prospects are keen on the job. We are not a football super power yet.
4. Frankly, we flatter ourselves to believe that the players of the Super Eagles are amongst the biggest names in Europe. While I pray and hope they get to that level, they are not there yet. We have some very good players. Some have great potential, but how many Nigerian players have been nominated for the World Player of the Year and/or Ballon D’Or awards in the recent past like Etoo and Drogba? Compare the spine of the current Super Eagles with that of Ivory Coast; Toure / Toure & Zokora/ Drogba [Manchester City/Barcelona & Valencia/Chelsea].All these foreign coaches that are being touted, if they wish to be honest, are not very familiar with our players. They have not watched them play regularly. They do not know their strengths, attributes, weaknesses, etc. This is why a much touted foreign coach, ultimately a failure with the Super Eagles; Berti Vogts, would play Kanu deep in midfield to “fetch and carry’ the ball into attack, despite Kanu’s age, fitness, pace and stamina issues. Ultimately Vogts performed very poorly, worse in fact, in comparison to the man he replaced; Eguavoen. I remember that Ojeikere wrote something funny and curious about how being knocked out of the Nations Cup by a ten man Ghana was fortuitous because the Ghanaian crowd would have seriously dealt with all the Nigerians in the stadium in the event of a Nigerian victory. Please! So hooliganism is now a lame and dodgy excuse for the abject failure of a foreign coach? Ojeikere also wrote that it was time for a good foreign coach to be employed to replace Vogts. Please! Wasn’t Vogts a good foreign coach when he was employed? Meanwhile, Vogts won the World Cup as a player with West Germany and the European Championships as a coach. Is he not “better” than Mancini, Terim, Gullit etc?
5. Isn’t the cry for a foreign coach another example of the destructive fire brigade approach? The World Cup holds under six months time from now. All the Super Eagles players are professionals, mostly based in Europe. They can only be in camp after the end of the various leagues they play in round up the 2009/2010 season. What value can any new and foreign coach add in this very short period? Even geniuses need sufficient time to succeed. Not to say that Sia-Sia and Kalinka are geniuses, but shortage of time meant they could not radically improve the fortunes of the Flying Eagles in the U20 World Cup in Egypt. Perhaps they should not have accepted that poisoned chalice, but that is another story. Haven’t we learnt from the Bora Milutinovic and the Onigbinde failures in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups respectively? At least Bora kept the bulk of the team he inherited and qualified for the second round. After AFCON 2002 in Mali in which Nigeria came third after losing in the semi-finals to a very good Senegal side[quarter finalists in World Cup 2002], a foreign correspondent[a white South African] wrote; ”Nigeria are likely to dump coach Shuaibu Amodu in another knee-jerk reaction to the perceived failure, although third place is nothing to be scoffed at”. Amodu was dumped and his replacement, Onigbinde, chose to unjustifiably experiment at World Cup tournament level. Where are the likes of Ogbeche, Ikedia, Opabunmi, etc now? He discarded the experienced spine of the team he inherited from Amodu. The Super Eagles played poorly and exited in the first round. We keep snatching failure out of the mouth of great potential. Again, do we never learn?
6. I have written before that on the eve of the 1970 World Cup, Brazil sacked its coach, Joao Saldanha and replaced him with Mario Zagallo. This was because Saldanha suffered from acute psychological problems and poor physical health before the World Cup commenced. Zagallo took the advice of the senior players not to tamper with Saldanha’s team. The rest is history. The concept of honor exists in football. Guus Hiddink recently stated”But even if one or another federation were to offer me the chance to take care of their national side for the World Cup, I would refuse. That would only be possible if I had made it through with the team I was in charge of during the qualifiers”. But some hungry, greedy and cynical coaches would disagree with Hiddink.
7. I am bound to say that the present Super Eagles are a work in progress and not perfect. But the potential is there for the discerning observer to see. Perhaps the discussion should be about the problems bedeviling the Super Eagles and necessary solutions. In my opinion, the problems include but may not be limited to
a. A defense that requires more organization; the views of Taribo West are instructive. He once said that at the 1996 Olympiad where he partnered Uche Okechukwu, he, West, being more mobile, attacked all balls coming through the left and the center. Uche covered. Uche dealt wtih aerial balls and balls coming through the right. West covered. Rewind to the 1994 World Cup. Uche mostly attacked the ball. Chidi Nwanu covered. Fast forward to year 2009. Truth be told, the current central defense of the Super Eagles cries out for a sound partnership, the foundation of a sound defense. The key may be to find a suitable partner for Yobo, who at this stage of his career is a covering defender. Dele Adeleye is another excellent covering defender, which is why Yobo with Adeleye may not necessarily be a good partnership. Just re-watch the 2-2 draw with Tunisia in Abuja. Both often waited for the other to attack the ball, especially from the left flank of the Tunisians. This contributed to the second equalizer scored by the Tunisians. In my opinion, a fit Danny Shittu attacks the ball better than most of our central defenders.
In modern day football, the two full backs take their positional cue from the central defenders, who usually take charge of communications, instructions and organization. And the two full backs don’t attack at the same time.
The role of the holding midfielder is also crucial. He must always exercise positional discipline in front of the central defenders, sometimes shifting to cover for an overlapping full back.
I think Keshi can assist with defensive organization, where the sum of all the defenders adds up to much more than the individual parts, a skill he is widely noted for. A renowned and vocal defensive organizer even as a player, he played as Libero for Anderlecht, a la Beckenbauer, Scirea, Baresi etc in European competitions. This is no mean honor and recognition. The position of Libero is reserved in Europe for the truly visionary and perceptive players with organizational abilities. If a white man had qualified Togo for the World Cup, he would be celebrated in Africa as a miracle worker; a white magician/witchdoctor. Instead, some us of view Keshi as a troublemaker.
b. Poor, cumbersome and slow transition from attack to defense: When is the last time the Super Eagles successfully executed a fast counter attack? Yet we have very quick players in the squad. Aren’t our build-ups too slow and ponderous, giving our opponents sufficient time and space to retreat and organize their defenses? Again, as a player and coach, Keshi has demonstrated ample expertise in this tactic. We don’t need to bring back Oliseh to quickly move the ball by way of a long pass [not aimless long ball] to the wings or the forwards. Is it so difficult to get our central midfielders such as Obi, Olofinjanna, Ajilore, Keita, Obodo, Uche, etc to practice the accurate long pass? The greatest passers/crossers/free kick specialists [Gerson, Zico, Beckham, Rivelino, Pirlo, Juninho Pernambucano] in football are noted for repetitive passing/crossing/shooting practice during training sessions, even in international training camps. Not that we should play kick and rush football. But we may need to vary short passes with long passes, after all, as is said in F.C. Barcelona, the ball will always move quicker than the player.
c. Discipline [or Indiscipline]. Some people always claim that only a foreign coach can maintain discipline in the Super Eagles camp. Indeed. When did Bora become a black man and/or a local coach? Didn’t the press report that before Denmark beat Nigeria 4-1 to knock the Super Eagles out of World Cup 1998, our players stayed up late into the night discussing bonuses? The question is, why weren’t the bonuses agreed upon in advance? Why did the players have to negotiate at such a late hour? Why were the players apprehensive that they might not get paid?
And Berti Vogts? Didn’t the Nigerian press regale us with stories of the nocturnal activities of some players in Ghana AFCON 2008? For example, according to the Nigerian press, a striker was caught in an unseemly position with two girls at the same time. Was he expelled from camp? Keshi qualified Togo for the 2006 World Cup. The star player for Togo, Sheyi Adebayor [Togolese international of Nigerian roots] clashed with him. Keshi was sacked. The Togolese delegation spectacularly in misbehaved Germany. Surely, this was not Keshi’s fault. The players went on strike for non payment of allowances and threatened to boycott matches. Was this Keshi’s fault? Yet, a foreign coach, a white man, took Togo to the 2006 World Cup.
And was indiscipline a major issue in World Cup 2002 when Onigbinde was in charge of the Super Eagles?
Inept and bad administration [including undue official interference] is the main source and root cause of player indiscipline. If administration is at a premium, any undisciplined player may be punished by the head coach without interference, fear or favor and discipline maintained. But do we ever learn?
PAUL TEMITOPE