Three matches, three victories and four unreplied goals! By any score card this is a great scorecard, particularly in a sport like football where the only thing that counts is winning. Nigeria’s results since Amodu Shuaibu and his technical team took over the Eagles have been remarkable. For now it is acceptable that the countries Nigeria played against are minnows in African football. That fact is balanced by even the more impressive fact that two of the matches were played away from home in ‘hostile’ territory, and that Nigeria did not concede any goal. In African football a victory away from home, no matter the coloration, must be deserved for it to happen at all. On that score Amodu Shuaibu and his young army of technical assistants must be commended for a great start to a long journey that still lies ahead.

Having said that one must now look more critically at how the team has played so far. It is glaring that the Eagles are still on course to regain their ‘Super’ status. They are not there yet! Indeed the road to travel is still long and rough! South Africa, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea have merely provided the kind of resistance that would help the Eagles boost their psychology and become a better team. A harsh and over critical judgment of how the Eagles have played so far is unnecessary.

After the poor performance of the Eagles in Ghana and the unceremonious exit of Berti Vogts, the new indigenous and the deflated team he inherited needed a psychological shot in the arm to lift their spirit again and thus raise their game. Playing against weaker teams in the first instance provides the perfect platform. The Eagles would not have been able to cope with a bad result (a defeat for instance) in any one of their last three games. Amodu’s head would have been put on the guillotine to be chopped off by his many critics.
Do I now see the outlines of a strong national team emerging from the present assembly?  The new members of the team have done well but have not been spectacular. I have not seen the same kind of entry and display that Nigerians saw when Sunday Oliseh, Jay Jay Okocha and even Etim Esin, a few years before them, debuted in the national team. The new players in the team, Mohammed Yussuf, the Uche brothers, Kalu and Okechukwu, have been just ‘Okay’, enough to give hope but not totally convincing. Match that against Oliseh’s first performance at the National Stadium, Surulere, in 1993 in a match between Nigeria and Ethiopia. Technically, that must go down as one of the best individual defensive midfield performances I have ever seen.

Having said, that the performances of the new Eagles, generally, particularly away from home, have been cautious and not totally convincing. Today, another test comes up at the National Stadium, Abuja. What do I think?