Yesterday, June 30, is a day to forget in a hurry. Unfortunately, for a long time to come Nigerians will not be able to forget the day and the humiliating match it etched into their football history, forever. True, football is a beautiful game because of its unpredictability, and anything can happen in a game. But ‘anything’ in that cliché does not include a certain small Island off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, with absolutely no serious antecedents in football, called Madagascar, defeating a ‘Giant’ of Africa and African football, one of the most accomplished and most powerful footballing nations in Africa, one-time fifth-ranked in the world, Nigeria, in a football match played at Africa’s showpiece championship, with the whole world watching.
But that’s exactly what happened last night – the unthinkable became reality! Madagascar defeated Nigeria by 2-0!
This is a team that had never even scored a single goal against Nigeria in 50 years, that was struggling in the ongoing championship in which Nigeria was topping the group. They came from nowhere (worked hard for it though and deserved to win on the night) to humiliate Nigeria with two un-replied goals and no sign that even if the game had gone on for a week Nigeria would have scored a single goal!
It was a monumental humiliation for Nigeria.
Before the full import of what had happened sunk in and drowned the players in shock and self-pity, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, swung into action to halt a potential meltdown of the team and avert another disaster of the Super Eagles exiting the championship at this stage. Along with the governor of Abia State and a few other Nigerians, Amaju went to the dressing room of the Eagles immediately after the match and met the stupefied players, some in tears, shattered and unable to accept what had befallen them. It seemed like a nightmarish dream. Amaju told them the story of a circumstance, not quite the same though, but close to it, that happened the last time the Eagles won the trophy in 2013; how the team also had to pass through the crucible of near-failure against Ethiopia in the Group Stage match. The Eagles were 10 minutes away from a humiliating defeat before the fighting spirit of Naija, the never-say-die-attitude of Nigerian players, rose in time to straighten things up. In the last 10 minutes, the Eagles recovered from their slumber, scored two quick goals, and went on to win not just the match, but the championship. He told them to take lessons from that story, to forget this match quickly, and to be ready to confront the new challenge of making any further progress by taking the harder route of meeting the bigger teams en-route winning AFCON 2019. Amaju’s inspirational talk may have stirred something in the players because they found the strength to applaud when he was done. That was all last night. I don’t know if the team and their coach had their own talk afterwards, but I would be surprised if they did not. However, the players retired subdued and still lost in disbelief, their tails tucked between their legs.
The fly on the wall is watching very closely.
This morning, the lounge of the Helnan Palestine Hotel is deserted with an unfamiliar gloom everywhere. It is clear something happened during the night. Yesterday’s defeat inflicted deep wounds. George Hassan, former Green Eagles midfield player in the 1970s would say, ‘dem don put Robb inside dem yansh’. There seems to be an angry, steely determination sculptured on the players’ faces. They must have told each other the gospel truth – that they under-estimated the enormity of the match; that they did not think about the possibility and consequence of losing to a team a hundred places in ranking below them; that they took things for granted and disrespected the Barea of Madagascar; that to get back on track they would now have to walk the long hard route of facing the strongest teams in the following rounds.
At 9 0’Clock the players were on the training ground, a facility owned by the Academy of Science Technology and Maritime Transport, a magnificent complex with a lush green turf better than whatever is available in any football Club in the whole of Nigeria.
Pictures do not lie. The above picture is a scene taken only this morning as the team resumes training.
Don’t forget to visit the www.mathematical7.com It is getting busier and more interesting by the day. The latest posting is an interview from 26 years ago that would interest all young boys and girls nursing the ambition of playing professional football in Europe at an early age.
When is the best time to head to `Europe? Wilson Oruma and Charles Anosike, provide the answer. Following their Under-17 success in 1993, they headed out to Europe where I caught up with them. This is archival material shot in their little apartment in Lyon, France.
Segun Odegbami
Latest Comments