{"id":1574,"date":"2019-05-03T13:18:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T12:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/?p=1574"},"modified":"2019-07-05T11:55:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T10:55:13","slug":"afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-12\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary – Day 12"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let me reiterate that I am not in Egypt.\u00a0 My passport is still in \u2018detention\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0I am in Lagos anchoring the television presentation of some of the matches of AFCON 2019 involving the Super Eagles on NTA, in an NTA\/Hotsports collaboration. It is the least I can do in the circumstance to be a part of the ongoing feast of the best of African football.<\/div>\n
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My absence in Egypt is compensated for by a creative authentication and reportage of daily goings-on by an imaginary fly on the wall in the Eagles\u2019 camp.\u00a0 \u00a0 This morning the fly is unable to see anything or describe the mood in the Super Eagles camp.\u00a0 Since the team received the information of their next opponent things have changed here, understandably.\u00a0 The elements are back to their game.\u00a0\u00a0They have thrown up, almost from nowhere, the least expected opponent, Cameroon, for a Nigeria that has just suffered unprecedented humiliation at the hands of one of the lowest ranked football countries in the championship, for a confrontation that will be followed even on planet Mars next Saturday.\u00a0 This is another \u2018World War\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0The stakes are raised very high now for Cameroon.\u00a0\u00a0As current African champions, increasingly doing better as the championship progresses, and clear favourites now on paper,\u00a0Cameroon carry a huge burden and must not lose this match.<\/div>\n
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On the other hand, Nigeria is wounded. They cannot return home with the result they have posted so far. That team will most likely be disbanded should they lose against Cameroon and exit the championship at this point.\u00a0\u00a0So, deep down in the camp of the Super Eagles, this ultimate challenge may also be their greatest gift from heaven, the chance to redeem everything they have lost in that fateful match last weekend. So, to start their journey to Saturday\u2019s match, they must take \u2018Cameroon\u2019 to be good news.\u00a0\u00a0After all, the Super Eagles have the number of the Indomitable Lions, going through the records of meetings between them in the past decade and even more.\u00a0\u00a0Additionally, this match is a completely new game, with absolutely no bearing to everything that has happened before now. This is a match in which strategies, tactics, and technicalities will amount to little or nought.\u00a0 A quick mental replay of the recent matches between the two teams confirms this.<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Only two things will matter now – psychology and physicality.\u00a0\u00a0The matches between the two teams have always been gruelling physical and mental battles that defy regular analysis.\u00a0\u00a0Cameroon knows they are in for the fight of their lives, and that if there is a country on earth that has no fear of them after several recent battles, it is Nigeria.\u00a0\u00a0Cameroon is likely to be more jittery.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, they are the current African champions. Yes, they have been improving with every match and playing better. Yes, even on paper, they look like clear favourites. But, ironically, those also become their burden, because their indomitability will amount to nothing should they fail to defeat the Eagles.\u00a0\u00a0The fly on the wall is out early today observing both camps to find out how they will go about preparing for this epic match on Saturday.\u00a0 \u00a0Gernot Rohr has started already.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He has chosen to bring down the tension and pressure on his players.\u00a0 Yesterday he would not even go to their usual training ground to train. This is not about how much they train now.\u00a0 \u00a0Gernot Rohr took the team to the grounds behind the team\u2019s Helnan Palestine Hotel and did some foot tennis and team bonding exercises \u2013 less football, more psychology, gentle exercises to calm the nerves, heal the body and ease the tension.\u00a0 The second interesting development is that Captain Mikel Obi may become the unofficial chief \u2018psychologist\u2019 of the team, his experiences and stories when he played against Cameroon in the past 14 years and dominated them, will provide invaluable information and useful insight into how to deal with the most physical team on earth.\u00a0\u00a0Mikel, in fact, may have played his last match here in Egypt.\u00a0 Apart from the psychological dent of an extremely disappointing performance against Madagascar, he also picked up a bad knock that rules him out of the next match, for sure.<\/div>\n
He has not been training. He sat through yesterday\u2019s gentle training.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.mathematical7.com<\/a>\u00a0and read my full analysis of the match on Saturday morning. Don\u2019t miss it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Segun Odegbami<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me reiterate that I am not in Egypt.\u00a0 My passport is still in \u2018detention\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0I am in Lagos anchoring the television presentation of some of the matches of AFCON 2019 involving the Super Eagles on NTA, in an NTA\/Hotsports collaboration. It is the least I can do in the circumstance to be a part of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-afcon-2019-daily-diary","category-featured"],"gutentor_comment":0,"yoast_head":"\nAFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 12 - Mathematical 7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-12\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 12 - Mathematical 7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let me reiterate that I am not in Egypt.\u00a0 My passport is still in \u2018detention\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0I am in Lagos anchoring the television presentation of some of the matches of AFCON 2019 involving the Super Eagles on NTA, in an NTA\/Hotsports collaboration. 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