Super Eagles coach,
Lars Lagerback had told reporters that the Home Eagles were unlucky to
have crashed out of the African Nations Championship against the Mena
of Niger in Kano last Saturday, but the Swede will not be disillusioned
on the task ahead of the World Cup in South Africa.
When Shuaibu Amodu
threw out the possibility of the Premier League players making the
African Nations Cup in Angola, many had criticised him for branding
them training material. The call for home-based players’ inclusion was
further stressed after the lack-lustre performance of our Eagles at the
Nations Cup where they finished with a record seventh bronze medal. But
after their inability to show class over two legs in the CHAN
qualifiers, Lagerback will have to rely on his underperforming
Europe-based players.
There were claims
that fatigue was responsible for the first leg defeat in Niamey after
the team travelled by road and arrived the Niger capital barely 24
hours before the encounter, but they failed to redeem their battered
image in the return leg, against a country ranked 163 by FIFA. Though
it could be argued that the players did not have enough time together
and that the weather in Kano was more of an advantage to the Mena than
to our Eagles, the performance at the Sani Abacha Stadium may have
confirmed the demise of football in Nigeria. The obituary of the round
leather game in the country was also evident after the Nigeria Premier
League champions, Bayelsa United were shown the exit door in the
preliminary stage of this year’s CAF Champions League by a certain
Gazelle FC from Chad.
Flops
As it stands,
Lagerback must shift his attention to Europe and look at the current
scorecard of our players across that continent, it will be a great
surprise should our Eagles go beyond the first round of the World Cup
in South Africa, where they have been grouped alongside Argentina
(their first opponents) as well as the duo of Greece and South Korea.
Of all our outfield
regular players who featured at the African Nations Cup in Angola, only
the quartet of Mikel Obi, Onyekachi Apam, Dickson Etuhu and Taye Taiwo,
who has struggled to impress fans at the national team level, are
playing regularly at club level – barely 72 days to the World Cup in
Johannesburg. Little wonder our Swedish handler admits he will have to
take bench warmers to the Mundial.
Nigeria will be relying on the experience of the likes of Joseph
Yobo, Obafemi Martins, Osaze Odemwingie, Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Nwankwo
Kanu, who all boast of decent curriculum vitae but Lagerback will soon
realise that it takes more than a name and past achievements to make a
strong impression at football’s biggest stage. The Eagles will not
surprise any fan in South Africa and for Lagerback, $1.5million is
surely a good package that any smart coach will be happy to earn in
three months.
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