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All the advantage
the Eagles may have in the coming world cup may well hinge on the fact
that they will be playing on African soil.

It has been an
eventful period for the team in the last four months. An uninspiring
performance in Angola led to calls that saw Coach Shaibu Amodu relieved
of his duties, denying him for a second time the chance of leading the
team to the World Cup finals. Former Sweden coach, Lars Lagerback
signed on as new coach on February 27, 2010 and was been given a
mandate to lead the Eagles to the semi finals of the World Cup.

On April 18, he
released a tentative list of 44 players from which he is supposed to
pick his final 23 players for the Mundial in South Africa. The list
itself had one or two surprises and if there is a level playing ground
in the training camp then maybe some unheralded players may just make
the cut.

While Nigeria’s
list is still provisional, Argentina have gone ahead to name a starting
eleven barring injuries, who will face Nigeria in their opening match
on June 12.

The players named
by Argentina coach, Diego Maradona, include: Sergio Romero; Nicolas
Otamendi, Martin Demichelis, Walter Samuel, Gabriel Heinze; Jonas
Guiterrez, Juan Veron, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria; Lionel Messi,
Gonzalo Higuain or Carlos Tevez.

He said in an
interview on an Argentine radio station: “”I have tried many
full-backs, I had Emiliano Papa and Javier Zanetti but I have now
settled for playing four centre-backs in defence. I’m very happy with
Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demichelis, Walter Samuel and Gabriel Heinze.
The performance against Germany showed how good this group are
together. There will be alternatives in the squad however such as
Clemente Rodriguez.” He justified the line up with this comment: “The
attitude of the boys in the last game showed the spirit that we have in
this team, it is a spirit that you’ll always find in Argentine
football. In fact we went to Uruguay and won, we kept [Diego] Forlan
very quiet that night.” History with Argentina Qualification for the
World Cup was fortuitous to say the least. It was a topsy turvy
campaign and at the last, our destiny was in the hands of Mozambique
and Tunisia. We could say it was not easy qualifying for South Africa.
But we qualified because Tunisia faltered on the last day by losing in
Maputo; the Eagles played their part in beating Kenya in Nairobi 3-2
with an Obafemi Martins’ goal nine minutes from time.

We are now here and
Argentina will be our first foes in Johannesburg. In Nigeria’s history
against Argentina, there has only been one occasion that Nigeria got
the better of the Argentines and this was at the U23 at the 1996
Olympics, where a Daniel Amokachi inspired side came from behind to
beat the South Africans 3-2. Daniel is now an assistant coach to the
Eagles and he will need to inspire this team to such great heights.

Where everybody
fears or respects Lionel Messi in unequal measures for his prowess on
the ball and it is understandable, Nigeria has a chance like every team
to the World Cup if it can just get its act together.

The centre backs
against the Eagles Playing a defence of only centre backs and the names
mentioned by Maradona brings up opportunities that the Eagles should
exploit. First of all, the average age of that defence is 29 and added
is the fact that they have had long and strenuous league campaigns.
That itself is an advantage in disguise – they can be exploited with
explosive pace and passes in the gaps that will be created by reduced
agility. Yes, age in defence leads to a lot of experience but pace is
the name of the game in today’s football.

Can Lagerback
devise a method to exploit these? Their full backs will not be doing a
lot of over-lapping, that is for sure. That can also be exploited if
our full backs can push forward at every opportunity if the attackers
are keeping the defenders busy in the middle of the pitch. As it showed
in their friendly match against Germany early this year, the times that
the Germans tried to stretch the play by going through the wings,
Maradona’s men had challenges but unfortunately, the Germans do not
have the pace that Nigeria can boast of in the attack. This is one of
the reasons why it has been suggested that Nigeria may have to play
with a two-man sitting defensive midfielder system.

This ultimately
means that the Eagles must come up with a plan to narrow their play and
make it expansive at the same time; then they will have a chance
against the genius, Lionel Messi and his cohorts. We know from
experience that even very good defences are troubled when you stretch
them.

The oldest lesson
in sport is – put genius in a foot race with desire, and desire will
win every time. The Eagles must be desirous of victory over Argentina
but more importantly, that desire must be shown by their actions on the
pitch and in this, Lagerback has to get his selection right, choosing
the right players with the right desires to prosecute the World Cup. If
he does this, he will have achieved something greater than his
predecessor. He must recognise that a footballer who consistently turns
in eight out of 10 performances is far better than one who gets full
marks one week and half marks the next.

Finally Maradona
suffered a dog bite recently and he told www.goal.com: “The dog bite
was my fault.” If Nigeria beats Argentina on June 12, it will be his
greater fault.

They say once
bitten, twice shy, will Nigeria be able to bite the Argentine legend in
Johannesburg on June 12 where it hurts most? – His ego! It is possible
because there is one thing that Nigeria can arguably boast of, a better
coach in Lars Lagerback. They also say that the World Cup is about
coaches because the best teams will be represented with the best
players in the world. Will Lagerback prove a better coach than Maradona?

– It is all to play for in South Africa.

The cry of
Nigerians over the charade at the Nations Cup in Angola was that the
team was totally bereft of guile and had more of brawn. West Africans
are known to be physically gifted, but lacking in technical quality.
Lars Lagerback can add that bit of guile that will make the physical
nature to become intimidating. The Eagles as presently constituted are
still good enough to scrap for at least a second round appearance but
that is only if we will use all our opponents’ defects to our own
advantage.

So maybe a shake-up
in the Eagles team will be good and lead to a wake -up; or maybe the
shake-up will be just that – a shake-up.