Nigeria Content Online

It has been four days since the Super Eagles defeated the Leone
Stars of Sierra Leone in Lagos. The game was officially the team’s first outing
under current helmsman Samson Siasia.

Though it was a friendly game ahead of the more important 2012
Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, which comes up at the end of
next month, last Wednesday’s encounter at the Teslim Balogun Stadium afforded
Siasia an opportunity to get to meet the core of the national team’s top
players – as he sets about the task of re-establishing the Super Eagles as one
of world football’s top sides.

Not a simple task to go about considering the depth Nigerian
football has fallen to after years of neglect and mismanagement by the
country’s sports authorities. The team, which was once rated as high as number
five in the world ranked as low as 82 in November 1999.

The team has risen to international prominence in the 90s,
winning the a second Africa Cup of Nations title in 1994 and a second round
appearance at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups. Since then, the team had been
on a steady decline and it has not won the Africa Cup of Nations title since
then. Also, securing qualification for the World Cup has become a herculean task
for the team; talk more of making it beyond the first round.

The task before Siasia who, after seeing his plans to take on
Guatemala hit the rocks, got a hastily arranged game against Sierra Leone to
serve as his first game in charge of the Super Eagles.

After 90 minutes of football, Siasia’s injury-plagued Super
Eagles side ran out with a slim 2-1 win over the visitors.

But the margin of victory should and ought to have been much
wider but for the profligacy of the Nigerian forward line marshalled by Peter
Utaka, Ahmed Musa and Emmanuel Emenike, who between them have less than a
handful of caps for the Eagles with the latter making his national team debut.

Inexperienced but
spirited

Emenike wasn’t the only debutant in the side. There was also the
Italy-based duo of Michael Odibe and Joel Obi, as well as the Nigerian-based
pair of Ekigho Ehiosun of Warri Wolves and Heartland’s Julius Ubido who both
came into the fray as substitutes.

On the substitutes’ bench, albeit undressed for the game was
another Italy-based midfielder Obiora Nwankwo who couldn’t shake off a thigh
injury thus missing a chance to make his Super Eagles debut on the night.

There was also on the bench the Nigerian-based duo of Osas Okoro
and goalkeeper Bassey Akpan who had both featured in the recent past for the
Super Eagles B side.

Such was the level of inexperience on the night as Siasia was
forced to hand debut caps to as many players as he could, no thanks to the
spate of injuries to some of the earlier invited players.

Even Heartland’s Chibuzor Okonkwo and Holland-based Femi Ajilore
who were in the starting line-up, had only been capped a handful of times while
Israel-based goalie Dele Aiyenugba, although a regular fixture in the Super
Eagles setup for close to seven years, has limited international experience.

And when Osaze Odemwingie, the most experienced member of the
Nigerian forward line finally got the ball into the back of the net midway
through the second half, it was wrongly ruled out for offside.

That notwithstanding, the Super Eagles outplayed their opponents
in every department of the game, particularly in the first half before a series
of substitutions resulted in the team losing its balance, concentration and
structure in the second half which resulted in the Leone Stars’ consolatory
goal.

A section of fans at the stadium failed to realise this fact and resorted to
booing the Eagles after the Leone Stars scored. Perhaps, it was just their own
peculiar way of showing their disenchantment at the FA’s scheduling of a Super
Eagles match in Lagos after seven years. They obviously forgot the purpose for
setting up friendly matches in the first instance. At the end of the day, the
Super Eagles earned a deserved victory, and Siasia got off to a promising
start.