Finally, it took a ten man Black Stars of Ghana to ensure that Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi and millions of soccer crazy Nigerians face the reality of the task that will face the national team at the World Cup in Brazil this summer.
Keshi’s reign as national team coach has been terrific and rewarding as he has met the targets so far given to him by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), while we wait for his semi final shot at the World Cup, but his methods, tactical approach during matches have left yours sincerely and other objective minded fans on his capacity to lead the Nigerian senior team to any meaningful success at the World Cup.
The just concluded Championship of African Nations (CHAN) has finally exposed Keshi’s limitations technically and tactically with his bunch of clueless home-lads who mostly failed to express any content on why they were in South Africa.
It’s been a long while Nigerians watched their national team without confidence.
The first game against Mali was simply an eye opener as the tem failed in all departments. Against Mozambique we struggled and got it right in the closing minutes, against hosts, South Africa, the team lived above board with much to cheer and believe.
The fairytale of Keshi’s limitations almost played out in the quarter final game against Morocco after a scandalous 3-0 scoreline at half time. However, if you tend to believe that Keshi offered any magical instructions to the boys at half time, forget it. He had nothing to say as he was quoted to have said “You want to disgrace me, it is not me you will disgrace, but yourselves” and he left the dressing room in anger.
How the team made it back, equalized and won in extra time can be attributed to some extremely gifted players in the team who may have stood out among Africa’s best eleven home based players. Against the Black Stars of Ghana, the Eagles were horribly devoid of ideas. Chances were missed, the Ghanaian defence obviously the best in the championship kept them at bay, our attackers were lost, and we failed to take advantage of our numerical strength.
The Ghanaians knew that once the game got in extra time, they could stretch their luck into penalty shoot outs knowing fully well that the Eagles had no quality goal keeper in Chigozie Agbim who was obviously the flop of the championship.
The Ghanaians matched the Eagles one on one to stretch the match to the penalty shootout having played for about 50 minutes with a man advantage, that is plus the extra time.
“We purposely stretched the match into penalty shoot out because we knew that Nigeria did not know how to play penalties “those were the exact words of Ghanaian coach, Maxwell Konadu at the post match conference.
However, the experience gained by the team will put Keshi and his final selection of 24 players in pole position at the World Cup. With some of the revelations like Ejike Uzoenyi, Rabiu Ibrahim, Keshi should realize by now that only the best legs will be good enough to hop on the flight to Sao Paulo before the World Cup begins on June 12.
I have repeatedly stated that Nigeria has a very lucky group at the World Cup and that despite the seeming optimism by most Nigerians of a walk over, the success or failure of the Eagles in Brazil will solely depend on the coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi based on the final choice of players.
Watching the CHAN Eagles all through their displays, I kept wondering how most of them made the team. Goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim remained the obvious first choice despite widespread calls for him to be dropped having flopped in almost all the matches he featured. His inclusion in the team exposed Keshi’s insensitivity to the team’s performance from the first game against Mali to the penalty shoot out against Ghana where he kept jumping like a monkey even before any kick was taken.
We are still trying to come to terms why a gifted striker like Mfon Udoh, who was among the highest goal scorers last season with 13 goals in the league, non-from the penalty spot was not invited to the national camp early enough with the team.
We are also concerned why his invitation to the team came less than two weeks to the competition and if that was enough time for him to blend with the team and impress Keshi.
Also, a player of Azubuike Egwekewe’s status having mustered enough experience with the national team since Keshi assumption, failed to use whatever he must have gained to organize the back four even as it was glaring that the team had no goalkeeper.
The World Cup is no child’s play with about less than three months to go and with preparations yet to begin, the NFF and Keshi need to sit down and take meaningful decisions on what type of team would be paraded and that starts with his 40 man list.
I want to state that of the likes of Chigozie Agbim and his fellow clowns who let the nation down in South Africa are invited in the initial set of players, then we should begin to comport ourselves to a very interesting World Cup experience where only nightmares will fill our very thought with much anger.
Good enough, the NFF has lined up an international friendly against Mexico on March 3 while the Croatian Football Federation is yet to give a schedule date for an international friendly.
The team needs all the preparations it can get to make the World Cup a memorable delight. As such, Keshi should please have a retrospect on some outstanding players he would love to be in the team, but for pride he has sidelined names.
The Super Eagles need re-enforcements in all departments and the final choice lies with Keshi. I am not against any home based player not making it to Brazil, but the experience at South Africa has clearly shown that the vision of that team at CHAN 2014 was highly blurred and limited.
The World Cup is a bigger stage. The World Cup is a political stage. The World Cup is the biggest marketing stage of any country. The coach of Iran, Carlos Queiroz was in South Africa to watch the Eagles play their opening match against Mali and I was pained that the perception he took back to Tehran was not a true reflection of our senior national team.
If we parade what we saw in South Africa in Brazil, I believe our football will return to the dark days.
Keshi needs to watch as many league matches were our players feature in Europe and make contacts with them. He needs some of the big boys for the experience they posses both in the attack and defence. He needs to talk with them regularly and assure them that he bears no grudge. The national team is bigger than Keshi’s pride and as often said, out of all the African representatives heading to Brazil, why Nigeria is good enough to make the last four.
I plead with Keshi not to lose this momentum, but to take the positives from the CHAN experience and sit up. He should be more pro-active in his tactical approach even as we appreciate the gesture of the NFF to assist the team with a game analyst because Keshi has failed to read matches so far. We are tired of watching our darling team struggle to win matches even against little opposition. We need to face bigger teams, play better and look ahead to better outings.
I commend the home based lads; you have done well at your inaugural appearance. You lost to a better team, but you were not disgraced. There is room for improvement and a chance for a shot at the trophy at the next edition. It shows the depth of our league which is being re-positioned and no matter what the South African did to gang up against the team psychologically; we have returned home with our heads held high.
As for Keshi, the fairy tale is over. Wake up for the future is filled with greater tasks. Be bold and face it with your chewing gum.
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