The Bitter Truth We Learnt From Super Eagles Loss
In the beginning of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers, no one expected the Super Eagles not to qualify for the tournament. But that is what happened yesterday. After a series of terrible performances against relatively smaller teams, they shamefully crashed out yesterday. Even the calculator could not save football-loving Nigerians this time. The Super Eagles need a break, they really do.
Nigerians have to wait for the next 2 years, and hope for the best from the Super Eagles.
The Super Eagles performance yesterdays shows us a few things:
African football is getting tougher
I was surprised when I watched on TV how Uganda beat Ghana during their last match. Yesterday, Mali beat Algeria 2-0 and more shocking results occurred in other matches .There are no big teams in Africa anymore. Therefore its left for the tough teams to grow tougher, and the big ones to grow bigger.
Nigeria hasn’t got tougher, or bigger even after playing in the 2014 world cup, and winning the 2013 African Cup of Nations.
It’s time Keshi goes
I don’t like the fact that I am going after a family man’s job but I am concerned about the Super Eagles future. I’ve finally made my decision, Keshi deserves to finally go. At a point, he didn’t even get up to urge his players forward when they were losing to Bafana Bafana by 2. I saw defeat in his eyes, and I didn’t like that.
His tactics of late don’t yeild good results. He consistently sticks to players that do not perform, and he manages to exclude the ones that can perform–he doesn’t give them the chance. His view towards Iheanacho and his initial stand towards Ike Uche who performed better than other Nigerian strikers today is just one an example of that.
Before the 2013 AFCON, he said he was building a team for the future. Is the current Super Eagles that future team?
Same defense-attack problem
The defense were so poor today; too slow, and created a lot of open spaces (ask Tokelo Rantie how he managed to score the 2 goals).
The attackers couldn’t convert the lots of chances they had (except for Aluko’s 2-goal equalizer). I’d single out Ahmed Musa as the worst offender and Emenike seems to be a shadow of his old self.
Poor Midfield
Ike Uche missed a few chances. But he was instrumental to the Super Eagles during the game. I’m sure he would have scored if he was getting good passes from the midfielders.
Wing play is needed
Go and do your research, the wing play used to be Nigeria’s best form of attack. It has worked for the Super Eagles in the past, but was missing in the super eagles play.
Sone Aluko should have started the game
He came in during the second half and it was only him that scored the goals that brought Nigeria on levels with South Africa.
Emenike is lackluster
He looks like a shadow of his old self. The hunger to score goals is no longer there, something must be wrong.
We should start from Scratch
We can’t continue like this and deceive ourselves that all is well. There are good players out there that are ready to give their all right from the start of a match to the finish. Do not tell me we cannot produce a world-class team from a nation of over 160 million football loving people. Let’s start from the scratch, and get this right.
Summary
Good things do not come easy. The Super Eagles deserve a break. The NFF needs to have a serious rethink, and fix the issues facing Nigeria’s football.
