As the Super Eagles of Nigeria trade tackles with old foes in its quest for a fourth title at AFCON 2023, KEHINDE OSASONA asks if they could prove bookmakers wrong.
When a national team wins any crucial game or a major trophy, memories linger and millions of fans and supporters relish such moments.
Back home, the Super Eagles have had both their highs and lows in their quest for glory; even at that, there have been some memorable matches that gave Nigerians joy.
Drawn in group A alongside Cote D’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, they had previously triumphed in 1980, 1994, and 201.
In the qualifiers, the Super Eagles secured the top spot in its group with 15 points, 22 goals, including a remarkable 16-0 aggregate win against Sao Tome and Principe.
The challenge
Again, like previous outings at AFCON, the Super Eagles are under pressure to clinch win the tourney. Nigeria have been runners-up four times in 1984, 1988, 1990 and the year 2020, but have only clinched the coveted trophy three times.
Nevertheless, the team’s best outing according to soccer pundits was in Tunisia where they lifted the trophy after beating the teams considered as tough right from the group stage.
What made the 1994 outing unique according to analysts was the quality of the team that represented the country. The Clemence Westerhof and Jo Bonfere magic and the eventual qualification for the Mundial in the United State in 1994 were the epic situations.
As the 2023 tourney kicks off in Cote D’Ivoire, the team and its new handler Jose Peseiro are again expected to win the cup having disappointed the country on many occasions.
Criticisms
Analysts, pundits and retired Nigeria international have started calling out the handler and the Nigeria Football Federation over what they called ‘Shoddy’ preparation and fire brigade approach that the country football federation always employed each time a major cracker is at hand.
First to fire a salvo was a former central defender Sam Sodje who advised Peseiro to set up his team in a compact formation to nullify the opponents’ attacking threat if they are to stand a good chance of winning the trophy.
Sodje, who urged Peseiro to opt for experience and physicality when choosing his starting centre-backs, suggested that Troost-Ekong and Bassey should get the nod as he ran the rule over the five central defenders picked.
Also knocking the team handler, a former Super Falcons coach, Godwin Izilein, predicted that going by its preparations, he would not be surprised if the team failed to fly at the tournament.
Izilein, who spoke to newsmen in Calabar, described the Eagles preparations as shoddy, adding that some “under-serving players who do not deserve a shirt have been invited for the tournament.”
He was quoted as saying, “Personally, with the calibre of some of the players invited and the nature of their preparation for the tournament, it will not surprise me if Nigeria fails to do well.
“Preparation and pre-tournament matches should have been grade A, but with what I am seeing now, I am convinced that we are truly not ready for the coveted trophy that has eluded us for 11 years now.”
Toeing the same line, another ex-Eagle, Waidi Akanni, wrote off the team’s possibility of winning the tournament, insisting that they would “need a miracle to win the cup.”
Akanni, a member of the bronze medal-winning U-20 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship team, said the handlers of the team should have included some home-based players, stressing, “My expectations are the same whenever Super Eagles play, they have become very unreliable. So, I won’t expect much from them because I don’t want to be disappointed.
“Winning AFCON will be a miracle for Nigeria. It will be presumptuous of me to expect Super Eagles to come out tops at the championship.
“One of the elements of a team is predictability; I can’t predict them because I don’t know their pedigree.
“I believe I’m not the only one that feels this way about the team, a lot needs to be worked on in the midfield, defence and goalkeeping departments of the team,” he said.
“It has always been the same for AFCON with African countries because of the European season. It’s difficult to get a full house of players as a group till about a week to AFCON.
“I think the coaches should have given some home-based-players the opportunity to compete for some positions, not only goal keepers.”
Intervention
Meanwhile, in a bid to rescue the team and to avert the recurrence of past experiences of fund inadequacy which often culminated in bad performances, President Bola Tinubu recently cleared the outstanding payment that the Federal Government owed the Super Eagles.
The payment according to reports entails the clearing of the senior national team coach salaries running up to 15 months, payments of allowances and promises due to the senior national teams, females, and Under-20 national team.
The statement read partly, “President Tinubu has approved the payment of N12 billion outstanding backlogs for Nigeria’s National teams of various sports, which includes Super Eagles and others.
“The payment entails the clearing of the senior national team coach salaries running up to 15 months, payments of allowances and promises due to the senior national teams, females, and Under-20 national team.
“This is coming at a time when the Super Eagles of Nigeria are preparing to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations, which is billed to start later this month.”
Experts, enthusiasts’ takes
Speaking to Blueprint Weekend in an exclusive chat, a football analyst, Ogbein Mark, pitched his tent with the Super Eagles, saying “they are the team to beat.”
He said: “With these crops of energetic and tested professionals, I think we are good to go. Look at all the departments; we have guys who can effectively deliver when chips are down. Osihmen, who is still basking in the euphoria of his new status as African Footballer of the year, would no doubt want to prove that his selection was not a fluke. It promises to be a showdown I must say. So, I have no doubt at all, with the calibers of players in camp, our darling team is poise to fly above others including the host Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire.”
Also, an ardent follower of the team, Femisire Akibintan, told this reporter that Super Eagles’ victory “is a done deal.”
According to him, the team is currently bubbling with confidence owing to the players’ individual performances at club levels, a few injuries and the fact that the team “I watched play irrespective of the outcome of the last one was very athletic.”
“I don’t get carried away by victories during friendlies, I only watch out for stamina, psychology of the players and their readiness and I have seen that.”
