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Carthage Versus Super!
By Toyin | June 18, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009 is going to be a very important day for Nigeria in sporting terms! Our senior national team, the Super Eagles would lock ‘wings’ with their Tunisian counterparts known as the Carthage Eagles in a very vital South Africa 2010 world cup qualifier.
As things stands currently, the Tunisians are leading the group with a two point advantage over our Super Eagles. A loss in this encounter is not even an option as a five points gap would be opened up should we fail to pick the maximum points at stake.
Ironically, Nigeria won her last Nations’ cup in this North Africa Arab country and since then we’ve struggled to hit the golden mark since then. Recent meetings between the sides have not really thrown up any major domination. We defeated them at the Nigeria/Ghana 2000 Africa Nations’ cup while they knocked us out at the semi finals stage of same competition in 2004 via penalties.
By and large, the Super Eagles seem to have problem coping with North African teams and we cannot afford that luxury this time around. It’s very simple and straightforward; we must get the three maximum points at stake to really put our feet down in ensuring the accomplishment of our set target-qualification for SA 2010.
There is hope and a new sense of optimism concerning the happenings in the team. What are these? Competition, new players, new attitude and demystification!
I know you understand the first three but let me explain the last one. Situations where a player can ‘walk’ into the team without adequate preparation or fitness seem to have been killed and buried. Two good examples suffice here. Taye Taiwo, who plays his club football in France, refused to show up for our friendly against Les Blues while Anelka travelled all the way from UK to honour the same match.
Mikel Obi didn’t show up for the game against Ireland in Uk only to play for Chelsea a couple of days later. When some commentators postulate that the players have a right to choose the friendly matches they play in or not, I only laugh! If the truth must be said, none of these so called super stars would have become anything had they not featured for any of our national teams.
Taye Taiwo and Mikel Obi became very prominent after the FIFA under 21 competition in Holland in 2005. Their big break came from that competition and this is the truth!
No one can deny the fact that the players sacrifice a lot to play for the country. However, even more significant is the importance of representing the country well at all times. Our most important and unifying sport is football, the earlier we treat it as such, the better for us.
Now Dickson Etuhu, Heldeson Chiejile and Uche Kalu (the midfielder) have shown that there is no one irreplaceable; someone else can always do a job when given the opportunity! And so Yobo, Ayila, Odiah, Taiwo, Mikel, Martins and Shittu didn’t play in Nigeria’s last three matches and wait for this: We did okay and they were demystified!
The onus of the above is that coach Ahmodu must be prepared to give a first team shirt to the one that’s prepared, fit, committed and ready to do the country proud. France won the World cup without Eric Cantona and David Ginola; two of their finest but arrogant and erratic talents!
As we face the Tunisians on Saturday, we must play with the reality that a draw or worse still, a loss may signal the end of our world cup dream. We must use our best and be determined to take the maximum three points available on the plate on the day.
While we do not throw the baby away with the bathwater, it’s imperative, even critical that current form, fitness and discipline should be sacrosanct in our team selections. Our game against the Carthage Eagles should be the beginning of this reality.
Therefore, I expect to see our best line up against the Tunisians. If Taye Taiwo is not ready enough, the young man from Stade de France should replace him. We must get our tactics right! We can’t joke with the emotions of over 100million Nigerians.
The question then is: Can we beat Tunisia? My answer is YES! There is no team that Nigeria cannot beat if we put our minds to it. Our albatross over the years have been indiscipline, lack of patriotism, pride, tactical suicides and poor team selections. When we get it right, teams fall!
Topics: Biz Football, Crazy Fans |
June 18th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
can we beat tunisia? hmmmm, i really can’t say for saturday’s match. the tunisians really want to qualify for SA 2010 and they know that a win for them against nigeria on saturday will almost see them to 2010. the super eagles on the other hand, desperately need a win on saturday for them to keep hopes alive. so, its really going to be a tight match. may God see us through.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Nigeria is beating Tunisia on come Saturday.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I am a patriot so I want Nigeria to win. But I hope Amodu will not let favourism override his sense of selection.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
And so Ahmodu balked and brought back Obi Mikel And Taye Taiwo, both who had no impact on the game. I think the coach should thank his stars that the Tunisians were also very poor otherwise……….