Unbelievable Foolishness!

By Toyin | September 13, 2009

When I did my post previewing the match between Nigeria and Tunisia last week, little did I know that what would eventually play out would leave sour taste in the mouths of millions of Nigerians. We were close to sitting atop our group until our defenders connived to gift the Tunisians a most unwarranted equalizer that at best has left our possibility of participating in the tournament in tatters. We are now back to our familiar permutations about what could happen if this and that takes place!

Why can’t we take our destiny in our own hands for once? We were fortunate to qualify for the Japan-Korea world cup in 2002; Liberia almost bundled us out! We joked and fooled around with our matches for the world cup in Germany. Our former captain Austin Okocha told the then coach Christian Chukwu that he would not be available to play every match and we paid dearly for that. We eventually played a game too early in the day in Kano and we got knocked out by Angola on head to head basis.

While it became clear that Tunisia is in our group when the draw for the second and final rounds of qualification for the world cup was made, our administrators must have felt at ease thinking that we would be home and dry at the end of the day. And our record in the first round was very impeccable too: We won all our matches including that 0-1 win in South Africa against the Bafana Bafana. We were cruising at that stage.

I knew trouble was around the corner when we could only draw our game against Mozambique. It was a game we needed to have won and convincingly too. After huffing and puffing against our more prepared and physically fit hosts; it was the ‘magnanimity’ of the referee that saved our blushes from defeat. I mean the guy actually disallowed two goals scored by the Mozambicans-something almost unheard of in African football.

The moment Ahmodu Shuaibu chose to use Taye Taiwo at left back not minding the mobility and the accuracy of the passes of the Tunisians, I knew that we might be in for a long day. In my preview of the match in the preceeding post, I selected Elderson Echiejiele ahead of the Olympique Marseille man. While Taiwo is a decent footballer, his decision making and recovery must rank among the worst. True he likes to bomb up and down that left flank but he normally ends up leaving too much work to do for whoever is covering for him and in this case that happened to Dele Adeleye.

It was glaring to even the uninitiated that Cuelho must have instructed his wards to keep attacking from our left wing; only Ahmodu seemed not to have noticed! Right from the blast of the whistle, it was glaring that Ikechukwu Uche wasn’t ready for the occasion. A good and proactive tactician would have cut his loss immediately. Our own dear Shuaibu kept him on only for him to earn a yellow card-His major contribution in the encounter.

Having lost our advantage almost immediately while still celebrating it, we should have been warned that the Tunisians didn’t come to Abuja to come and see our beautiful center of unity. We left so much space for them to operate all around the pitch that it is now such a shame to watch the match all over again. They played more like the home team and if not for the agility and confidence of Vincent Enyeama, we could have been buried right there and then.

Taking the lead only to lose it again with four or five minutes remaining is suicidal and unacceptable at this level. I am very glad that Joseph Yobo said as much during the press conference. Is there any hope? Only God can tell.

Our so called superstars and the coach have put in jeopardy our desire to be in SA 2010. A tournament that could be used to forget all our sorrows (at least for one month) is now a distant dream. What with poor governance and the associated comatose in virtually all sectors of our nation, the only thing that could have deadened the pain, so much of it, has almost certainly been bungled. Save for a miracle, we WILL not be in South Africa!

In other climes where shame has any meaning, a lot of people would have resigned now. But in our country, where almost anything goes and mediocrity is celebrated, men could get away with murder. I am very disappointed with the Super Eagles. My disappointment with the players however is child’s play compared with my disdain for coach Shuaibu who despite his lack of home work (glaring from the ease with which the Tunisians operated in our midfield) has failed to render a proper apology to Nigerians. Rather, he went on a prophetic exercise declaring that this qualifier may just end up like that of 2002!

I will admit that I would be among the first people to congratulate him if that happens. Until then, let the players go back to their clubs and reflect on the pain they have caused millions of their compatriots!

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