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This and That!
By Toyin | September 20, 2009
The unfortunate result obtained by our drawn match with the Tunisians has thrown up a lot of other issues that borders on the competence of coach Shuaibu to steer us to the world cup in South Africa ab initio. We have travelled this path before and a sense of déjà vu is palpable in the air. We are back to familiar terrains and like a friend always retort, we are never tired of it!
When Nigeria fails to make any impact in any major competition, we usually demand for a change. Change itself is not a bad thing. It is also the most constant thing in the world. But the kind of change being demanded in the country right now concerning the qualification for the world cup is belated to say the least. We are in the eleventh hour and we seemingly refused to rise up to the occasion and we are set for another change; one that may not amount to anything.
A very popular sports radio station in Lagos, Brila 88.9 FM conducted a phone in survey about the feelings of fans concerning Ahmodu Shuaibu and the general consensus was that we needed a foreign coach to handle our senior nation team commencing with our remaining two qualifying matches. My sincere take is that even if Luis Van Gal resigns from Bayern Munich or Fabio Capello walks away from his job with the three lions to coach the Super Eagles, we still may not go to the world cup.
If we are able to win the remaining two matches (something we should have done in Mozambique and Abuja) and Tunisia does same, we will still not qualify. So the only thing we can hope for now is a miracle. That word again! It has been so bastardized when Nigerian football is concerned. We pray when we are supposed to work and play when are we should be studying. We seem not to know what our goals are and when we do; we mess up in achieving them.
Just last year January, we had one gentleman with us who is by the way a foreign coach. When due to our ill preparedness we could not go beyond the quarter finals of the ACN 2008 in Ghana, we decided as usual to sack Berti Vogts and after several deliberations and permutations, Ahmodu Shuaibu emerged as the new helmsman.
Now we are asking for another foreign coach as if once he comes everything would just fall into place and we will walk over to South Africa. We always seem to be fixated on doing the same thing over and over again.
I will be the first to admit that I had serious doubt about the handling of the Super Eagles by the coach particularly after the embarrassing draw away in Maputo. My feeling was reinforced when we were almost beaten by the Kenyans in the first half in Abuja. Had they a good finisher that day, we would have long foreclosed any thought of being in South Africa 2010. I also do not understand why the coach continues to use Taye Taiwo when he’s obviously not as good as he should be for this level of competition. If a player is not delivering to expectation, why don’t you change him? After all, Elderson Echiejile is on the bench and if you felt he wasn’t good enough, why invite him in the first place?
Having said this, the commitment, discipline and fitness of our in the matches played so far should have set the alarm bells ringing for serious administrators and a coach who’s up to par with expectations. Rather, as usual, we continued to play to the gallery until the Tunisians came, saw and conquered.
There’s nothing wrong in having hope particularly when such things as football is involved. But the truth of the matter is that the kind of hope we currently nurture concerning qualifying for the world cup is absolutely uncalled for. Now, we should concentrate on winning the remaining two matches and see how it goes from there. Matters concerning foreign coach or not should be pushed to the background till this matter is concluded.
When we know where we stand after the qualifiers, we can then decide whether we will stick with Ahmodu and co or move for a foreign manager. That’s is if any serious minded tactician would be interested in taking up the job of coaching our team knowing we are never patient to see through any project!
Topics: Biz Football, Crazy Fans, Nigerian Football, Success Pills, The Gaffer |
September 24th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Keep up the good work! Do you fancy Nigeria making a deep run in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt?
September 24th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Thanks my friend. U are doing a greater work keeping the boys civil! LOL