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Not a few football analysts have written off the chances of the Super Eagles in this year’s World Cup. A preview of the group on Skysports online was so dismissive of the team that it borders on impudence from the reviewer. Many fans of the team in Nigeria and elsewhere have given up hope bearing in mind the state of the team, kinds of players and the legendary lack of adequate preparation for major tournaments by the country.

The above in contrast to the world class players available to the Argentines puts one in a pensive mood. From the likes Of Lionel Messi, to Diego Milito, Carlos Tervez; the ‘Argies’ are brimming with confidence ahead of the tie. While Nigeria lost arguably her best player in John Obi Mikel to injury, our opponent have a full complement of their players and virtually all are injury free and fit. The fact that we’ve not beaten them before in all major encounters piles more pressure on us to get a good result in the opener.

Despite all these, one truth remains that football is not mathematics and therefore the team that’s more ‘hungry’ and puts its act together in terms of discipline, tactics, focus and determination on the day usually wins. The second fact is that these days, names alone do not win matches otherwise Real Madrid and not Inter should have been crowned European champions. Team cohesion and tactical discipline goes a long way in determining how far a team can go. And in a big tournament like the world cup, only the team that combines these qualities in the right proportion picks the gold.

We have met Argentina twice at the World Cup and on the two occasions lose the matches by the odd goal. The first time was in USA 1994 and lack of focus and awareness left our defenders in ‘wonderland’ as Maradona (the current coach) slid a pass to the opportunistic Cannigia to coolly place a shot beyond the despairing gloves of Peter Rufai to win the match. Our second encounter was almost a one sided one. It took the heroics of goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu to keep the score line at a respectable 0-0 through the first half until Gabriel Batistuta got away from bleeding Taribo West to score the only goal of the tie.

On the youth level, we fell twice to the trickery of Lionel Messi at the last hurdles to lose both at the FIFA Under 21 world cup in Holland in 2005 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Alarmingly, we are faced with the little wizard again in South Africa at the biggest stage in world football! Are we going to be third time lucky against him?

Tactics and Line Up

What I usually don’t do is to tag one opposing player to another. Football is a team sport and as such would not dwell on individuals to determine the outcome of a match. I’d rather talk about technical and tactical aspect of this game with particular focus on what I believe we can do to achieve a reasonable result from the encounter.

The key to getting anything from this game depends on the tactical approach of Lars Lagerback to the sure wave and wave of attacks that would come from the Argentines. No coach in the world would play otherwise with the array of attacking talents available to Diego Maradona. With this in mind, Lagerback must be prepared to pack his midfield with very fit and mobile players to confront the threat from Messi and co. secondly; there must be a clear instruction to go on counter attack at a blistering pace once Nigeria has the ball. Whether this would work or not depends on the fitness, discipline, determination and commitment of the player he chooses to face the Albicelestes.

To this effect, I envisage a 4-5-1 formation to dampen the fluency of Argentina’s midfield, cutting supplies to the likes of Messi and Milito. Critically, this can only work if the midfielders are ready to work their socks off helping the defense when necessary. We saw Mourinho did this superbly against a well drilled Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League semifinal at Camp Nou. The major ingredient needed for this to succeed is to have a set mind always on what needs to be done; getting a positive result!

First Team

Vincent Enyeama, Joseph Yobo, Dele Adeleye, Taye Taiwo, Chidi Odiah, Dickson Etuhu, Lukman Haruna, Sanni Keita, Ozaze Odemwengie, Yusuff Ayila and Yakubu Aiyegbeni should start this match. I have chosen three defensive midfielders for obvious reasons and while I believe that Yobo and Taiwo are not the best of defenders, I strongly feel that for this particular match, their experience and exposure would come in handy. One player that need to step up and put in his foot is Yakubu Aiyegbeni.

Built like Daniel ‘the bull’ Amokachi; Aiyegbeni has not really deliver for Nigeria when it matters most. He should see his inclusion in this team as a sacred call to duty. With his upper and lower body strength, he’s in the position to hold up the ball for fleet footed Ozaze to trouble the defense of our opponents. He must also take his chances. This is the kind of match that chances would be at a premium and as such wasting gilt edged opportunities would be like committing a cardinal sin.

My Prediction

It won’t hurt anyone except of course Argentines if the Super Eagles got the best of them on Saturday. I however strongly feel we do not have enough to beat the Albicelestes and I won’t cry (LOL) if we get a draw. My take is that it would be 1-1 in a fiercely contested and temperamental match! Goodluck to the Eagles!

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