The Morning After…

One thing about football writing is the penchant to use clichés. One of those clichés is the saying that there are no more minnows in football, especially African football. This assertion is generally true, even though Andorra, San Marino and Liechtenstein will have something to say about it.

It will even be more difficult to put this particular cliché to bed-another cliché, forgive me, couldn’t resist-after the first day of the third round of the FIFA World Cup® qualifiers. From Cairo to Maputo, the result was the same,shock results for the favourites againts the smaller teams. Cameroun and Morocco suffered surprising defeat to Togo and Gabon respectively, the later at home, while Egypt were lucky to escape with draws against Zambia, also at home. Ghana held on to a first minute to scrape past a dorminant Benin, while Guinea were comprehensively beaten by Burkina Faso.

Only the Ivory Coast came out with their cloaks unsoiled on the pitch, albeit at a huge cost. They put five past Malawi, but the real news of the day was the death of 19 people and more than 130 injured after a stampede at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium shortly before , before the match, thus adding to a long list of stadium disasters in football. This without a doubt blotted the copy book for the Ivoriens on a rather perfect day for them on the pitch.

In Maputo, Nigeria were lucky to escape defeat as Mozambique had two goals chalked off in a goalless draw. This result has since put a cat among the pigeons in the Nigerian football setup, with everybody, journalists, fans and pundits calling for Shuaibu Amodu’s sack and an overhaul of the Eagles’ set up.

Watching the Eagles on Sunday was like eating spoiled soup. It left a permanent sour taste in the mouth. Their passes were constantly misplaced, the forwards failed to make runs when they ought to. The midfield was non-existent, causing the forwards to run around like headless chicken while waiting for the ball to come through to them. When the ball did get through to them somehow, they fluffed their lines in spectacular fashion.

The only positive from the match was the fact that defence held it’s ground. It is a testament to what can be done if players play consistently together. Unlike the midfield and the attack that played like strange bedfellows, the defence showed a level of understanding,stemmnig from the fact that there has been little change in personnel in the defence for over a year. They played their line well to deny Mozambique those two goals and covered for each other when they needed to. Even though they resorted to last ditch clearance at times, but it was due primarily to lack of protection from the midfield. This more or less accounted for why Nigeria’s best performers on the day were Nwaneri and Shittu.

In the second half they dealt with the threat the Mambas posed in the air. Chidi Ordiah and Taye Taiwo, stayed back most the time to make sure wingers Domingues and Luis were kept quiet,thus cutting out the supply line, while Danny Shittu and Obinna Nwaneri, who was captain on the day took turns on Dario, who scored the disallowed goals in the first half. As a result, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama made just one save of note in the second half. This was a far cry from the situation in the first half when the Mambas ran riot and should have put the match away.

While the defence regrouped, the same could not be said of the midfield and attack. Apart from a five minute period up to the 20 minute mark, when they put together a string of passes, with Mikel, Kaita and Ike Uche showed some understanding, they simply played catch up to the Mozambicans. Mikel, who should not have started, became more and more tired as the match progressed and should not have been on the pitch when the referee blew the final whistle. Kaita kept going forward leaving his defensive duties, perhaps with the understanding that Mikel, who is adept to playing the holding midfield role, will cover for him. But, Mikel was either too tired play box to box or did not understand Kaita, whom he last played alongside in 2006. They also kept getting in each other’s way, generally handing the midfield to the Mozambicans on a platter.

That leads to Amodu and the decisions he made for this match. His selection, while bold was flawed based on three facts Mikel was half fit to play his role, he had not played with Kaita in long time and the absence of a proper winger in the lineup. In a perfect world,based on their abilities, the central midfield pair should be our best, with Kaita to sit and Mikel to link. But in Maputo, Mikel failed in his duties, prompting Kaita to do Mikel’s duties as well his. Femi Ajilore, could have been a better choice than Mikel on Sunday,given that he was more match fit and was great with Kaita at the Olympics last year.

The decision to use Osaze and Obinna in the wide roles didn’t help either. They have done the job in the past in the absence of proper wingers and are quite useful in dead ball situations, since Mikel is useless at this. But we didn’t need to have both men on the pitch at once. Using Kalu Uche on the right, with a license to roam, otherwise a free role behind the front two, could have sufficed. Even if we insist on using both Osaze and Obinna at the same time, he should have been given a role behind Martins instead of his brother Ike.

Also Amodu’s inability to make a tactical change early enough in the match was key. It meant that, the Eagles effectively ran out of time in the end. His decision to bring in Ajilore for a tiring Obinna was spot on, but the timing was poor. It coincided with a period of dominance by the Eagles late on. He should have made that decision at half time,or immediately after, and should have also sent Kalu Uche on for Mikel,who had clearly ran out of gas. Again his decision not to invite replacements for players that pulled out of the squad did him in. It gave him a chance to add more midfielders to the squad, especially Etuhu and Obodo, but he failed to take it. They would have given him more options on Sunday.

A goalless draw would have been a fair result, but for the fact that Tunisia won away to Kenya. This means that Nigeria are already playing catch-up, thus setting off the alarm bells all over the country. One half the population already believes we will not qualify, while the half believes we can only get to South Africa if we get rid of Amodu.

To say these are knee jerk reactions to the situation is an understatement. At the moment Tunisia have the initiative, but the qualifying series is a marathon, and not a sprint. The Eagles can still qualify, but they can only do it if we play it cool now. There is no need to sack Amodu, despite his poor judgment in Maputo. Tunisia are yet to visit Maputo and I am convinced they will find playing there just as difficult as the Eagles did. In fact, I think the Eagles have a better chance of wining in Tunis, they had in Maputo. The conditions in Tunis will be far more suited to them than what they saw in Maputo.

I am a huge fan and advocate of Samson Siasia, whom many are convinced will be the ideal replacement for Amodu and would love to see him in charge of the Eagles some day, but not now. Amodu has a job to do and his done it to best of his abilities, especially given the resources he has available to him in terms of personnel. I think the abilities of the players in the current Eagles team, contrary to popular opinion is very limited. He has done well, despite his errors on Sunday, to bring them to the level they are at the moment. Two years ago, even with Beri Vogts in charge, the Eagles could have lost this match. In my opinion, he should be allowed to complete the job, rather than bring in someone new, who will want to upset the current set up and put the players in the state of readjustment, a state they have been in, far too many times, since Clemens Westerhorf left the Eagles set up in 1994.

Do you know?

That the Eagles lost their first match in the second round of qualifying for the 1994 FIFA World Cup® to the Ivory Coast, but still made it through USA. In fact at this stage they were bottom of the table with no points, while Ivory Coast topped with three points. They still qualified on goal difference.