BY
NDUBUEZE CHIDOKA
Nigeria’s glorious moments in the history of the continent’s premier competition for senior teams the Africa Nations Cup remains in 1980 when she hosted and won and in Tunisia ’94. The tournament in Tunisia was very significant because it was a year Nigeria also played her First World Cup in the United States of America in 1994, where the Super Eagles surprised the World by making it into the second round and narrowly lost 1-2 to Italy in the round of 16 games. However, when the draw for the finals in Angola took place on the 20th of November 2009 in Luanda, Nigeria was not seeded amongst the big four in Africa and had to settle in group C where she will battle it out with Cup holders Egypt, Benin Republic and Mozambique.
One may consider it right at this point to say that a lot is riding on the performance of the Super Eagles at the 27th Africa Cup of Nations in Angola both on and off the field of play. Having made it to the finals of the World Cup taking PLACE IN South Africa, the nation’s Senior national team the Super Eagles cannot afford to slip up in Angola if they are not to give Nigerians the impression that they are just going to South Africa to make up the numbers. Beside this, coach Amodu Shaibu has promised to take the team to atleast the Semi final of the nations cup, knowing fully well that his world cup fate is tied intricately to the performance of his boys at the nations cup. Should the Eagles fail woefully like the last edition in Ghana 2008 even the hardest of his supporters will have little left to make a case for coach Amodu retaining his position at the biggest stage in June. The Foreign 23 players selected by Amodu to represent Nigeria are also not immuned from what is at stake at the first nations cup in the new decade.
A poor outing by the team will likely see the Eagles being overhauled before the World Cup finals, as was the case with the team that made it to the Semi-Final of Mali 2002 but were still disbanded. Incidentally, twice champions the Super Eagles will kick of their Jubilee nations cup campaign for a third Nations Cup title against the strongest side in group C. the pharaohs of Egypt who are five time champions of the biennial competition. The Super Eagles have a fairly decent record against the defending champions with the Eagles losing only twice in 13 previous clashes. The Eagles have won five times scoring 21 goals past the North Africans while letting in 17 goals. The Super Eagles record against the Pharaohs in the nations cup is even more impressive with only one loss in Seven meetings. Will this supremacy continue as the two teams clash in the group opener? Only time will tell after the game at the 25,000 Seater Complexo da Sr da Graca in Beguela on the 12th of this month. Nigeria has triumphed 9 times out of the 14 meetings with the Squirrels of Benin Republic, Scoring a total of 38 goals while conceding only 8.
The Super Eagles need to be on top of their game to secure the all important three points against their neighbours, considering how the team managed to upstage Benin 2-1 in the final group games of Tunisia 2004. against the Black Mambas of Mozambique in the last group game, it is still fresh in mind of the nations soccer fans as the Mambas proved that they have something to offer in Angola after beating Tunisia !-nil in Maputo to qualify for the nations cup, on the 14th of November, 2009. the meetings in the 2010 World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers in Maputo and Abuja remains the two clashes with the team that nearly beat the Eagles in Maputo and unfortunately lost 0-1 in Abuja Courtesy of Obinna Nsofor’s late goal in the game. At the competition proper, how well the big teams fair against he so called minnows may determine if they progress to the knock out stages. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Super Eagles need all the encouragement they can possibly get from government and Nigerians.
The National Sports Commission, the presidential Task Force on the team’s World and Nations Cup campaign and the Nigeria Football federation have succeeded in instilling a family atmosphere in the team which seemed to be lacking in the past tournaments. The issues of unpaid match bonuses and other allowances due the players have been soughed-out and Nigerians are now looking-up to the 23 man team selected from over 80 million Nigerians to play as a team, defend well good ball distributions and passes and above all learn to be more prolific in front of the goal to ensure that Nigeria enjoy another glorious moment in the nation’s football history. A good outing oat the Nations cup in Angola will no doubt propel the Super Eagles to greater heights even as the World Cup takes centre stage in South Africa in June.
Recorded live from FRCN.
No comments:
Post a Comment