Super Eagles:
A Decorated Ambiguity! – Boluwatife Adekunle
I congratulate the Big Boss- Stephen
Okechuku Keshi for his world cup success as it’ll be insensible of me to
immediately pounce on some of his flaws. 2014 world cup has being a class
of its own, with tones of surprises, basket of mind blowing goals and high-spirited
matches; without mincing words, Brazil have lived up to expectation. Home
of soccer indeed!
A tournament that saw some high
powers in world football took a shocking exit, one I considered to be
unforeseen. Never do I imagined Countries like; Spain, England e.t.c
would already be on their way-out before the competition actually finds its
rhythm, neither did I foresee Italy and Ivory Coast not making it through to
the second round. Undoubtedly we have in our hands an historic world cup that will
go down to the book.
Stephen Okechuku Keshi is a great
individual I have much respect for and his positive impart in the Senior
National Football Team we have today cannot be overemphasized. We were
fortunate to have the Big Boss available to take the job of head coach at a
time Super Eagles was in a state of mess, completely disarranged, jumbled and
unsettled… Following his assumption of office, it has been
work-in-progress thereon. For the first time in a long while; it appeared we
would have a predictable squad, consisting of young vibrant players full of
energy and very ambitious. What a breath of fresh air! We have our darling
Eagles rejuvenated and reconstructed, hence we’ve since enjoyed a run of
consistency both in Ability and Capacity.
To mention a man without imperfection
or limitation in-terms-of qualities possessed, your guess would be as good as
mine- No other but Jesus Christ. The big boss undoubtedly has some
shortcomings; in the course of his job, many have questioned his tactical input
and controversial decisions. There have been some levels of criticism pouring
from football pundits, ex internationals and various football fans; however
it’ll be inappropriate to undermined Stephen Keshi’s qualities that produced
the force that soared to victory in 2013 African Cup of Nations.
If I was a coach, some of the
qualities I would swiftly learn from the Big Boss are written below;
·
TO MAKE SURE ONE’S EGO AND SELF-WORTH
DO NOT GET TIED UP IN THE OUTCOME OF A GAME: We have
in Stephen Keshi someone who is psychologically healthy enough to know that
he’s NOT his performance, regardless of what others around him may say. He
neither feels diminished as an individual when his team fail nor do the Big
Boss takes glory when his team succeed.
·
ABILITY TO GET ONE’S PLAYERS TO
BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES: What an amazing quality the Big Boss
possesses: We saw this played out when the whole nation seemed to be losing
faith and turning down the potential of the squad we paraded at the 2013
African Cup of Nations following their shambolic start. While all hopes were
crushed, the head coach inspired the players to do more than they think they
can; strengthened their self-esteems and encouraged the players to entertain
possibilities that stretched the limits of their beliefs.
As far as Nigeria is concerned, 2014
world cup has come and gone… The question we should then be asking is- What
should we behold for Russia 2018? Understanding what we didn’t do right and
introducing a robust plan on what needs to be corrected… It is visible to the
blind that Super Eagles “the so called, moving train” have a worn out engine- A
sexy lady without sophisticated tastes or ideas, a mere village champion.
However, if we’re looking to get it right in subsequent tournament, our
first port of call would be to fix the shortcomings and the tactical deficiency
of the team.
Even though we had glimpse of what to
expect at the Mundial judging by the outcome of the friendly matches, the three
warm-up games ensured we had a smooth less road to world cup which was not the
best of moral going into the biggest stage of world football: To those that
were optimistic, our darling Super Eagles successfully dashed their hopes
following the disappointing first game, a scoreless draw with Iran. It became
clearer and apparent that Super Eagles’ best would never be enough to go
farther in the competition.
The victory against Bosnia
Herzegovina was a flash in the pan; it was a game we could easily have lost “if
the man at the centre” hasn’t made some controversial calls. Edin Dzeko’s
disallowed goal was unjust; it was an unfair call which twisted the psychology
of the game to merit the Eagles.
In the last game of group stage, we
cannot but commend the individual brilliance of Ahmed Musa who was on rock
& roll, a young man who has long been criticized for enjoying an
unjustifiable ground in the national team, following series of poor outings;
failure to turn up in important games. Often times football loving Nigerians
have questioned his qualities and most seemed to have lost interest in his
potentials. In the wake of his long run of poor form, Ahmed Musa was able to
find his rhythm; he came to the party and made a difference in the match
against Argentina. His best might not be good enough to fetch a point but the
two cracking goals was a joy bestowed on Nigerians which in turn makes us to be
insensitive of the calamity ahead.
Super Eagles finally had their
limitations exposed by the ever resilient French squad; it became obvious that
the tactical ingredients of the team were found wanting and it appeared the
team could only stick to a repeated tactics that failed to yield.
After a critical evaluation of
yesterday’s match- I was able to ascertain four major deficiencies of the team.
(1) INABILITY
OF THE COACHING CREW TO STIMULATE THE DYNAMICS OF A GAME: The
inadequacy of the coaching crew to overturn the tempo of a game to their
advantage contributed to the failure of Super Eagles in progressing to the
quarter finals. In the post match interview of Didier Deschamps, the
interviewer was reported to have asked the French coach what he told the
players during half time break which went on to materialised in the second half
of the game. The response from the French man was backed with some good laughs-
Saying what he discussed with his players would rather remain in the
team. (Could it have been; hey boys get rid of Ogenyi Onazi and establish
superiority in the midfield). A good coach either gets the job done the
easier way or takes the bull by the horn. Since John Mikel Obi lost the zeal of
play and couldn’t lived up to expectation. The twenty-two year old Ogenyi Onazi
happened to be the anchor of the Midfield, he was very effective and
impressive; the moment he was out of the pitch following the nasty injury
orchestrated by the French man Blaise Matuidi who was saddled with the
responsibility of getting rid of him, we irrecoverably lost possession in the
middle of the park and forfeited the game. Anyhow you want to base your
conclusion, the fact remains that the French coaching crew made a fruitful use
of the half time break: Which was a deficiency on the side of Nigeria.
(2) THE
STRENGTH OF A TEAM LIES IN THE RESERVE: The new age
football has gone beyond mediocrity; a good coach sticks to the principle that
says your bench should be as good as your first eleven. The strength of any
team lies not with the first team players but on the strength of the reserve
players. Often times, we’ve seen the Super Eagles’ head coach so helpless on
the sideline, not able to decide the fate of a game through a tactical
substitution. Didier Deschamps’ introduction of Antoine Griezmann in place of
Giroud during second half of the game was spot-on; it was undoubtedly a yielded
move from the French coach. Super Eagles’ bench was nothing to write home
about, a very helpless reserve in-time of adversity. Inability to look inward
for some right substitutions was a major downfall of the team; the big boss’
substitutions in the tournament were all far from perfection. We saw a Michael
Uchebo came in as a substitute against Argentina, dangling around like a
confused player… As seen around the globe, coaches depend on the bench to
subdue a game.
(3) SET
PIECES AND INEFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES: Football teams across the
world take advantages of set pieces, we’ve seen goals from set pieces been the
decider of matches. Uruguay goal from set piece against Italy was crucial to
secure the South American a place in the round of sixteen and we saw Argentina
took advantage of a corner kick to secure three points in their final group
match against Nigeria. The importance of set piece in a football match is
large; I lost count on number of occasion Ahmed Musa took some poor, poor
corner kicks. Also the free kicks were never threatening and the techniques
were ambiguous.
(4) DIVING,
EMBELLISHING, TACTICS AND CHEATING: These
technicalities of football were found wanting in Super Eagles’ defeat to
France… Should Odemwingie had gone to the ground clamouring for penalty after
he was totally seized by Patrick Evra who had his hands completely wrapped on
him inside the vital area of the box, the match could have took a different
turn. It was obvious the players lacked necessary ingredients to win a world
class game. Either improper or not, Arjen Robben’s last minute penalty through
diving catapulted the Dutch side to the quarter finals. These tactical skills
in teams are sometimes very important in winning games.
As far as Nigeria is concerned, the
world cup has come and gone… We hope these flaws would be corrected and we can
have a more fortified Super Eagles that would soar come Russia 2018. God Bless!
Boluwatife Adekunle
@boluzzz
