May be ‘spying’
isn’t the right word, but it’s so easy to find out almost anything about any
national team now-a-days. I didn’t have to sneak into Addis Ababa to watch
Walia Antelopes play. All I did was to log on to the Internet, watch some of
their recent videos, read articles and various commentaries about the team. And
using a simple research analysis method called – SWOT, I was able to find out
the current form and make up of Ethiopia National team. Read the report:
Team List
First, let
me give you the list of likely players that will file out against Nigeria in
Addis Ababa on October 13, 2013 – for the first leg 2014 world cup, African
play offs:
Goal Keeper:
J.Tassew. Defense: D.Debebe,
B. Abebaw, A.Haliu, B. Elias. Midfield:
A. Megersa, M.Beyene, G. Adane. Attack:
S. Bekele, G.Kebede, S.Ahmed. Substitutes:
S.Banch, B. Salahaon, Y. Zinabu, O. Okwury, T. Seyoun.
Ok, I’m not
a prophet or a soothsayer. Ethiopia national team coach, Sewenet Bishaw, may
want to adjust the team a little, but let us look at the SWOT analysis.
Strength of the Team:
Ethiopia
national team has a very compact midfield marshaled by, Minyahele Beyene, Astrat
Megersa and Adane Girma… a bunch of hard working midfielders with work rate
that can run down any opponent.
The new
Ethiopian team is built around the young enterprising attacking midfielder,
Shimelis Bekele and the scoring potency of Getaneh kebede and Saladin Said, the
top scorer of the team.
Weakness of the Team:
Although,
the team has some reliable defenders such as team captain, Degu Debebe and
Butako Abebaw. However, the left side of the defense line usually manned by
either, B. Elias or Bargicho Salahaon has always been the vulnerable side of
the team. The defense line could sometimes loose concentration under intense
pressure.
Opportunities of the Team:
October may
be the best time to be in Ethiopia, but the country’s humid climate, around 43 –
50*C, can be a great advantage for the home team.
Most
visiting teams find it difficult to acclimatize in Addis Ababa, the players
either gets fatigued after first half or early second half. Ethiopian national team
takes advantage of this phenomenon to mount intense pressure on their opponent
during the last half of the game. You can recall how such pressure got Bernard
Parker to score an own goal in the match between Ethiopia Vs South Africa.
Watch the Video Below:
Threats against the Team:
Nigeria
national team has more top flight players and the experience of Mikel Obi,
Victor Moses, Shola Ameobi could count against the Ethiopia side. Nigeria had some
good results in their previous meeting in Addis Ababa and that can motivate the
Super Eagles.
Nigera team
is currently enjoying great form and AFCON highest goal scorer, Emmanuel
Emernike and Oduamadi have such ability to score many goals and could just
spoil the party at Addis Ababa.
Search Method:
You may want
to know how I got to find out all these facts. A simple keyword “Ethiopia
National Team” on Google, gave me a search result of 1, 410, 232 articles and
videos – that’s more than enough to tell you all you want to know about the
team. But it could take you several days, if not weeks to read through all the
post, and that’s quite a cumbersome job I won’t want to engage myself in.
So I quickly
took 5 minutes to read the history and culture of Ethiopia national team on Wikipedia.
Since I’m more interested in the current form and makeup of the team, I decided
to check out post of their four recent matches against: Central African
Republic, South Africa, Botswana, and Rwanda.
I took the next
40 minutes to watch some videos and read articles for each of the matches from
some credible websites such as: fifa.com, supersports.com, goal.com,
ethiosports.com and youtube.com. Then I took noted based on SWOT analysis
method mentioned above.
