Lessons
of Alexandria: My Personal View
I felt Super Eagles of Nigeria played like FC
Barcelona, putting all of the Egyptian fans on the edge of their seats for 94
minutes. After you calm down from your
anger, try and watch the match again. I termed it one of those bad days of
Barcelona when teams like Althetico Madrid or Bayern Munich suddenly hit back
at them with counter attack and score a goal, and the game is over.
I think the match at Alexandria could have gone
either side. A goal mount scramble drove the ball through defections inside the
Nigeria net and that was it. For me, it
was a lucky goal. Supposing Victor
Moses’ shot that hit the side bar and went right across the goal, got into the
net. Perhaps, we would have seen a
different ball game. For me, a bad luck for Nigeria.
The lesson is this: Super Eagles may not have had a
well orchestrated strategy to break through the kind of defensive wall built by the
Egyptian team, but the team spirit and
what I might call their fighting spirit is worth commending.
The kind of game the Nigerian side played shows that
we can have a world class team if we have time to blend the players into a
team. Now, you can’t put Samson Siasia in the eyes of the storm. After all, he
was only a rescue man who had only less than a week to raise a team that played
so convincingly. I think we expected Siasia to be more than a magician to win that
encounter with the Egyptians.
What
Next Super Eagles After the 2017 AFCON
Ouster?
It always baffles me when a typical Nigerian fan
feels he is far better than the national team coaches. I have heard and read
what aggrieved fans and journalist said they could have done differently and I
laugh –“ah ah ah ah ah!”
Let me tell you, it could have been worst if Siasia
wasn’t the man in-charge of Super Eagles in these two encounters – believe me!
I read Oma Akatigba’s re-tweet on twitter that Amaju
Pinnick will soon announce the Foreign coach that will take over the Nigerian
National team. Perhaps, Jean Tigana or Henry Michel. Well, I don’t know if that would
be the best decision now.
I think NFF is about to make the same mistake they
made in 2011, when Siasia failed to also qualify for AFCON then and they discarded
the great team he was already in the process of building. Although, Stephen
Keshi came on and won AFCON 2013, but couldn’t build a durable team Nigerian
can be proud of. So his success was short-lived by some unacceptable failure and bickering.
Perhaps, you may look at it this way, Siasia will be
working with 75% of these players during the Olympics in June; and I think that
may be when the proper building of the national team begins.
I can cross my heart, to say Siasia will build a
dream team we will all be proud of at the Olympics. I also believe Nigeria will do well at the Olympics Men Soccer event. It would have
been easier to promote Siasia as the national team Chief Coach after the
Olympics – that may be a better progression than
bringing-in an entirely new foreign coach or what do you think?
