Super Eagles, A bunch of Average Players
Now that the world cup is finally over, I believe that it is the right time to do a post mortem on the performance of the Super Eagles at the mundial.
A lot has been said on why the super eagles fail to fly in South Africa. Various reasons have been adduced by analysts, commentators and sports officials for the national team's abysmal performance.
Every reasonable encouragement was given to the Eagles to fly, but they failed to do so. In the past match bonus and allowances used to be the source of conflict between the players and the officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). If today ex-super Eagles captains Stephen Keshi and Sunday Oliseh are unlikely to be given the chance to coach the national team. It is because the duo when they were captain had several confrontations with NFF officials over players welfare. Given Oliseh and Keshi's antecedent, NFF officials who like things to be done in their own way are unlikely to allow the ex-captains that have minds of their own to take charge of the Super Eagles. But that is by the way.
In the present Eagles the players cannot complain about their welfare being compromised. Enough money was made available by the Federal Government. They were well paid. There are many Nigerians who believe that they were overpaid. To encourage them the more, they are sometimes paid winning bonus even when they drew their match. We can safely say that the Eagles failed in South Africa, not because their welfare was not taken care of.
Following the noises from many quarters that the former Coach of the national team, Shuaibu Ahmadu was not up to the job and that a foreign coach is what was needed to prosecute the world cup campaign, the federal government helped the NFF to hire a foreign coach. The foreign coach, unfortunately did not come with the expected magic wand that could make the Eagles to shine in South Africa. If we had failed in South Africa with Shuaibu Ahmadu as Coach, many would have been calling for his head. We failed with our foreign coach. There should be no complaints on that score now.
There are also those who think that the national team's failure was because the door into the team has been shut against home based players. And that home based players have the hunger that is lacking in the national team dominated by foreign based players. But when the home based players failed to qualify to Home based African nations cup meant for home based players in the continent, it shows that most home based players have not much value to add to the national team.
Given that football is a team work, there are many who argue that the reason the national team have been unable to live up to their expectation was because the players have very short time training together. But that argument holds no water when it is taken into account that most national teams around the world never had enough time to train together. With the grueling football season in Europe where most of the world's top players ply their trade, it is very difficult to see a national team where the players practice regularly together.
To me, the real reasons why the Super Eagles have consistently been failing in recent times is situated in two points; dearth of talented footballers and the inability of average players in the team to raise their game.
If we cast our mind back to the golden generation of the Super Eagles, the Eagles that won the nation's cup in far away Tunisia in 1994, we can then begin to realize how ordinary the present crop of players are.
By the time Nigeria was going for its first world cup in USA'94 it had already been crowned the champions of Africa and was ranked the fifth best team in the World. The US'94 team were composed of talented players who were a delight to watch. They represented Africa well at that world cup. It was the success of that team that robbed off on the under 23 national team that won Africa's first gold medal in soccer event at the Olympics in 1996.
Nigerian players used to be in the top ten list of potential winners of the African Footballer of the year award. And quite a good number of them has won it.
These days, nobody remembers Nigerian footballers when shortlist of potential winners of the award are compiled. The tragedy is that the average players who constitute the majority of the Super Eagles today act as if they are super stars of a sort. They have failed to tell themselves the truth. They are just average players. Because they have failed to convince themselves that they are not in the league of top players around the world, they have failed to improve themselves technically in the game. See how the team waste dead-balls that are easily converted to goals by their mates elsewhere.
Anybody who doubts my line of argument should tell me why European Agents are not lining up for our boys signatures for some of the top clubs in that continent.
Sadly the nation is like its national team. We live in self delusion. We tell whoever cares to listen that we are the giant of Africa and others laugh at us behind our back. This is because years of leadership failures has shown that there is nothing giant about the state of the country. The country has failed like its national team to realize that it needs to improve on the way it does things so that it can earn the respect it craves.
Once upon a time, a certain Austin Jay Jay Okocha talented as he was on the football field used to waste loads of dead-balls for Nigeria and his club sides. When Okocha eventually put his mind to it, he perfected the art of delivering dead-balls into the nets of opposing teams to the amazement of the whole world. These days when the Super Eagles earn a dead-ball at the opponent's goal mouth area, what Okocha would have done at such time flood back to the memory of Nigerians.
Okocha's progression shows that if the Super Eagles average players put their mind to it they could become better players. And by their performance force the top European clubs to look in their direction and most importantly they would be in a position to win silver wares for the country.. We the fans should however lower our expectations, so that we do not put too much pressure on the team.
To ensure that the next set of Super Eagles players would be better than the present one, the NFF must do everything possible to encourage grassroot football development.
A lot has been said on why the super eagles fail to fly in South Africa. Various reasons have been adduced by analysts, commentators and sports officials for the national team's abysmal performance.
Every reasonable encouragement was given to the Eagles to fly, but they failed to do so. In the past match bonus and allowances used to be the source of conflict between the players and the officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). If today ex-super Eagles captains Stephen Keshi and Sunday Oliseh are unlikely to be given the chance to coach the national team. It is because the duo when they were captain had several confrontations with NFF officials over players welfare. Given Oliseh and Keshi's antecedent, NFF officials who like things to be done in their own way are unlikely to allow the ex-captains that have minds of their own to take charge of the Super Eagles. But that is by the way.
In the present Eagles the players cannot complain about their welfare being compromised. Enough money was made available by the Federal Government. They were well paid. There are many Nigerians who believe that they were overpaid. To encourage them the more, they are sometimes paid winning bonus even when they drew their match. We can safely say that the Eagles failed in South Africa, not because their welfare was not taken care of.
Following the noises from many quarters that the former Coach of the national team, Shuaibu Ahmadu was not up to the job and that a foreign coach is what was needed to prosecute the world cup campaign, the federal government helped the NFF to hire a foreign coach. The foreign coach, unfortunately did not come with the expected magic wand that could make the Eagles to shine in South Africa. If we had failed in South Africa with Shuaibu Ahmadu as Coach, many would have been calling for his head. We failed with our foreign coach. There should be no complaints on that score now.
There are also those who think that the national team's failure was because the door into the team has been shut against home based players. And that home based players have the hunger that is lacking in the national team dominated by foreign based players. But when the home based players failed to qualify to Home based African nations cup meant for home based players in the continent, it shows that most home based players have not much value to add to the national team.
Given that football is a team work, there are many who argue that the reason the national team have been unable to live up to their expectation was because the players have very short time training together. But that argument holds no water when it is taken into account that most national teams around the world never had enough time to train together. With the grueling football season in Europe where most of the world's top players ply their trade, it is very difficult to see a national team where the players practice regularly together.
To me, the real reasons why the Super Eagles have consistently been failing in recent times is situated in two points; dearth of talented footballers and the inability of average players in the team to raise their game.
If we cast our mind back to the golden generation of the Super Eagles, the Eagles that won the nation's cup in far away Tunisia in 1994, we can then begin to realize how ordinary the present crop of players are.
By the time Nigeria was going for its first world cup in USA'94 it had already been crowned the champions of Africa and was ranked the fifth best team in the World. The US'94 team were composed of talented players who were a delight to watch. They represented Africa well at that world cup. It was the success of that team that robbed off on the under 23 national team that won Africa's first gold medal in soccer event at the Olympics in 1996.
Nigerian players used to be in the top ten list of potential winners of the African Footballer of the year award. And quite a good number of them has won it.
These days, nobody remembers Nigerian footballers when shortlist of potential winners of the award are compiled. The tragedy is that the average players who constitute the majority of the Super Eagles today act as if they are super stars of a sort. They have failed to tell themselves the truth. They are just average players. Because they have failed to convince themselves that they are not in the league of top players around the world, they have failed to improve themselves technically in the game. See how the team waste dead-balls that are easily converted to goals by their mates elsewhere.
Anybody who doubts my line of argument should tell me why European Agents are not lining up for our boys signatures for some of the top clubs in that continent.
Sadly the nation is like its national team. We live in self delusion. We tell whoever cares to listen that we are the giant of Africa and others laugh at us behind our back. This is because years of leadership failures has shown that there is nothing giant about the state of the country. The country has failed like its national team to realize that it needs to improve on the way it does things so that it can earn the respect it craves.
Once upon a time, a certain Austin Jay Jay Okocha talented as he was on the football field used to waste loads of dead-balls for Nigeria and his club sides. When Okocha eventually put his mind to it, he perfected the art of delivering dead-balls into the nets of opposing teams to the amazement of the whole world. These days when the Super Eagles earn a dead-ball at the opponent's goal mouth area, what Okocha would have done at such time flood back to the memory of Nigerians.
Okocha's progression shows that if the Super Eagles average players put their mind to it they could become better players. And by their performance force the top European clubs to look in their direction and most importantly they would be in a position to win silver wares for the country.. We the fans should however lower our expectations, so that we do not put too much pressure on the team.
To ensure that the next set of Super Eagles players would be better than the present one, the NFF must do everything possible to encourage grassroot football development.
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