I do not
belong to that school of taught that says Nigeria’s performance at early stages
of any World football competition is always poor and they would pick up as the
tournament progresses, my simple reason being that as an African Champion we
are meant to always dominate no matter which team because of our superior
quality or is anything wrong if we
finish every tournament unbeaten and yet as
worthy champions?
The flying Eagles lost 4-2 to to five-time champions Brazil at the Stadium Taranaki in New Plymouth, New Zealand.
Having said
that and as a fan of a Sports program tagged ‘Sports Edge’ on Galaxy TV Lagos, I watched an episode of that
program just before this ongoing WYC World Cup 2015 started in New Zealand. One
of the analyst who is also a coach (which I cannot recall his name now)
specifically stated that talented Starlet Kelechi Iheanacho and Striker Isaac
Success shouldn’t start our first match against Brazil even if they would play
at least they should start from the bench, his reason being that the two lads
have not trained, blended or even played together for quite a long time with
the team. I was like could this be true? After my research as a passionate
lover and fan of this current U-20 Eagles (which I hope one day becomes the new
Super Eagles without sentiments), I found out that the two young talents have
not trained neither have they played together for almost two years (You can do
your own research). But common guys, two years??
My respect
for Coach Manu Garba still remains but his naivety unfortunately played out.
Discipline is the right word and I don’t know for how long our Nigerian Coaches
will learn from the past. I’m never against inviting Iheanacho and Isaac
because surely that are very talented as we all know but the truth must be said
the coach should have at least introduced the two in the second half of that
game to give the other regular starters some kind of sense of belonging and
respect for winning the African Youth Championship during their absence.
Joining the camp just two days before the tournament after almost two years in
absent (I’m sure they don’t perform miracles or play like Messi and C.Ronaldo
at least not yet) is outrageous to start the duo in a game against world powers
in football like Brazil and to me Coach Garba should admit he made a mistake
and apologize for not being respectful to those lads and lack of discipline.
I expected
him (the coach) to stick with his usual formation consist the likes of Bulbwa
and Awoniyi (who were the major force ever since their absence) which I
strongly believed we would have not lost or at worst salvaged a draw. But come
to think of it, if the Coach could play Iheanacho and Success why didn’t he
play Goalkeeper Alampasu who has also been absent at least to avoid that
shambolic error that cost us the last goal. Well this question could better be
directed to the Coach, I guess.
As one of the
favorites by bookmakers to win the competition, we still have two more games to
play in the group stage and without a point yet. As usual, we expect the lads
to pick up their tempo and firepower as the game progresses but surely we have
been placed in a tight corner now because we definitely need to win those two (North Korea and Hungary) remaining Group E fixtures.
Surely, how to make these lads compatible and comfortable enough to play together for the remainder of the matches in this tournament will currently be Coach Manu Garba’s biggest and most daunting task now.
But for the
time being, all our massive support goes to the Coach, his crew and the players
to win this elusive competition for Nigeria at all cost because we are
definitely proud and strongly behind them. Ghana, our fellow West African
brothers did it back then in 2009 and our own time is now. Let’s go Naija !!!!
From Arthur Johnson
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