AFCON 2013: Can the super eagles bring home the trophy?

By Ayomide Tayo

The African Cup of Nations has brought more misses than victories for the country’s Super Eagles.

Having won the competition twice (1980 and 1994), the team has been at the finals of the continental tournament 6 times, losing 4 times. The record of near misses goes deeper, with the Super Eagles gracing the losers’ final a whopping 7 times, a record not to be envied.

As the Super Eagles’ form has dipped, appearances at the finals have been sporadic. The Super Eagles made it to the final of the African Cup of Nations thirteen years ago at the National Stadium in Lagos, where they controversially lost to their arch-rivals Cameroon. That edition witnessed the end of the golden era of the Super Eagles, with Kanu Nwankwo – 2 time African Footballer of the Year playing a feeble penalty into the hands of the Cameroonian keeper.

Since the end of the golden era, it has been a love-hate relationship (more hate than love) between the football crazy masses in Nigeria and the Super Eagles, hindered by the Nigerian Football Federation. It has been a case of egos, ‘foreign’ technical advisers, the NFF meddling, and controversy over bonuses and allowances. Tired of the merry-go round in the Super Eagles squad, Nigerians have shifted their attention to foreign leagues, the English Premier League and the La Liga, with many young kids wearing Wayne Rooney, Messi and Ronaldo jerseys.

Stephen Keshi, the new Super Eagles coach, is trying to inject optimism and passion into this new campaign. Keshi was a stout defender in his day, and carried Nigeria’s last AFCON trophy in Tunisia in 1994. He is trying to inject the same discipline and professionalism within the Super Eagles. Cutting the likes of Osaze Odewingie and other professional footballers shows that he won’t tolerate indiscipline in his team. However, this is a story we are more than familiar with.

It is clear that this present crop of players do not have the flair and skill of the 1994 squad, but what they have is a sense of history. The Super Eagles can emulate the Zambian national team who won the title last year in the city of Libreville, where members of the 1993 Zambian national team died in a plane crash. The Super Eagles failed to defend its title in 1996, following a breakdown in relations between the Nigerian government, led by late dictator General Sani Abacha, and the host country South Africa. Nigeria was banned by CAF for this boycott, which saw the team not participating in that tournament.

Many soccer pundits believe that the Super Eagles would have won the tournament in 1996 if not for the boycott. The summer of that year, the Nigerian Dream Team dazzled the world with its performances at the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games. The likes of Nwankwo Kanu and Celestine Babayaro never played for Nigeria at the Nations Cup at their peak.

This present crop of Super Eagles can bury the ghost of 1996 by giving their best- disciplined, professional performances and cutting the drama. Indiscipline has been the bane of the Super Eagles. The national team fell like a pack of cards in France ’98. They didn’t even qualify for the last African Cup of Nations. Mikel Obi and the lads have to re-ignite the passion and love Nigerians once had for the Super Eagles.

The country waits with bated breath to see if the demons haunting the Super Eagles for decades will once again scuttle their bidfor a third African Cup of Nations title, or if Stephen Keshi can lift the trophy as a coach and mark the beginning of a new era.