By Ngozi Akums
By now, most Nigerians would have probably gotten over the fact that the Super Eagles of Nigeria lost to the Black Stars of Ghana in the semi-final of the ongoing CHAN tournament, but in some quarters, the pain of the somewhat embarrassing defeat to our perennial rivals yet lingers.
Most people can be forgiven for expecting the Eagles to trounce Ghana and eventually win the cup, especially after the dramatic and miraculous comeback against Morocco in the quarter final, but the Ghanaians had other ideas.
From the first match, it was quite obvious to the keen observer that the players fielded couldn’t exactly be said to be the best our local league has to offer, not necessarily because they lost the first match against Mali, for we’ve seen several teams lose their first match at a tournament and still make it to the finals and go on to lift the trophy, case in point, the Spanish team that won the World Cup in 2010.
The team paraded by the Stephen Keshi-led technical crew was not made up of the best players in the Nigerian league!
Conspicuously absent from the 23-man squad for the tournament were some names like Enyimba of Aba’s Olufemi Thomas who was the best goalkeeper in the league last season, instead Keshi opted for Chigozie Agbim who manned the post just four times last season for his club side, Enugu Rangers and was obviously match rusty and unsurprisingly let in embarrassing goals. His (Agbim) most calamitous error was allowing a shot from almost half pitch to sail over him and into the net.
The midfield also lacked creative players: Ejike Uzoenyi was the only player who had a classy touch with the ball and, to an extent, Rabiu Ali who was voted the player of the season in the Nigerian league. The rest were simply running around and could not even give consistent accurate passes. The striking position didn’t fare better, for once again the strikers he (Keshi) picked were not the best in the league.
Where was a player like Oghenekheno Etebo who was hot last season and was the second highest goal scorer in the league after Victor Nemo of Nasarawa United who scored more than 75 per cent of his goals from the penalty spot?
Why was a creative player like Bartholomew Ibenegbu of Heartland not included in the team?
Why did Keshi stick with only the players that helped Nigeria to qualify for the championship?
The team showed commendable resilience by coming from behind twice — against Mozambique and Morocco — to win those matches, but this tournament has shown that only the best players and a well-prepared team can win championships. The match against a well-prepared team like Ghana exposed the team’s inadequacies and shortcomings. The technical crew should stop this ‘it is only the players I have worked with’ syndrome, because a footballer can be in great form today yet have his form dwindle tomorrow. Merit should be the criteria or basis of a player’s invitation to the national team and, again, good preparation is key.
Six weeks is not enough preparation time to win a tournament!
