Nigerias CrashingOut of World Cup 2002 Page 1 of 18 Nigeria's Crashing-Out of World Cup 2002 By Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD Burtonsville, MD, USA INTRODUCTION ------------- So Nigeria has crashed out of the World Cup 2002? Well, there is a famous saying: "It is not that the monkey rode the bike so well that is surprising; it is that it did it at all!" Quite frankly, what with what one compatriot called our "organizational mayhem" in soccer - by organization, one here means the choice of administrative staff, their funding, choice of soccer team players, their remuneration, regular schedule of practice/training and slate of preparatory matches, etc. - that we got to the World Cup at all is really a marvel, and a testament to the GREAT individual skills of our players. If each of our players played A NOTCH below their individual skills, and our ORGANIZATIONAL PREPARATION were a NOTCH above its present one, then we would actually work wonders - and our results would not be one of feast ("we could win the cup o.....") or famine ("but again, coming to think of it, we could crash out in the first round!"). That extreme uncertainty between two extreme outcomes could be quite depressing. Let us do a little bit of analysis. THE GROUP OF DEATH: GROUP F OF SWEDEN, ARGENTINA, ENGLAND AND NIGERIA That we were in the "Group of Death" - Group F out of the eight groups A - H - did not help matters. Based on the number of world cup appearances, world cup wins, the number of countries that won them from detailed Table 2 below, I rate in Table 1 the Groups in descending order of difficulty as follows. The number of matches played and the goals for and against also figure into my rating. On can see why any schedule that has Argentina and England in the same The Group F is indeed "The Group of Death." http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigerias_crashingout_of_world_cu.htm 7/18/2008 Nigerias CrashingOut of World Cup 2002 Page 2 of 18 ONIGBINDE AND HIS "NON-FOREIGN-NESS":THE INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD COACH Of all the 32 teams in the World Cup, only 8 have foreign coaches: Senegal [4 points so far], Paraguay [1 point], Korea [4 points], China [0 points], Cameroon [4 points], England [4 points], Ecuador [0 points] and Japan [4 points]. In short: EXACTLY one per group! What a coincidence! Thus, only those teams would QUALIFY to win the World Cup if using a native-born coach were a crime. One must admit that from the points recorded so far - with all the teams having played 2 matches each - the foreign coaches have done quite well. Five 4-point teams for them at this time ain't bad - but we will have to wait until all the matches are played! But what about Onigbinde's native-born-ness? Well, inside Nigeria, Onigbinde is NIGERIAN. He was a foreign coach in Trinidad and Tobago. In Costa Rica or Bahamas or Ireland, he would still be NIGERIAN, but now would be a FOREIGN COACH there - yet he would be the same ONIGBINDE. So it is not domestic or foreign that REALLY matters. When a country gets beyond the systemic organizational issue, a coach, particularly a native-born one, should be one with the POTENTIAL and ACTUAL PLAYERS respect and would be happy to play for. I believe that there are two minimum ingredients to earning that respect: (1) the coach has himself earlier on played soccer at the same level at which the players are being asked to play. Otherwise, at the back of their minds, there is probably the "Do as I say, not as I do" skepticism. (2) in coaching before, he has gotten a winning record, preferably at the same level at which he is demanding of the players. (3) the coach does not fool around with the players with respect to wine, women, money and player favoritism, thereby losing their respect. The first two are due to moral turpitude; the next due either to greed and/or inadequate or irregular compensation; and the last due to job insecurity and the need to curry favor of higher powers. Whether local or foreign, I always worry when a coach who has not played on a national soccer side where he has earned 10, 20, 30 international caps; has not played World Cup soccer itself - and has not at some point later on become a national coach in a World Cup event. My point one is that at the very minimum, I WILL ALWAYS support a coach, local or foreign, who has played for his country's national team, has shone brightly - and during it shown captaincy skills as well as motivational skills to the rest of his team. If we wish to develop local coaching skills, then as we go from national team to national team, we should have our eye on such people, and send them further and further for coaching training as their own playing skills diminish. Let me admit that we have done some of that, with coaches like Christian Chukwu and a few others whose names I don't remember now - but we should do more and more of it. Even those that I remember vaguely, I don't know whether they were the chief coaches or just assistant coaches. [A look at the Assistant Coach list on http://www.supereagles.com/stories/profiles/2002assistantcoaches.asp shows that some attempt at grooming young former players is in the making.] The second point of course is that you have to be a coach to have a winning record - and this is where FOREIGN coaches have an advantage over our own LOCAL NIGERIAN COACHES. I mean, many of them have played for their national sides http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/narticles/nigerias_crashingout_of_world_cu.htm 7/18/2008 Nigerias CrashingOut of World Cup 2002 Page 3 of 18 in top level international matches and top league club-sides; have participated in the World Cup as players; and in fact have coached a number of countries to the World Cup. Why do we think Mexico and Nigeria and Costa Rica and now China have been engaging Bora Milutinovic for the past four or five World Cups? Or Philip Troussier (formerly of Nigeria) who is now coaching Japan? Why is it in the US that one coach in Football, Basketball or Baseball gets fired today - and tomorrow he gets another job again as coach in the same sport? Yes, he may be fired from Team A today for being 11 - 15 for the season, but in 20 seasons, he may have 400 - 100 record - and people look at that! So Team B wants him quick. I believe that record is what Bora and Phillip Troussier are riding on, their reputation for "turning teams around." One might be tempted to speculate that if most or all of the team members play on foreign club sides, then the coach should be foreign - like in Nigeria. The fact of the matter is that while the players would typically play in many different countries, the coach would have to come from just one country! In World Cup 2002, the best foreign-coach-fit seems to be Senegal, where 21 of the 23 players play on teams in French Leagues, and the Soccer coach is foreign and French (Bruno Metsu). On the other hand, 22 of the 23 players on the English squad play for English club sides (the exception is Owen Hargreaves), while the coach is Swedish (Sven-Goran Eriksson). In France itself, 18 out of the 23 players in the squad play for clubsides OUTSIDE of France, yet the coach is French. And in Saudi Arabia, all the 23 players are home-based - and the coach is home-grown too! A final point - and this is a sore one - for arguing for foreign coach in an ethnic-besotted country like Nigeria: he gets freed to a lot of extent from accusations of choosing a team based on ethnicity. People are freer to criticise him free of ethnicism - and he is free to accept or reject such criticism free of ethnicism. Imagine Onigbinde. I did hear murmurs that he got the job simply because he is Yoruba - and that because Obasanjo is Yoruba. Another coincidence: Onigbinde shares the same birthday (March 5) and maybe even the same birthdate (March 5, 1938) with president Obasanjo, since the president does not really know the year he was born! I did read some commentary of the suspicion that he restored Mutiu Adepoju and Opabunmi - who have not played in this World Cup by the way - because they are Yoruba like Onigbinde. A criticism that Onigbinde did not put in Ikedia or Oliseh or Ikpeba or others may be legitimate - and yet again it may just be one ethnic home boy rooting for another. Instead of Onigbinde accepting the criticisms on an objective note, he may simply dismiss them as the ranting of a "Yoruba-phobe" or one who wants his home boy to be there. And so on. However, a foreign coach who does not interest himself in all of these local ethnic politics - or at least does good pretence at not being affected - gets a freer hand in choosing his team and in assessing criticisms of his work. I have provided in the Appendix some synopsis of some World Cup coaches doing their coaching in their native land. You be the judge as to the history of their soccer involvements and the problems they have faced at home.