AN ANALYSIS OF NIGERIA Page 1 of 3 AN ANALYSIS OF NIGERIA’S SUPER EAGLES AT THE 2002 WORLD CUP AND THE FUTURE OF OUR NATIONAL TEAM BY OCHE ONAZI, LL. B., BL. JOS, NIGERIA. After the performance of the Super Eagles at the Mali 2002 African Nations Cup, many of us didn’t expect anything satisfactory from our National team at the on-going World Cup. This feeling was further strengthened by the decision of the authorities to disband the Mali 2002 team and reconstitute a new team just a few months to the World Cup. Furthermore, the unfavourable World Cup draws, which put our team with arguably the strongest Soccer playing nations in the World, strengthened the sceptism about the team. The mandate was given to Chief Adeboyega Onigbinde to raise a new team that would give a reasonable account of itself at the tournament. This decision was greeted with mixed emotions by Nigerians at home and abroad, some including myself felt it was the right decision to take having witnessed an aging Super Eagles whose only motivation to play for the country was the amount of money they would make. Others, including some of our prominent players were of the opinion that the sacking of the coach and the building of a new team a few month’s before the world cup would ruin Nigeria’s chances of wining the World Cup. This may be right but I would like to ask them if they realistically thought Nigeria could have won the World cup with the team we saw at the Nations Cup? This was not the only controversy that came with the decision to disband the Team; there was the question of whether Chief Onigbinde was the right man for the job? I must confess that many others including myself did not really expect much from him, as I thought a foreign Coach should have been called in to take over the side. However, credit must go the Chief for being able to raise a talented and disciplined team that represented Nigeria at the world cup. This was amidst the attempts by agents of some players to bribe him and the noise by the numerous friends of Sunday Oliseh to have the player included in the team. The Coach felt he had suitable replacements or a replacement for the accomplished Sunday Oliseh. In my opinion, he was vindicated by the brilliant performances of Justice Christopher, with his excellent close control and passing technique; his displays were reminiscent of the Oliseh we used to know. It is no surprise that Manchester City and Glasgow Rangers are hot on his tail. The team was composed with a hand-full of the older and more accomplished players including Jay Jay Okocha, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Celestine Babayaro, Ike Shorunmu, Garba Lawal, Efe Sodje, Benedict Akwuegbu and Mutiu Adepoju. However, the bulk of the team was made of the young and rising stars of Nigerian football, with players like Julius Aghahowa, Pius Ikedia, James Obiora, Bartholomew Ogbeche, Justice Christopher, etc. In my opinion, six players with World Cup experience should have been able to make up for the inexperience of the others. In Soccer, there are no hard rules as to how a wining team should be composed but I would consider the ingredients of a wining team as a mixture of experience and youth. Therefore, The Super Eagles had good enough team to at least go beyond the first round in the World Cup irrespective of the fact that the team was put together shortly before the World cup and largely composed of young players. After all, the Senegalise, the South Koreans, the Japanese were arguably made up of players with little experience but they were all able to advance beyond the first round. I guess it was the longer period they had to prepare for the tournament that made it possible, but there was more to it than that. http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/articles/an_analysis_of_nigeria.htm 7/21/2008 AN ANALYSIS OF NIGERIA Page 2 of 3 What then was responsible for our team’s early exit from the tournament? I would believe bad luck was a major factor. The first major blow in my opinion was the World cup draws, the loss of Kanu Nwankwo in the game against Argentina and most importantly the chances the team missed in the game that mattered the most, that is against Sweden. However, the major reason for our early exit was the fact that our Coach was not inspirational; an inspirational Coach has the ability to say the right words that would make his players play even beyond their potential and even do what some might term as the impossible. For instance, Sven Goran Ericksson was able to inspire England to do what seemed impossible under Kevin Kegan i.e. to qualify for the world cup or the way Sven was able to inspire S.S. Lazio to win the league trophy in Italy, after being unable to do so for 26 years. Bobby Robson who was able to get Newcastle Utd back to winning ways after he took over from Ruud Hullit, a task Hullit wasn’t able to achieve with the same set of players or even our Clemens Westerhof was able to get our Eagles to play with a lot of zeal and determination because he was inspirational. Chief Onigbinde just sat on the bench as if nothing was going wrong. Another reason for our failure to get beyond the first round was that our Coach was also a bit too rigid in his tactics and looking at the entire matches the team played under his guidance, one will observe that the coach hardly liked to make substitutions. We saw a situation where Kanu Nwankwo was injured 10 minutes into the game, but he still left him on for the first half. Our coach always liked to finish a match the way he started it, even when it was obvious there was the need to inject new life into team. For instance, in the match against Argentina, which was no doubt a very difficult one, our team was not adventurous enough to get a draw as Onigbinde claimed we deserved. We were too defensive and we suffered for it; we had only 4 shots at their goal through out the entire match as against their 20 shots. It is a known fact in football circles attack is the best form of defence, but we just sat back to defend. Furthermore, it’s a known fact that South American teams play an open type of game, which makes them vulnerable at the back, but we didn’t do enough to exploit that. I don’t think our Coaching crew took time to study our opposition and to know what style of football they actually played. England and Sweden knew this about Argentina and they took advantage of it and it paid off. In both games we lost, I feel we didn’t put up much of a fight to equalise or even win. In the on-going World Cup, we have seen teams in very similar circumstances as we found ourselves and their respective coaches were able to throw every thing into the game to get good results but our coach gave the impression he was trying to preserve the score line rather than change it. A loss is a loss irrespective of if it’s by one goal or three goals. We still had a substitute left in the game against Sweden but we never saw the need for introducing anybody. Out of Nigeria’s previous outings in the World Cup, this was the first time we were not able to get beyond the first round and I’m of the opinion it is as a result of the quality of our coaching staff and not the "inexperience" of the players as has been suggested by many. If we had a Sven Goran Eriksson or Guus Hidink or Klaus Topmoller (sic) (as was being proposed before the tournament) sitting on our bench, he would have been able to properly guide us at least through the first round given the talents we had at the tournament. Having said this, I am sure we are all in agreement that our team at the World Cup is no doubt a team for the future and if properly nurtured they are capable of returning Nigeria’s football to world recognition. We must give Coach Onigbinde the credit for laying this foundation. However, our authorities should start shopping for a tried and tested foreign Coach that will nurture this team to reach its full potential. I would like to recommend someone like Guus Hidink, if he will agree to come; he has done a marvellous job with the South Koreans, or someone else in his class. We should go for first rated Coaches and not Coaches with questionable credentials. The authorities should also explore the possibility of introducing a reputable sports psychologist like Willi Railo, a well accomplished Swedish sports psychologist who has worked with well known clubs and players, to help increase the mental strength of the team. Football these days is not limited to only tactics and physical strength or skill but the importance of the mental strength of individual players matters a lot in improving their performances and that of the team as a whole. The authorities should also employ a foreigner as the FA director of coaching; he will be responsible in building the capacity of our indigenous coaches.