Sports
2010 W/Cup: Whither Africa’s Soccer?
The ongoing World Cup football tournament in South Africa entered its crucial stage on June 27 when 16 nations qualified into the second round of the global soccer competition.
The thrills and excitements of the world’s foremost soccer tourney have been remarkable, although the performances of five out of the six African nations that started the 32-nation championship have been dismal, resulting in their early exit.
Only the “Black Stars” of Ghana qualified into the round of 16 and carried the banner to the last seconds of the quarter final clash with Uruguay.
Expectedly, the crash of Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and South Africa has dominated discussions and analyses by soccer pundits on radio and TV talk shows in Pretoria, South Africa.
Many of them — former soccer stars who played for their countries at different points in time — are quite unhappy about the fate of African teams at the championships.
Lucas Radebe, a former captain of the South African national team, “Bafana Bafana’’, could not hide his feelings about the poor performance of African teams at the World Cup competition.
According to him, the dismal showing reveals that African countries have not prepared well for the championship.
“It’s indeed a sad commentary for the continent that only Ghana could make it to the next group stage.
“May be, we should start re-thinking our strategy for future tournaments through early preparations,’’ he says.
Abedi “Pele’’ Ayew, a former captain of the “Black Stars’’, Ghana’s national team, says that most African teams lacked tactical discipline.
“The teams lack the ability to finish in front of open nets. The players created so many chances to score but wasted them eventually.
“It is a different thing for the South American and European teams who made good use of their own chances,” he says.
Abedi suggests that handlers of the African teams should improve on their tactical approach to the game, to make them excel in the future.
Former Super Eagles captain, Austin “Jay-Jay’’ Okocha, shares the sentiments of Radebe and Pele regarding the shortcomings of the African teams.
To him, early preparations and harnessing the potential of the abundant young talents constitute one way of ensuring that African teams excel in international tournaments like the World Cup.
“We need to prepare early for this kind of tournament. We also need to hunt for young talents on the continent and groom them in good time to mature for this kind of engagement,’’ Okocha says.
Another problem area identified by these analysts is soccer maladministration which, they say, has negatively affected the development of the game of football in Africa.
Mr Oliver Madiba, a resident of Durban in Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, laments that football administrators in Africa do not initiate and operate follow-up programmes to develop the game.
“Football administrators lack continuity in their planning. In the period of ten years, for instance, some countries have had ten managers or coaches who handled their national teams.
“Also, you find a situation where youth programmes are not followed up and talents discovered from such programmes are sometimes left to roam around, seriously wasted,’’ he says.
Ike Anyene, Chairman of the Nigerian Union in Gauteng Province in South Africa, re-echoes Madiba’s sentiments.
He says that Nigeria, in particular, lacks the spirit of continuity in football administration.
“Can you imagine that a new manager was recruited to handle the national team just three months to the World Cup? Were we then expecting him to perform wonders?’’ he asks.
“Certainly, it is not possible to expect much from him,’’ he asserts.
Anyene also regrets that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has not been able to effectively mobilise the abundant soccer talents that had been discovered in the past and groom them for future championships.
“I am aware that members of the national Under-17 team that represented the country in the last FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament, which was hosted by Nigeria, remain largely unutilised.
“I urge the NFF to keep these boys together for the next CAF and FIFA U-20 tournaments and possibly use them for the 2014 World Cup that is scheduled to hold in Brazil.
“It looks like an uphill task but any purposeful football federation can do it and I bet you, they will get good results from the strategy,’’ Anyene says.
Another Nigerian, Osadebe Ibegbu, who is Chairman of the Nigerian Union in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, says that the poor outing of the Super Eagles calls for sober reflections, with a view to ensuring better planning in the future.
“Indeed, the entire Nigerian community in Durban was not happy that the team could not win its last match against Korea, to qualify to the round of 16.
“It is now up to the NFF to re-plan their strategy for all future international engagements and the time to do it is now,’’ Ibegbu says.
Radebe, the ex-skipper of “Bafana Bafana’’, wants the issue of coaches and technical managers for Africa’s national teams to be decisively addressed
While some support the deployment of indigenous coaches, others express preference for foreign ones, who they think are technically superior and better exposed.
A female analyst, Christiana Buthulezi from Bloemfontein in the
Free State Province, says that she prefers indigenous coaches who could communicate with their players in languages that their opponents would not understand.
Other analysts, however, say that there are brighter prospects for African teams in future championships, if they learn to put their acts together through early preparations.
They also underscore the wisdom in grooming young talents for the national teams of countries.
They point at the Ghanaian example of harnessing young talents as an illustration, stressing that the young footballers collectively saw Ghana through to the second round of the ongoing World Cup tournament.
Nine of the Black Stars graduated into squad from Ghana’s U-20 team, the analysts note.
Mboye writes for NAN
Mike Mbonye
Sports
CAA Wants Ghana To Host 2026 Athletics Champions
The Confederation of African Athletics has invited Ghana to bid for the hosting rights of the 2026 African Athletics Championships, following a successful athletics event at the just concluded 2023 African Games.
President of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseini, stated this and expressed confidence in the transformative potential of the Legon Stadium for athletes and Ghana’s bid to host international competitions.
With a capacity of 11,000, the Legon Stadium played a pivotal role in the recent African Games, hosting both the opening and closing ceremonies as well as various sporting events including athletics, football, and rugby.
Fuseini highlighted the success of the athletics events held at the stadium, which contributed to Ghana winning six medals.
“We have already started getting requests from the Confederation of African Athletics to bid for the 2026 African Athletics Championships.
“When they came and saw what we have put in place and the level of organisation, they told me that for the last 20 years, they’ve never seen any organisation like this before. We did three official courses. And the last one, we had 110, all of them passed. We had a lot of officials and equipment.”
Since its establishment in 1979, Ghana has never hosted the African Athletics Championships, with Nigeria being the host country twice, in 1989 and 2018.
This year, Cameroon will take the reins as the host nation, with the event set to be held at the Olembe Stadium.
Sports
‘I’m Not Under Pressure To Coach Eagles’
Finidi George, head coach of the Nigeria Premier Football Leagues side, Enyimba, has stated that he is not losing any sleep over getting the Super Eagles job on a permanent basis.
Early this month, the Nigeria Football Federation declared the position of the Super Eagles’ head coach vacant, following the exit of Portuguese Jose Peseiro, who led the side to a second-place finish at the 2023 Africa Cup Nations in Ivory Coast in February.
In an advertisement on its website calling for applications with a March 13 deadline, the football governing body stated that the prospective Eagles coach “must have proven experience at the elite level of football.”
The former Ajax man, who also applied for the job, was appointed Eagles interim coach for the international window with the former winger picking a win and suffering a defeat.
In an interview with Tidesports source, the 52-year-old tactician said he was not desperate for the job permanently.
“I felt really good when I was told to take charge of the team. I have been with the team for almost two years, I know all the players, their strengths, and their weaknesses but I am only here to serve Nigeria the way I know how to do stuff.
“I will just take these two games and go back to my club. Whatever the decision is taken after, so be it. I’m not under pressure to say I must get the role permanently.”
Sports
‘Reasons Why Eagles Lost To Mali’
The friendly games against Ghana and Mali were to serve as an audition for George Finidi, who was in charge of the team on an interim basis, but the Eagles’ lacklustre display in those friendlies has called for his further evaluation.
Finidi kept faith with ex-coach Jose Peseiro’s defensive formation against Mali on the back of his first win (against Ghana) in charge of the team four days earlier.
But this time, his defence was punished following a combination of defensive errors and poor passes.
The Eagles struggled to play out of defence due to the high pressing of the Malians and it was no surprise that the first goal by Les Aigles was a direct result of their aggression.
Chidozie Awaziem, who started on the right of the back three alongside Kenneth Omeruo and Semi Ajayi, lacked composure and was pressured into making a pass across his box straight at Bilal Toure, who made no mistake in getting the ball past Stanley Nwabali. They missed the calming presence of injured William Troost-Ekong.
Vice captain, Kenneth Omeruo, was also culpable of misplaced passes and was beaten for pace when Kamory Doumbia ran past him to seal Mali’s first win in over four decades, firing his shot past a helpless Nwabali, who stood no chance.
Eagles wing backs, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Jamilu Collins also did not do enough to support the team in attack when they had the chance to.
Lack of creativity
Finidi paired Raphael Onyedika and Wilfred Ndidi in a double pivot in midfield. Both players are naturally anchor men and neither is a box-to-box midfielder.
They both do not possess the offensive capability to drive the team’s attack forward, which left the Eagles once again craving for a natural creative midfielder.
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