Sports
Super Eagles Will Qualify For 2013 AFCON
The immediate past Media Officer of the Super Eagles, Colin Udoh, is confident that the team will qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in South Africa.
Udoh told newsmen, in Lagos, that the level of dedication by the players and Coach Stephen Keshi’s zeal would ensure qualification.
Udoh stressed that the level of enthusiasm exuded by Keshi, would no doubt spur the team to surmount whatever obstacles their opponents would pose in their bid to qualify for the 2013 AFCON.
He likened Keshi’s work ethic to that of Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United FC of England.
“Keshi is a driven man; he is determined to put Nigeria’s football back on track like Ferguson. They (Manchester United) are not the best team in the league but they have a coach who knows what he wants at any given time.
“He is a coach who knows what he wants, and if the players can understand what the man at the touch line wants, which is to get results, then results will come,” he said.
On the infusion of players from the domestic league into the Super Eagles, Udoh argued that this would make the foreign based players to sit up and let them know that it was no longer business as usual.
He urged football fans to appreciate the enormity of the task at hand, especially the state of uncertainty associated with qualifying for a major tournament such as the AFCON.
“I think they are ready, they are in a good group like they have always been; I am sure they are equal to the task,” Udoh said.
“Even in the early 1990s when the team was at its peak, qualification for major competitions did not come easy for the Eagles,” he said.
The former media officer cited instances in the past when qualification for major competitions seemed impossible until the very last day of the qualifiers.
“A typical example was the qualification for the USA 94’ World Cup, where the Eagles got enmeshed in a triangular qualification tussle with Algeria and Cote d’Ivoire before it eventually qualified,” Udoh said.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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