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.