Nigeria-Kenya Tie: Wake Up Call For S’Eagles

Newly crowned African Football champions – the Super Eagles of Nigeria escaped a massive upset in their 2014 World Cup campaign a fortnight ago, in Calabar when they relied on a last gasp rally in the dying seconds to hold visiting Harambee Stars of Kenya to a 1-1 draw.

The tie, an African zone Round Two, Match Three of the Brazil 2014 World Cup saw the Kenyans snatching the curtain-raiser in the 39th minute of the match, played at the U. J. Esuene Stadium, through a spectacular free kick by Nyamburakayata Francis. It took substitute Nnamdi Oduamadi, the Italy-based youthful professional and eventual Man of the Match to salvage the image of the African Champions with the equalizer during extra time.

Although key Super Eagles players, including Vice Captain and stand-in goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama and other commentators have rationalised Nigeria’s performance in the tie, blaming the Eagles’ lackluster showing on the difficult and massive defensive tactics contrived by the Kenyans to frustrate the Eagles, the outcome of the match was nonetheless instructive.

It was the first time under Coach Stephen Keshi that the Super Eagles had to fight back from a goal down at home. Also, it was the first time Kenya would score in Nigeria in 28 years after their 3-1 defeat in a World Cup qualifier in Lagos in 1985. Of course, Kenya had not defeated Nigeria in 11 previous meetings.

Therefore, given the record of superiority of the Super Eagles over their Kenyan counterparts and  their pedigree in the African continent, Nigeria should have no problem qualifying from Group F of the on-going World Cup preliminaries in which Kenya, Malawi and Namibia complete the number.

It is however disturbing that, of the three games so far played in the African qualifiers, the Super Eagles have secured only one victory over Namibia and drew 1-1 with the Malawi and Kenya respectively, and end up earning five points as does Malawi.

These results, particularly the latest with Kenya in Calabar do not reflect the image of the senior National team especially of a highly rated football nation only recently crowned African champions for the third time.

We think that it is to say the least, embarrassing for the Super Eagles to barely force visiting and less fancied Kenya to a draw at home barely weeks after emerging African champions.

It was clear that the Super Eagles failed to raise their game in the encounter, an indication that they were still basking in the euphoria and honeymoon of their continental success. This, is unacceptable.

The party should be over, given the challenges of the World Cup ahead. The FIFA World mundial is unarguably the greatest sports festival on earth, where only the best play having passed through the crucible of the qualifying series. Nigeria had only played four times on this stage with little success and demonstrate some seriousness in campaigning for one of the five African slots for the 2014 edition.

This is why it is imperative that the Super Eagles and their handlers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and indeed all other stakeholders learn from  the recent Nigeria-Kenya match as necessary basis to appreciate their apparent weaknesses and  strength in order to plot the way forward.

The yawning complacency on the part of the coaching crew, visible lack of commitment to and indiscipline among the players, bickering in the NFF technical committee, and the often reported selfish interest and greed among football administrators can only lead to failure which must be avoided.

We cannot pretend to be unaware of the bickering between some members of the NFF Technical Committee and Coach Keshi over selection of the players for the Kenyan match. While Paul Bassey and Austin Elumelu – two members of the Technical Committee criticised Keshi for not availing the committee on the team list for vetting before sending it to NFF secretariat for publication, Keshi had insisted that there was no Technical Committee to report to, since, according to him, the Technical Committee had not been reconstituted after its dissolution in December last year.

The obvious under-performance of the national team with all the bickering before and during their recent match with Kenya should therefore be an eye-opener and a wake-up call for committed attention of relevant stakeholder to the Super Eagles World Cup campaign.

The Super Eagles must therefore, work harder to win its three remaining matches in the qualifying series to be in Brazil 2014 World Cup.

For, whether African champions or European champions, if a team is not at the World Cup, its global rating falls automatically.