Nigeria Sets 2018 W/Cup Semi-Final Target

Nigeria Super Eagles aim to make history at the 2018 World Cup by becoming the first African team ever to reach the semi-finals.
The three-time African champions have reached the Round of 16 on three of their five World Cup appearances.
“All efforts we are building now are geared towards getting Nigeria to play the semi-finals in Russia,” the Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick declared this week.
“We have the manpower to do that. The talent in Nigeria is amazing.”
Pinnick’s comments might come as a surprise given that Nigeria failed to qualify for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.
Two years ago they won the title but their decline has been brought about by a mixture of turmoil within the NFF, the sacking and rehiring of coach Stephen Keshi and threats of Fifa bans for government interference in football matters.
Nonetheless, Pinnick, who assumed control of Nigerian football last September following protracted elections, lists a number of reasons why Africa’s largest country – with a population of 170m people – can finally deliver at the World Cup.
He believes technology, ‘capacity-building’ for coach Keshi, a better local league, the country’s natural ability and enhanced administration can provide the platform for significant growth.
The NFF boss travelled to London this week with five staff to belatedly tap into long-standing technological applications.
“Our coaches can be technically sound but technologically they were inept, because football for me is driven more by technology than anything else,” said Pinnick.
“We are in the process of acquiring match analysis software, so that when we go back home, we won’t play our matches blindly. We are starting late but we are getting it right – that’s the most important point.
“We now have the match analysis software that can analyse games for us and give us directions because normally we play matches without knowing our opponents nor their strengths and weaknesses.
“If we had used match analysis, we would have beaten France and got to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in 2014.”
Pinnick is now hoping another Frenchman, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger, can push Keshi to greater heights.
“We’ve had a word and Arsene will be ready to take him in sometime in July,” said Pinnick.
“We are also looking at talking to other Premier League clubs and clubs in Germany to look at the various techniques – to see how we can grow and put these techniques into play whenever Keshi is playing a game.”
“Keshi is an apostle of the local players so we decided to say ‘ok, let’s see how we can build his capacity and use the technical study group’.”
Jay-Jay Okocha heads the technical study group, with Victor Ikpeba, Nwankwo Kanu and Taribo West also involved.
“These ex-players have played under some of the best coaches in the world. So if you put all this together with our technical committee and technical director, coupled with our match anaylsis technique, we don’t think we’ll go wrong,” added Pinnick.
“We think the combination is better than any foreign coach. That doesn’t mean that if he falters tomorrow, we aren’t going to get a manager who can take us to our perceived El Dorado.
“If we don’t get to the World Cup semi-finals, we’ll get very close I can assure you.”
Meanwhile, Super Eagles’ goalkeeper trainer, Ike Shorunmu, has assured Nigerians that the national team would qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) scheduled to hold in Gabon.
The Eagles are grouped with Egypt, Tanzania, and Chad in the qualifiers for AFCON 2015.
Some Nigerians have expressed apprehensiveness that the Super Eagles will repeat the 2011 and 2014 disappointing results, when it was stopped by Guinea and Congo respectively from participating in the tournament.
In an interview with journalists yesterday in Ibadan, however, Shorunmu allayed fears that the Super Eagles might not qualify for the championship.
The ex-international appealed to Nigerians to be optimistic and support the team whole heartedly in order to enhance their chances of qualification.
Shorunmu stated that the technical crew, led by Keshi, would hit the ground running as soon as the negotiation with him was concluded.
He urged Nigerians to go to bed with their two eyes closed and be rest assured of the team’s AFCON qualification,
According to him, the country has excellent players that could ensure that Nigeria secured qualification for AFCON 2015.

Nigeria Super Eagles in celebration in a recent game. They are expected to reach the semi final stage of 2018 World Cup