At the blast of the referee’s final whistle on
Saturday, some half-a-dozen Super Eagles players were spotted locked in an
embrace with Gernot Rohr, their coach. Afterwards, they grabbed the fragile
German, threw him up, and caught him mid-air. Over and over they repeated the
process to the adulation of fans at the packed Godswil Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
Everyone in or connected to Nigeria’s football fraternity was delirious, save
one man — that man who could have been falling mid-air into the waiting arms of
Captain Mikel Obi and co. Paul Le Guen!
He Who Laughs Last Laughs Best
In July 2016, Le Guen was offered the Super
Eagles job — following the unceremonious exit of Sunday Oliseh, who lasted a
little more than six months in the role. Without doing its home work well, the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) rushed to announce Le Guen as the new
Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles. The Frenchman would astonishingly reject
the offer; and to save face, the NFF embarrassingly claimed that its Technical
and Development Committee merely “recommended” — not appointed — him. Le Guen
didn’t want to live in Nigeria, and he didn’t want to be given the specific
target of qualifying for Russia. But all these matter no more! Gernot Rohr
accepted the job, accepted the target and in fact added thereafter: “I’m not
afraid of failure; if I fail, I pack my bags and I go back to my country.”
Talking about contrasting fortunes, while a
Rohr-managed Nigeria is heading to Russia, Le Guen finds himself managing a
Turkish Super Liga side only five points adrift of the relegation zone in one
of Europe’s football backwaters. A current 10th position for Le Guen’s
Bursaspor looks not that worrisome on the surface; but in an 18-team league,
that’s a placing only better than that of five non-relegation candidates. And
to put it in grim context, six of the nine teams ahead of Bursaspor are
Kayerispor, Göztepe S.K., İstanbul Başakşehir F.K., Akhisar Belediyespor,
Alanyaspor, Trabzonspor — all lacking or deficient in pedigree outside the
south-eastern European country. Hopefully, Amaju Pinnick, the NFF president,
will be humble enough in victory by refusing the temptation to text Le Guen;
and let’s hope, too, that Le Guen can return that favour by congratulating
William Troost-Ekong, his Bursaspor defender who is definitely boarding
Nigeria’s plane to Russia.
Qualifying Without a Calculator
Enough of Le Guen; the Frenchman doesn’t even
qualify as a footnote in Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup qualification story. The real
story is that for the first time in at least two decades, the Super Eagles
prosecuted a World Cup qualifying series without turning Nigerians to emergency
mathematicians; not for a moment did we need our calculators.
During the France ’98 qualification series, it
took only two rounds of matches for Nigerians to begin punching their
calculators. Blessed with the core of the ’94 continental title-winning team,
and placed in a group comprising lightweights Guinea, Kenya and Burkina Faso,
Nigeria was expected to boss the group from start to the end. But after an
opening-day victory over Burkina Faso courtesy of a Daniel ‘The Bull’ Amikachi
brace, Nigeria laboured to a 1-1 draw with Kenya in Nairobi. Guinea, meanwhile,
followed up a 3-1 victory over Kenya in Conakry with a 2-0 away spanking of Burkina
Faso in Ouagadougou. With six points, two more than Nigeria’s, Guinea looked
pretty comfortable atop the group. The Super Eagles’ next game was against the
Guineans, so Nigerians grabbed a calculator: we would climb to seven points if
we defeated Guinea; if we could win the next away match, beat Kenya at home and
avoid defeat in Conakry on the last match day, we were France-bound.
Thankfully, Amokachi netted another brace to down the Syli Nationale (National
Elephants), and Nigerians dispensed with their calculators. We beat Guinea to
the ticket in the end.
A similar scenario played out ahead of the
Korea/Japan World Cup. After ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha and Benedict Akwuegbu helped
Nigeria to a 2-0 victory over Sierra Leone on the opening day in Lagos, the
Super Eagles fell 2-1 to Liberia in Monrovia. At the end of matchday 3, Nigeria
and Liberia were tied at six points. Liberia took solitary control of the group
on matchday 4, beating Sierra Leone by a lone goal, while Nigeria could only
hold Ghana to a scoreless draw in Accra. Liberia had nine points, while Nigeria
had seven. Both countries won their next round of matches: Liberia 12 points,
Nigeria 10. Like in 1997, Nigeria only gained control of the group after
playing Liberia in Lagos, the legendary Kanu Nwankwo and Hansa Rostock striker
Victor Agali delivering the goals that nailed the Lone Stars.
Qualification for the 2006 World Cup was a photocopy of the previous two, but
this time, we failed to beat the troublesome team when we faced them at home.
We won the opening game as usual, courtesy of Obafemi Martins’ second-half
brace. But we lost the second match away to Angola. After just two matches,
Nigeria was trailing minnows Angola. It was pretty too early but Nigerians were
already punching their calculators, because that year, the head-to-head rule
took precedence over goals difference. Therefore, we needed to beat Angola by
two clear goals on matchday 8, which we didn’t do. Instead, Jay Jay’s goal was
cancelled out by Paulo Figueiredo. Everything else we did — including a 5-1
home drubbing of Rwanda and a 5-2 away mauling of Algeria — counted for
nothing. On the final day, our calculators told us we needed Rwanda, playing at
home, to avoid defeat against Angola; a draw of any score would have sent
Nigeria through. The game looked destined for a goalless draw until Fabrice
Alcebiades Maieco, better known as Akwá, broke Nigerian hearts with a goal just
11 minutes from time. Despite mauling Zimbabwe in Abuja and tying with Angola
on 21 points, Nigeria was ruled out of the Germany 2006 World Cup by the
head-to-head rule.
For the 2010 World Cup, Nigeria was behind
from matchday 1, drawing away with Mozambique while Tunisia defeated Kenya in
Nairobi. From then on till matchday 6, we punched calculators. On the final
qualification day, we needed to beat Kenya away, and we also needed Mozambique
to help us defeat Tunisia in Maputo. Ten minutes to the end of both matches, we
were playing a 2-2 draw in Nairobi, while Mozambique and Tunisia were
stalemated. If either match ended that way, the World Cup dream was over. After
Martins scored nine minutes from time, most Nigerians stopped watching the
match and tuned to Mozambique, because a draw in that other match would still
have handed Tunisia the ticket. Dário Monteiro eventually scored for Mozambique
— and Nigeria — to bring to a happy ending what was arguably Nigeria’s most
hypertensive World Cup qualifying campaign ever.
Credit to Rohr But More Work Needed for World Cup
Even in 2013, when we recorded two pretty
straightforward victories over Ethiopia in the final round to qualify for the
Brazil 2014 World Cup, there were problems in the penultimate group-phase
round.
Therefore, credit must go to Rohr for the
calmness and clear-headedness with which he has led the Eagles, blending the
youth of the likes of Alex Iwobi, Moses Simon, and Kelechi Iheanacho with the
experience of the Ogenyi Onazis, Mikel Obis and Ahmed Musas of this world, and
ensuring his boys underrated no opponent.
But, as the German himself admitted after
booking the Russia ticket, the work has only just begun. If Nigeria must break
its World Cup second-round jinx, there are problems to be fixed. First, this
team is in a shambles without Mikel and Moses, as we discovered when South
Africa thrashed us in an AFCON qualifier in Uyo, in June; should either player
sustain an injury before or suspension during the World Cup, we’re unlikely to
even scale the group-phase hurdle.
For Mikel, especially, Rohr must find a
replacement before Russia. No one should mention Mikel Agu; his place in the
team is questionable. The midfield collapsed in Yaounde after he came on to
replace the original Mikel; against Zambia, fouls were his only contributions.
Also, Nigeria needs a better striker. Odion
Ighalo is inconsistent and wasteful; Kelechi Iheanacho often disappears in
games, offering no more than a poacher’s finish when offered game time.
Elderson Echiejile is solid at the back, but all his good defence work is
undone by poor decision making and bad crossing when bombing forward.
Hope we haven’t forgotten that we still have
an unresolved goalkeeping dilemma. Ikechukwu Ezenwa is grossly underconfident,
evinced by how passionately he kisses the ball after every simple save; he
surely can’t face a Lionel Messi or a Kylian Mbappe at the World Cup. Is
Vincent Enyeama returning to the Eagles, as some NFF sources are suggesting?
Will Carl Ikeme recover from cancer in time to be back in goal? The questions
are far too numerous to be laid down in a single piece. But for now, thank you,
Gernot Rohr, for keeping our calculators very far away from us for the entirety
of this World Cup campaign!
Super
Eagles players have agreed on a deal on their 2018 FIFA World Cup bonus
payment structure with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
