The New Year, which promises to be a busy one for Nigerian football, is already beginning on a fast and furious pace with the African Nations Championship (CHAN).
Having had a successful 2013, winning the African Nations Cup and qualifying for the World Cup, the Super Eagles travel to South Africa for the championship which is meant solely for players based on the continent.
This is the first time Nigeria will be taking part in the tournament having failed to qualify for the first two editions. This inexperience at this level coupled with injuries to members of the team like Yinka Adedeji and Gambo Mohammed have tended to temper confidence heading into the championship which gets underway on January 11.
But if the injuries are worrying enough, even more so is the incidence of withdrawal of several players who became ineligible to participate in the competition having moved to European clubs.
Godfrey Oboabona, Juwon Oshaniwa, Gabriel Reuben, Papa Idris and Sunday Mba who were not only stalwarts of the home-based team, but also integral part of the Super Eagles have all moved to foreign clubs ruling them out of contention.
With the exit of these experienced players who were part of Super Eagles triumph in South Africa in January 2013 and who were also in Brazil in June for the Confederations Cup, Coach Stephen Keshi has had to add and chop as he tried to manage what was rapidly turning into a crisis.
“I know there is still more work to be done in the team. And I continue to maintain that I still do not have a team because it is not possible to build a team for a major tournament in three weeks. Not even (Fabio) Capello or (Arsene) Wenger can do that,” Keshi said before the team’s departure for South Africa on Tuesday.
With this in mind, too much may not be expected from the team in their first foray into CHAN. A semi final berth may just be good enough even though that may not be saying too much as progress from the group stage automatically means a berth in the semi finals.
However qualifying from the group which includes Mali, Mozambique and hosts South Africa is still something the coaches will have to navigate.
Goal keeper trainer Ike Shorunmu while mindful of the challenges, assures that the team will not disappoint.
“The preparation went well,” says Shorunmu.
The only sad part is that some of the players we banked on had to leave the country for deals abroad and we had to start with fresh players. And as you know it takes some time for players to understand the philosophy.
“Anyway we will still do the very best in South Africa to ensure that the standard we have achieved in Africa in recent time is not lowered.”
Team captain Chigozie Agbim also spoke in the same vein. The goalkeeper said they didn’t go for the Christmas a New Year holidays just to focus on the task ahead.
“The celebrations can wait,” Agbim says in a matter of fact tone. “We have a tough task ahead and we are concentrating fully on it. We don’t want to let Nigerians down. Celebrations can come later.
Super Eagles begin their campaign on January 11 against Mali in Cape Town before taking on Mozambique in their second game on January 15. They round off their Group A campaign against hosts, South Africa four days later, also in Cape Town.
Keshi knows opening opponents Mali very well having coached the Malian national team before. South Africa are familiar foes but the Big Boss admits that he doesn’t know so much about Mozambique.
“I know how things work in Mali. I also know a lot about their national team. However, things could be different now that they have a new coach (Henry Kasperczak),” Keshi said.
“I don’t know that much about the Mozambicans but my findings so far reveals that they are a very good side.
“We know the South Africans very well. We played against them last year at the Nelson Mandela Challenge and we’ll see how it goes this time round.”
Hopefully this knowledge will work in the favour of the Super Eagles.
Two former Eagles midfielders Henry Nwosu and Friday Ekpo also expect a good outing in spite of the challenges.
“I know several players left the country. It is also a pity that injuries also depleted the squad in the last week before they travelled to South Africa, but we have players who can fit in,” notes Ekpo.
“I believe we can forge ahead. The coaches know what to do; again they have been in camp for some time. So I do feel that in spite of the challenges the team can still go to South Africa and do well.”
Nwosu on his part says assessing the chances of the team can only be possible after the championship starts, adding that the important thing however is to take each game as they come.
“We can’t really say how far we can go in the tournament since it has not started but the coaches will need to take it a game at a time, make corrections and progress from there,” the former U-17 national team coach advises.
By: Vincent Eboigbe
