Nigeria at the Confederations Cup: a post-mortem

The Super Eagles of Nigeria’s performance at the Confederations Cup in Brazil 2013 was at most tepid and leaves much to be desired. Why do I say so? One felt that from a high in South Africa where we won the Nations’ Cup in less than 5 months, we would build on our successes but that was not to be. This review is akin to what in American Football is called Monday Morning Quarterbacking which is a review of the weekend game (a post mortem).

The team’s readiness was less than ideal, not with their arrival at the competition less than 12 hours to the our group’s opening game against Oceania champions and minnows Tahiti, a nation of quasi professional and one-tenth of Nigeria’s population. We had a chance to completely annihilate them by a cricket score but we did nothing close only managing to score 6 goals past the hapless team and even conceding a goal in the process.

No disrespect to the Tahitians but the Eagles ought to have pummelled them silly and dictated the pace all through but our finishing let us down. Poor marksmanship was our bane and was to rear its head in our subsequent two group games against Uruguay and Spain. A convincing win against Tahiti and another marginal one against Uruguay with an expected loss to Spain would have guaranteed our qualification for the semi-finals but that was not to be.

I have been an avid fan of Stephen Keshi since his appointment but my confidence in him is waning and I am wont to say that in the 3 games we played at the confederations cup, our team lacked tactical awareness and showed no presence of mind.

Keshi did not display or exhibit any match reading ability and cut a forlorn figure on the bench particularly during our games against Uruguay and Spain. In contemporary football, players have to be offensively mobile not passing backwards or sideways. When in the offence you shoot especially against a tiki-taka team like Spain who will pass all day long and deny you of the ball.

The very first time we played competitively against non-African opposition, our deficiencies were bare for all to see. Defensively we were downright naïve and offensively we are wayward with our shooting and finishing. Goals win you games and when you don’t take your chances you get punished.

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Keshi regales us with talks of rebuilding and in pursuit of that he wants to infuse majorly home based players, but even that must have a beginning and a cut-off period. Apart from Obaobona in defence and Mba in the midfield, all those injections have made very minimal impact.

They all seem to freeze on the world stage and you win competitions with your best and Nigeria boasts an array of players abroad who are hungry to play for the national team. Let him scout for them and pretty fast too as experience makes the difference.

One strongly advises that the gaffer invites the likes of Taiye Taiwo back for experience and maybe Yobo; our wing backs are offensive but found wanting in their primary duty which is defending. In equal measure we need a playmaker as Mikel is too defensive and seems to have forgotten the offensive part of his game never mind that he scored a goal on his 50th cap against Uruguay.

And in the attack, Ideye, Akpala, Oduamadi and Ahmed Musa are not clinical enough. Ahmed Musa runs and cannot put a simple cross through; the final ball is way too poor and at major tourneys you will be punished. An injection of Martins, Anichebe and Ameobi in the attack will be desirable.

We need a physical trainer complete with a psychologist and other backroom staff and of course the NFF must put its house in order as every week there is always a major distraction and this must stop forthwith.

Another worrying point for me is Keshi’s haughtiness and seeming arrogance in the face of criticism; a- know-it-all mentality comes across especially at his press conferences (pre-match and post-match). His posture is very condescending and he definitely needs a lot of media training.

The question on everyone’s mind now is are we ready for the World Cup? My answer is, we must first qualify and move one step at a time. We still have the last game in the second round of qualifying against Malawi in September and a draw will see us top our group and thereafter be one of the ten group winners that will play off over 2 legs between 11-15 October and 15-19 October to choose Africa’s five representatives for Brazil 2014. Will the Super Eagles be one of them? Your guess is as good as mine.