Don’t
be deceived, you do not have creative midfielders that can split
opposition defence when they bring ‘the bus’ to the pitch. You most
times play with Onazi, Mikel and Sunday Mba as the 3-man midfield who
are all more of a Defensive Midfielders/CM than attacking midfielders.
Dear Super Eagles,
On Sunday, October 13th 2013 you will be playing the first leg match of the Brazil 2014 world cup qualifier against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
Previously, you have only played the Ethiopians 3 times at their home ground with one win, one loss and one draw record.
The only loss was in the 1994 AFCON Qualifier match which ended 1-0
in favour of the Ethiopians, but the Rashidi Yekini led Super Eagles
thrashed Ethiopia 6-0 in the second leg.
Late goal king Rashidi
Yekini scored a hat-trick in that game, which also was the international
debut for a certain Sunday Oliseh and the Super Eagles then were the
golden generation winning the Tunisia’94 AFCON tournament.
Fast forward to 2013 and
you are the champions of Africa with a relatively young team that went
all the way
against all odds. You played your next opponent in the last
group game in South Africa which was very important and you needed to
win the game after only picking up 2 points in your first two games.
Ethiopia inspired by their
amazing fans were a good team, they played the counter attacking
tactics against the you and defended properly as you chased the game
knowing that it’s a must win or you are out of the tournament.
It took a five star performance by Victor Moses in the last 15minutes
to win two and convert two penalties which gave you a 2-0 victory in
South Africa.
After the heroics of the AFCON 2013 tournament, you continued to
impress in friendly games and world cup qualifiers but the Stephen Keshi
led team seems to struggle at home during the qualifiers as opponents
are set up to defend deep and play on the counter.
You find it hard to break down teams who park the bus and as the
African champions, it is expected that most teams would park the bus or
even the “molue” sef…
This was evident in the 1-1 draw in Calabar against the Harambee
stars of Kenya and the last qualifying game against Malawi where Victor
Moses and Emenike scored in the 71st and 83rd minute respectively.
You tend to perform when playing away or playing a team that wants
to attack and not defend in numbers like the friendly game against
Mexico, South Africa and not forgetting the loss to Spain at the last
confederations cup.
Despite the loss you
played a good game against the World champions and Nigerians all over
the world were proud of you but lack of potent strikers was evident in
that match.
Okay, let’s go back to
AFCON 2013 against that stubborn Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba led Ivory
Coast team, Oboabona and Omeruo were fantastic as Drogba was in the
‘pocket’ of Omeruo all through the match, the team in general were
amazing… Defended deeply with quick passes to break and attack. Sunday
Mba scored that beautiful that winning goal that is still in my memory.
In the Semi-final, I watched one of the best games any super eagles’ teams have played.
The world witnessed
beautiful counter attacking football by our dear Super Eagles where
Moses and Ahmed Musa were fantastic in their movements and runs behind
the Malians defence.
The current Super Eagles
are more of a counter attacking team, with fast attackers like Moses,
Musa, Emenike and wing backs like Echiejile and Ambrose supporting the
attack at every given opportunity.
Don’t be deceived, you do
not have creative midfielders that can split opposition defence when
they bring ‘the bus’ to the pitch. You most times play with Onazi, Mikel
and Sunday Mba as the 3-man midfield who are all more of a Defensive
Midfielders/CM than attacking midfielders.
Yes, Mikel has been
fantastic as the number 10 role but he is used to playing as a defensive
midfielder at Chelsea and you can’t expect him to have the same vision
as a player that plays the number 10 role week in week out.
Despite been in great form
playing the attacking midfielder role in previous games for the Super
Eagles, I still believe the team struggle to break down oppositions as
you do not play quick passes in the final third to free the wingers.
Oh well, all I am saying
is you can only play on the counter when we are playing away and I
expect ‘the boss’ Stephen Keshi and the players to have figured this out
as we, Nigerian fans are impatient when the team is struggling to score
at home which was obvious in the last game against the Malawians in
Calabar.
I am sure as you were all on the pitch you can feel the frustrations as you look for the goals in that important game.
If we lose or draw come Sunday in Addis Ababa, it is going to be hard to qualify for the world cup.
The second leg game on November 16th in
Calabar is most likely going to be very tough as the Ethiopians are a
much improved side from the one we defeated earlier this year and we
might be on the verge of missing the 2014 world cup in Brazil.
Oh! The thought of Nigeria not qualifying for Brazil 2014 alone… sigh
The young man here is planning to go for the world cup, and already thinking about the beautiful ladies and samba football 
.
.
It won’t make sense going to the world cup in Brazil without my beloved Super Eagles participating.
So, my dear Super Eagles
pls make us proud by going for victory in Addis Ababa on Sunday and save
us the stress and frustrations in the second leg come November.
I know you can do it and we will all smile in the end… C’mon NIGERIA, Go Super Eagles!!!
This Op-Ed pice was written by Segun Ake of Ynaija.com