We took it all for granted. Never quite appreciated the magnitude of it all, what it took to finally achieve it. And when it all came to an end, taking Italy to the brink in the 2nd round of our very first World Cup was somehow deemed a failure. Our team left the US in twos and threes, never getting the kind of welcome back home their efforts deserved. And their coach – the very same one that had, a few months earlier, led the team to a first African title in 14 years – was swiftly kicked out, without so much as the farewell that decency and good sense demanded.
If you hadn’t put it together yet, I write of course, of the Nigeria team – the Super Eagles – of 1994 and Clemens Westerhof, the Dutch coach whose five-year tenure culminated in the very best team Nigeria has ever produced at full international level. And even if you disagree with that, last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Guinea – and especially it’s condemnation of the Eagles to a seat on the sidelines when the Nations Cup finals kick off next year – must surely have you yearning for those long gone days.
But I bring up those glory days of 1994, not for some nostalgic trip down memory lane, but to highlight some of the ills – coupled with the delusions of grandeur - that have plagued Nigerian football for years. Because, while Westerhof was achieving what had never been achieved in Nigerian football – and reaching heights we have been struggling to reach ever since – he was constantly vilified and belittled by know-it-all Nigerian fans and officials. This was supposed to be easy, right? Just call up a bunch of Europe based pros and that’s that. Any coach worth his salt can do that.
Well, after 12 coaches and 17 years – even longer than we had to wait for that second Nations Cup – here we are, still waiting for number 3. In all that time, we haven’t won anything at international level, only getting close to Nations Cup glory on that one occasion when Cameroon rubbed our noses in it in Lagos. Yet, our sense of greatness has just continued to grow and other coaches have felt the brush of our disdain. In 1997, Phillipe Troussier was appointed late, yet won World Cup qualification with a game to spare. We sacked him. Loathe him all you want, Shaibu Amodu has now led the Eagles to two world cup qualifications – losing just one of 15 matches – and finished third in two Nations Cup finals. Not good enough. “A world class team deserves a world class coach” has often been the refrain. I would have thought you had to actually achieve something to be considered world class.
Now it’s the turn of Samson Siasia, fired last week in the wake of the Eagles’ failure to reach the Nations Cup finals for the first time in 25 years. Now, on the face of it, there are many justifications for Siasia’s sacking – failure to even reach the finals is grounds enough, especially if his contract included this milestone as a clear target. And when you consider that the likes of Amodu, Troussier, and Austin Eguavoen saw the wrong end of the Football Federation’s boot despite achieving much more, it isn’t surprising that we have arrived at this pass.
But this sacking, rather than proving an answer to the problems plaguing the national team, raises a couple of questions.
The first concerns the criteria for rating a coach’s performance and hence deciding on firing and retention matters. While there’s no question that hard results have to play a part in these matters, a more nuanced approach could be of greater long-term benefit. Let’s face it; there’s much more to a team’s success than just the coach’s ability, and when it comes to results, there’s such a fine line between success and failure.
Take, for instance, the case of Shaibu Amodu. On the eve of Nigeria’s last World Cup qualifier against Kenya in November 2009, he was all but done. World Cup qualification seemed an impossible feat after Tunisia had secured a 2-2 draw in Abuja a couple of months earlier, and Amodu was already considered a “failure”. Yet, a 3-2 win in Nairobi helped secure a place in South Africa after the Tunisians failed to win in Mozambique and Amodu had gone from “dead man walking” to a coach with a second world cup qualification on his CV. Plain luck or great management?
Also, consider this: had just one of those many clear chances missed against Guinea the other week been converted, the Eagles would be on their way to Equatorial Guinea and Siasia would still be in charge. Or if we go even further back, had the Eagles not given up two comical goals in Addis Ababa – again down to individual errors – a win in that match would have been enough to secure a place in the finals and Siasia would still be coach. Poor management or sheer bad luck?
Here’s my point: if Amodu hadn’t shown enough to prove he was good enough for the Eagles job over the previous 18 months (he was set to lose his job), should one win in Nairobi – and the lucky break from Maputo – have been enough to save his job, regardless of how the team was playing?
And if Siasia had proved good enough in the previous 12 months prior to the Guinea game (he was set to keep his job), should that 2-2 draw and the consequent non-qualification be enough to kick him out, regardless of how the team was playing?
Should one match, regardless of its consequences, be the prime factor in deciding whether a coach is retained or fired?
But the second, more pertinent question all these raises is whether just making changes at coaching level at the highest level of our football is the way to achieve success at international level. Is the answer really as simple as finding the right coach and giving him a couple of years to take us to glory?
Successful countries obviously take a different tack. In Germany, failure at Euro 2000 sparked a renewed focus on youth development and the results are already coming in, with the national team – packed with young talent like Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer – impressing on their way to the semi finals at the World Cup finals last year. Just watch the German clubs in the Champions League and marvel at the number of young German talent on display – in sharp contrast to English sides like Manchester City or Chelsea. And they’ve only been at this for 10 years.
The Barcelona model is well known around the world now, with La Masia products leading the Catalan club to domestic and European glory – and the national team to the Euro and World Cup titles. But it’s not just about Barcelona. The Spanish FA has focused on youth development for years – even the Germans are looking to catch up with them - and the benefits just keep trickling up to the highest level.
Yet, with no discernible vision or plan in place, a country like Nigeria expects to compete on the same level as these countries – and fans, for some reason, get disappointed when they can’t.
For all the thought we put into these matters, we should just be happy for the opportunity to compete in the same sport.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Usual Suspects & Banana Skins
There’s a lot to be excited about as the Champions League quarter finals take centre stage this week. Heck, I’m so excited I’m writing again.
Seriously, I simply can’t wait for hostilities to commence and a quick glance at the remaining contenders for club football’s biggest prize is enough to explain my glee.
Experienced defending champions Inter Milan; a sublime Barcelona side that have won this cup twice in the last 5 years; 2008 champions Man Utd; the galacticos of Real Madrid – with two-time winner Jose Mourinho at the helm; Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea – finalists in 2008 and semi-finalists four times in the last six seasons, and also led by a two-time winner in Carlo Ancelotti. And then there are the potential banana skins represented by Tottenham, Shakhtar Donetsk and Schalke 04.
But beyond the cast of usual suspects and tricky underdogs, the quarter final and semi final draws also throw up several must-see scenarios.
Top of the list, at least for anglophiles (and who isn’t in these days of Premiership hegemony?) must be the Man Utd v Chelsea match up, a clash of England’s top teams of the last five years and a rematch of the 2008 final. Both sides have been far from their best this season, even if the Reds still sit atop the Premiership with 7 games to go. Injuries may well be the game changer here, and its Man U that are hurting the most, with Rio Ferdinand out for most of the season and Nemanja Vidic just returning to the side. Even with Wayne Rooney’s recent renaissance and the emergence of Javier Hernandez, it’s hard to see how Man U’s inexperienced defense and “over-experienced” midfield – Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs – will get past Ancelotti’s team over two legs. The Blues certainly have the defence and midfield for the job – John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien and Frank Lampard – but they’ll have to sort out the attacking situation post-haste. Fernando Torres still resembles the out-of-sorts striker of South Africa 2010 and Didier Drogba looks even more unsettled since the Spaniard’s arrival has seen him spend more time on the bench. If Ancelotti can sort things out, Chelsea should get their revenge here and reach yet another Champions League semi final.
Inter Milan miraculously saw off Bayern Munich in the round of 16 and they return to Germany to take on Schalke 04 in the quarters. I doubt this will be the cake-walk everyone expects though; you don’t get past Valencia, as Schalke did, without being a decent side, even if the Germans have since fired coach Felix Magath. His replacement, former Hoffenheim boss Ralf Ragnick is one of the most progressive coaches in world football and should get the best out of a Schalke team brilliantly bookended by national team goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and evergreen Spanish striker Raul. Yet, a rejuvenated Inter Milan should have too much in the tank for Schalke. The defending champions are hardly purveyors of the beautiful game, yet the team Mourinho built - now coached by Leonardo – is full of game savvy and street smarts, as well as a good number of big game players. Dutch schemer Wesley Sneijder is back to his brilliant best and there’s the ever prolific Samuel Eto’o (Africa’s greatest ever?). Inter should shake off the disappointment of their Milan derby loss and progress to the last four to set up one of those mouth-watering scenarios I alluded to earlier – a semi final against the winners (whoever that may be) of the Chelsea v Man U tie.
If anything, the other side of the draw could turn up an even bigger clash, if the form book proves true, and Real Madrid and Barcelona pull through to set up one more El Clasico match-up, in a season in which they are already scheduled to add a Copa del Rey Final to their two La Liga games.
First the quarter finals though, and both Spanish giants will start as firm favourites to come through unscathed against two clubs experiencing the rarefied air of a Champions League quarter final for the very first time. Indeed, Tottenham, in their debut campaign have adjusted with remarkable ease, banging in more goals than any other team in the first round and seeing off AC Milan in the last round. Their exciting, in-your-face attacking attitude as been quite refreshing to watch and in Gareth Bale they have one of the break-out stars of the season. Rafael van der Vaart has also been a revelation, proving an outstanding partner for the towering Peter Crouch since arriving from Real in the summer.
But, I think Real Madrid will prove a bridge too far for Harry Redknapp’s lads. For one thing, the Madridistas have Mourinho on the bench. Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying the quality of “the Special One”, especially when he has a squad of superstars at his beck and call. This isn’t the unbalanced Galacticos of a few years back; Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho and Marcelo look pretty solid in front of the superb Casillas; Alonso and Khedira do the heavy lifting in midfield, where Mesut Ozil conducts for the trio of Ronaldo, Angel di Maria and Karim Benzema (or the returning Gonzalo Higuain) upfront. It’s hard to pinpoint a weakness in this team at the moment – even if Ronaldo, Benzema and Marcelo may well miss the first leg through injury – and I’d be really shocked if they failed to reach the semis.
Barcelona should await them there, although they will find Shakhtar Donetsk anything but pushovers. Shakhtar may represent Ukraine but this team, coached by the Portuguese-speaking Romanian Mircea Lucescu, is almost as Brazilian as the Selecao itself, with no less than 8 Brazilians on the roster. They won 5 of their 6 first round matches to top Group H ahead of Arsenal, and then beat Roma, home and away to get this far. Those are pretty good creds and Barca will have to watch out for strikers Eduardo and Adriano Luiz – each with four goals so far – as well as the likes of Jadson and Douglas Costa in midfield, and experienced full backs Darijo Srna and Razvan Rat.
For all that, it will be the upset of the year if they can overcome Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. What else is there to say about the best team in the world? It’s not just that they have Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Villa and Messi, it’s the way they weave their pretty little patterns around the pitch and always find a way past the tightest of defences.
Now, I’m all for shocks and surprises – all part of the beautiful game for sure – but I have to say that I hope this quarter final round goes to the favourites.
Why? Well, Man U fans will disagree, but I really can’t think of a more exciting semi final round than one that reads:
Inter Milan v Chelsea
Real Madrid v Barcelona
That’s my last four pick. What’s yours?
Seriously, I simply can’t wait for hostilities to commence and a quick glance at the remaining contenders for club football’s biggest prize is enough to explain my glee.
Experienced defending champions Inter Milan; a sublime Barcelona side that have won this cup twice in the last 5 years; 2008 champions Man Utd; the galacticos of Real Madrid – with two-time winner Jose Mourinho at the helm; Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea – finalists in 2008 and semi-finalists four times in the last six seasons, and also led by a two-time winner in Carlo Ancelotti. And then there are the potential banana skins represented by Tottenham, Shakhtar Donetsk and Schalke 04.
But beyond the cast of usual suspects and tricky underdogs, the quarter final and semi final draws also throw up several must-see scenarios.
Top of the list, at least for anglophiles (and who isn’t in these days of Premiership hegemony?) must be the Man Utd v Chelsea match up, a clash of England’s top teams of the last five years and a rematch of the 2008 final. Both sides have been far from their best this season, even if the Reds still sit atop the Premiership with 7 games to go. Injuries may well be the game changer here, and its Man U that are hurting the most, with Rio Ferdinand out for most of the season and Nemanja Vidic just returning to the side. Even with Wayne Rooney’s recent renaissance and the emergence of Javier Hernandez, it’s hard to see how Man U’s inexperienced defense and “over-experienced” midfield – Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs – will get past Ancelotti’s team over two legs. The Blues certainly have the defence and midfield for the job – John Terry, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien and Frank Lampard – but they’ll have to sort out the attacking situation post-haste. Fernando Torres still resembles the out-of-sorts striker of South Africa 2010 and Didier Drogba looks even more unsettled since the Spaniard’s arrival has seen him spend more time on the bench. If Ancelotti can sort things out, Chelsea should get their revenge here and reach yet another Champions League semi final.
Inter Milan miraculously saw off Bayern Munich in the round of 16 and they return to Germany to take on Schalke 04 in the quarters. I doubt this will be the cake-walk everyone expects though; you don’t get past Valencia, as Schalke did, without being a decent side, even if the Germans have since fired coach Felix Magath. His replacement, former Hoffenheim boss Ralf Ragnick is one of the most progressive coaches in world football and should get the best out of a Schalke team brilliantly bookended by national team goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and evergreen Spanish striker Raul. Yet, a rejuvenated Inter Milan should have too much in the tank for Schalke. The defending champions are hardly purveyors of the beautiful game, yet the team Mourinho built - now coached by Leonardo – is full of game savvy and street smarts, as well as a good number of big game players. Dutch schemer Wesley Sneijder is back to his brilliant best and there’s the ever prolific Samuel Eto’o (Africa’s greatest ever?). Inter should shake off the disappointment of their Milan derby loss and progress to the last four to set up one of those mouth-watering scenarios I alluded to earlier – a semi final against the winners (whoever that may be) of the Chelsea v Man U tie.
If anything, the other side of the draw could turn up an even bigger clash, if the form book proves true, and Real Madrid and Barcelona pull through to set up one more El Clasico match-up, in a season in which they are already scheduled to add a Copa del Rey Final to their two La Liga games.
First the quarter finals though, and both Spanish giants will start as firm favourites to come through unscathed against two clubs experiencing the rarefied air of a Champions League quarter final for the very first time. Indeed, Tottenham, in their debut campaign have adjusted with remarkable ease, banging in more goals than any other team in the first round and seeing off AC Milan in the last round. Their exciting, in-your-face attacking attitude as been quite refreshing to watch and in Gareth Bale they have one of the break-out stars of the season. Rafael van der Vaart has also been a revelation, proving an outstanding partner for the towering Peter Crouch since arriving from Real in the summer.
But, I think Real Madrid will prove a bridge too far for Harry Redknapp’s lads. For one thing, the Madridistas have Mourinho on the bench. Love him or loathe him, there’s no denying the quality of “the Special One”, especially when he has a squad of superstars at his beck and call. This isn’t the unbalanced Galacticos of a few years back; Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho and Marcelo look pretty solid in front of the superb Casillas; Alonso and Khedira do the heavy lifting in midfield, where Mesut Ozil conducts for the trio of Ronaldo, Angel di Maria and Karim Benzema (or the returning Gonzalo Higuain) upfront. It’s hard to pinpoint a weakness in this team at the moment – even if Ronaldo, Benzema and Marcelo may well miss the first leg through injury – and I’d be really shocked if they failed to reach the semis.
Barcelona should await them there, although they will find Shakhtar Donetsk anything but pushovers. Shakhtar may represent Ukraine but this team, coached by the Portuguese-speaking Romanian Mircea Lucescu, is almost as Brazilian as the Selecao itself, with no less than 8 Brazilians on the roster. They won 5 of their 6 first round matches to top Group H ahead of Arsenal, and then beat Roma, home and away to get this far. Those are pretty good creds and Barca will have to watch out for strikers Eduardo and Adriano Luiz – each with four goals so far – as well as the likes of Jadson and Douglas Costa in midfield, and experienced full backs Darijo Srna and Razvan Rat.
For all that, it will be the upset of the year if they can overcome Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. What else is there to say about the best team in the world? It’s not just that they have Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Villa and Messi, it’s the way they weave their pretty little patterns around the pitch and always find a way past the tightest of defences.
Now, I’m all for shocks and surprises – all part of the beautiful game for sure – but I have to say that I hope this quarter final round goes to the favourites.
Why? Well, Man U fans will disagree, but I really can’t think of a more exciting semi final round than one that reads:
Inter Milan v Chelsea
Real Madrid v Barcelona
That’s my last four pick. What’s yours?
Monday, March 21, 2011
Bad Hair Black Stars
Forget the Premiership title race for a minute; what’s the deal with Ghanaian players and those wonky hairdos? I was watching Sunderland play Liverpool last Sunday and I just couldn’t get over what I was seeing.
Of course, it was kind of impressive to see three Black Stars in the Black Cats’ starting eleven, but what’s with the hair?
First, there’s Sulley Muntari. Okay, his do wasn’t that bad – just a tad untidy - and he did limp off injured after 25 minutes or so.
John Mensah didn’t see out the match either, capping off a miserable afternoon with a second half red card for a foul. But he probably should have been sent off for that thing on his head anyway. It just looked scruffy – untrimmed, uncombed and just unruly, like someone just dragged him out of bed just before kick off.
But if Mensah deserved a sanction, I suppose Asamoah Gyan should never have been allowed on the pitch in the first place. I’m really not sure if he’s trying to grow a Mohawk - looked more like a “’frohawk” – or maybe it’s just something in transition. It just looked horribly wrong. Do these guys have a clipper allergy or is there just a shortage of barbers in Sunderland?
Not that their compatriot in London was much better though. Michael Essien bossed midfield as Chelsea tamed Man City at the bridge, but he wore the same “I need a barber” look – and we no there’s certainly no shortage of barbers in that most metropolitan of cities.
On a more positive note, it’s great to see some other African players sporting a more clean-cut look these days. Super Eagles forward Peter Odemwingie finally got rid of those corn-row braids, favouring a nice crew cut in their stead; and Emmanuel Adebayor discarded that horrid “perm-sheen” look for a more appealing short ‘fro.
Now if someone can just get Didier Drogba to follow suit….
Of course, it was kind of impressive to see three Black Stars in the Black Cats’ starting eleven, but what’s with the hair?
First, there’s Sulley Muntari. Okay, his do wasn’t that bad – just a tad untidy - and he did limp off injured after 25 minutes or so.
John Mensah didn’t see out the match either, capping off a miserable afternoon with a second half red card for a foul. But he probably should have been sent off for that thing on his head anyway. It just looked scruffy – untrimmed, uncombed and just unruly, like someone just dragged him out of bed just before kick off.
But if Mensah deserved a sanction, I suppose Asamoah Gyan should never have been allowed on the pitch in the first place. I’m really not sure if he’s trying to grow a Mohawk - looked more like a “’frohawk” – or maybe it’s just something in transition. It just looked horribly wrong. Do these guys have a clipper allergy or is there just a shortage of barbers in Sunderland?
Not that their compatriot in London was much better though. Michael Essien bossed midfield as Chelsea tamed Man City at the bridge, but he wore the same “I need a barber” look – and we no there’s certainly no shortage of barbers in that most metropolitan of cities.
On a more positive note, it’s great to see some other African players sporting a more clean-cut look these days. Super Eagles forward Peter Odemwingie finally got rid of those corn-row braids, favouring a nice crew cut in their stead; and Emmanuel Adebayor discarded that horrid “perm-sheen” look for a more appealing short ‘fro.
Now if someone can just get Didier Drogba to follow suit….
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