NIGERIA’S senior national football team, the Super Eagles, were
expected to depart for Cape Town, South Africa last night for
Wednesday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against the Bafana Bafana.
It is the second game of the qualifiers for both teams, but players
and officials of the Super Eagles are not sure the game would hold due
to the protracted leadership crisis rocking Nigerian football.
The Eagles were originally scheduled to depart for South Africa on
Tuesday, but the plan was changed to give the team ample time to prepare
for the game they must win to remain in contention for qualification to
the 2015 Nations Cup.
South Africa defeated Sudan 3-0 away from home to lead Group A,
where Nigeria has no point after Saturday’s home loss to Congo.
One of the players, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian
yesterday that the team would travel through Lagos, while praying that
the persons holding Nigerian football to ransom should see reason to
save the country from a FIFA ban.
“We know we can beat South Africa in Cape Town to resuscitate our
dream of playing in Morocco, but that can only happen if FIFA allows us
to continue playing international football.
“I must confess that we have been worried by these troubles since
we came to camp. I just hope that people will comply with FIFA
directives,” he pleaded.
On Saturday In Calabar, one of the claimants to the Nigeria
Football Federation (NFF) presidency, Chris Giwa and his ‘board members’
were denied entry onto the pitch of the UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar to
perform the ceremonial handshake with players and match officials
before Nigeria’s 3-2 loss to Congo.
However, he vowed that nothing would stop him from claiming his mandate.
FIFA will ban Nigeria from all football matters if by 7.00 a.m today, Giwa and his board has not vacated the NFF Glass House.
So the Eagles will, be in South Africa with their ears tuned to events in Nigeria and Zurich.
Meanwhile, while Nigeria will meet South Africa on Wednesday, Congo will also host Sudan in the other match in that group.
The Eagles’ prayer is that Sudan does a miracle by holding Congo to
a draw or even beating the East Africans, while Nigeria continues their
dominion of South Africa.
Coach Stephen Keshi thinks that is the way to go because Nigeria has no other choice.
“It’s football. Brazil lost 7-1 and we lost (on Saturday).
Everybody is going to lose someday. We cannot win all the games all the
time. This is where we need the media and Nigerians. They have to be
behind the team, so that we can go to South Africa and win,” said a
disappointed Keshi.
“I’m very disappointed. It was not just the result, but the way we
played in the first half. I was like a soothsayer because I saw it
coming and I talked to the boys that they had to be aggressive and first
to the ball.
“I’ve played against the Congolese team before and I know they play
tip-tap football. We scored the first goal and that was it. It’s a
shame that we had opportunities, mostly in the second half, but we could
not score.”
Keshi said the Eagles played with a lot more aggression but Congo frustrated them with their defensive and delay tactics.
“I told them (players) they were not playing their game. They were
not themselves, they were not playing, they were second to the ball and
they needed to change the mentality,” he said.
“They came back in the second half and you could see the
difference. But if you are playing a team like this, they are going to
come hard and park the bus. And that’s what they did in the second half.
Who won’t do it?
“I can understand the frustration, the Congolese team delaying the
game, killing the game. It became an anger problem and its part of the
game.”
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