The Super Eagles Of Nigeria Must Stop Crawling

The Nigerian Super Eagles took the silver medal of the last CAF ANC 2024 held from January 23rd- Feb 24th in Cote d’Ivoire. Despite coming close to winning the competition, their play was a collection of uninspiring performances that finally took them to the final stage where they were beaten by a wobbly Ivorian national team who had also scrapped through to the finals. Surprisingly for the Super Eagles, then tutored by the Portuguese Jose Peseiro, their greatest strength was in the defensive and pressing capabilities of their star striker, Victor Osimhen who had earlier won the African Footballer of the Year award on account of his goal-scoring prowess which helped Napoli FC, Italy, win the Italian scudetto. Osimhen’s individual efforts to press from the front, greatly helped Nigeria scrape through from the group stages to the final match of the CAF African Nations Cup, but it also affected him upon his return to club football as fatigue had set in to make him miss several matches.

Fast forward to June 2024, the Super Eagles have underperformed in their last two World Cup qualifier matches, against South Africa, in Uyo-Nigeria and Benin Republic in Abidjan. Against South Africa, they barely survived, though they had one of their best performances ever during the second half of that match and equalized to keep the game at 2-2.

 

 

Last Monday’s match against Benin Republic was terrible and hugely contrasting to the events, in 1980, which led then President Shehu Shagari to change their name from Green Eagles to Super Eagles. Yesterday's match which they lost 1-2 against Benin Republic was a cacophony of individual errors, absolute sluggishness, and indifference of the players to show their positive capabilities when it was most needed. This is absolutely a shame to behold, despite the glimpses of brilliance some of these players show in their club sides.

The mesmerizing attacking skills of Segun Odegbami and Felix Owolabi, coupled with the midfield dexterity of Aloysius Atuegbu and Muda Lawal, ensured that captain Christian Chukwu, Okey Isima, Kadiri Ikhana, and goalkeeper Best Ogedegbe enjoyed warmth and absolute tranquility around their defensive territory. Serenaded by the fluidity of their play and the ecstasy it generated amongst the over sixty thousand cheering fans at the National Stadium, Lagos during the CAF ANC 1980 Final, President Shagari was extremely excited at this performance which Nigeria won 3-0 against the Desert Warriors of Algeria that he changed the name of the Nigerian football national team from Green Eagles to Super Eagles! After this feat in 1980 and the superlative performances of the Stephen Keshi-led 1994 team, the current Super Eagles arrangement has gotten worse as a team good at causing pain to innocent Nigerian Football fans. A Nigerian newspaper article affirms that five Nigerians died watching our team cause heartache during the CAF ANC 2024. With their current level of bad performances qualifying for the 2026 World Cup appears impossible but we wait to see!

Coach Finidi George's lackluster performance in his four matches sways the clamor for local coaches for the Super Eagles strongly against them because he's not new to our current bunch of players and the NFF management. He must do the needful and make these players understand the passion of an average Nigerian Football fan! He must get a psychologist to educate them to enrich their Nigerian persona. These players must show passion in order not to set Nigeria’s football development backward or else leave the stage for more passionate and skilled Nigerian footballers to lead us to glory! Still, we pray this current collection of Nigerian footballers does not become a lost generation!