WE congratulate the national football team, the Super Eagles, on its qualification for the 2018 World Cup tournament holding in Russia next year. The team emerged as one of Africa’s five representatives at the global soccer fiesta after a 1-0 victory over the Zambian national team in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, on Saturday. With that feat, Nigeria became the first African nation to book her ticket to Russia, even with one match left to play with Algeria on November 7. The Super Eagles will be featuring at the world’s biggest football tournament for the sixth time, after its first appearance in the 1994 edition in the United States.
The lone goal scored by Alex Iwobi of Arsenal Football Club in the 73rd minute of play gave Nigeria the sole ticket from Group B, that had been dubbed the “group of death,” because of the prowess of the countries in that group. These include the reigning African champion, Cameroon, Africa’s FIFA top-ranked country, Algeria, and the emerging African football powerhouse, Zambia. But, that did not stop the Super Eagles from topping the group table with 13 points from five matches and conceding no defeat. The outstanding match with Algeria next month is purely ‘academic.’
It must be said that the Nigerian team surpassed the expectations of many football fans who had, in recent years, witnessed its dwindling fortunes. The team did not qualify for the last two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, resulting in Nigeria’s current low ranking at 44 by FIFA.
Nigeria’s impressive journey to the World Cup qualification is like the calm after a storm. It started with a 2-1 win over Zambia in Ndola, followed by a resounding defeat of Algeria and Cameroon, 3-1, and 4-0, respectively. The second leg against Cameroon ended in a 1-1 draw.
The Super Eagles’ qualification is, indeed, a commendable achievement and we laud the technical crew led by the German coach, Gernot Rohr, who took charge of the team at a very difficult time in August last year. His managerial experience as coach of the national teams of Gabon, Niger Republic and Burkina Faso, apparently played a big part in Nigeria’s qualification.
However, having qualified Nigeria for Russia, the task ahead is huge. The current euphoria should give way to preparations for the World Cup. Playing on the world’s biggest football stage, against the best footballers in the world, is not to be trifled with. It will be a football showpiece where all the individual players and teams will display their talents. It is a stage where only the most serious and committed players can hope to make their mark and bring glory to their countries. It is the place where the world expects to see extraordinary talents that can equal or even surpass the exploits of football legends like the Peles, the Diego Maradonas, the Lionel Messis and the Ronaldos who have made the World Cup a riveting spectacle to watch every four years.
For the handlers of the team, and the relevant authorities, this is the time to begin a sincere and focused search for improvement of our team’s weak areas discovered during the qualification rounds. Hard work, team spirit, adequate funding and carefully selected friendlies are some of the prerequisites for success in a team sport such as football. Football is a unifying factor when everything else seems to have failed us. This is why all hands must be on deck to ensure that Nigeria improves on its previous outings at the World Cup.
We sound this note of caution because, in the past, a combination of inadequate funding, insufficient preparation, poor logistics and other administrative problems conspired against Nigeria’s good performance at the World Cup. For instance, it will be recalled that after impressing Nigerians on the way to the second round of their first and second World Cup appearances in 1994 and 1998, in USA and France respectively, the Super Eagles struggled to survive the knockout stages. The same mediocre performance was repeated at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. After beating Bosnia Herzegovina in the group stage, the Nigerian team struggled before losing out to France and Argentina, the eventual finalist. The lessons of these past outings should be learnt.
As we have noted earlier, adequate funding is necessary to avoid bickering over “appearance fees” and match bonuses, as was the case with our players at Brazil 2014, which almost marred Nigeria’s image. Good team spirit is necessary for victory. The technical crew should work in harmony to fashion out the tactics that will boost the performance of the team.
No match will be easy for any team when the draws are made on December 1. Therefore, how far Nigeria will go in the tournament will depend on good preparation, sound logistics, adequate training as a team to blend the players, the tactical input of the team handlers and, of course, good luck and the grace of God.
Altogether, with less than eight months to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Nigerians expect a good outing from the Super Eagles. Nothing less will do.