Thank God, we were not consumed in the battle of Kigali. Our Super Eagles derided by their countrymen for their recent history of non-performance have returned from Rwanda with their dignity intact.
The Rwandan Wasps eager to prove that they are not eternal underdogs, had determined to put their foot in our mouth but had faltered. From what we hear it was no easy battle for Stephen Keshi’s men. We have only their word for it as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in an unhealthy display of greed and unreason, priced TV rights beyond the reach of both terrestrial and satellite TV stations in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
Well, this is not about Isa Hayatou and his bungling and stuck in-the past CAF. I will address the matter in the shortest possible time. Here, we look at Keshi’s much touted ‘Home Eagles’ experiment. The former Nigerian international has been telling us that in turning around the fortunes of the Super Eagles he would be relying extensively on players playing in our national leagues.
To prove his seriousness, the former Eagles captain has had in camp for weeks players starring in the Nigeria Premier League (NPL). Two weeks ago in an international friendly game against Liberia, Keshi ‘confidently’ fielded a squad composed completely of home-based players. The players glad at being thought capable, put up a commanding performance in Monrovia, Liberia, scalping their hosts 2-0.
Nigerians applauded Keshi for his decision to field a team of players playing in Nigeria and looked forward to a repeat performance in the forthcoming (now past) 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda in Kigali.
Their wish did not come true. In Kigali only three players from the NPL made the cut and from what we hear they out-performed their colleagues playing in European leagues. So, why did Keshi opt to rely more on the foreign cast than their Nigerian counterparts? The answer is simple. Like other Nigerian coaches with the exception of Adegboye Onigbinde, Keshi doesn’t want to gamble and fail. An international friendly game against Liberia where nothing is at stake is quite different from a Nations Cup match, whose outcome may well determine Keshi’s stay on the job.
From his point of view, there was too much at stake to leave everything in the hands of ‘raw recruits’. Imagine if Keshi had fielded an entire cast of Nigeria-based players and the Eagles had lost in Rwanda; would Nigerian football fans have been understanding?
As it is Keshi is between a rock and a hard place. He says he wants NPL players to spearhead the rebirth of the Eagles but circumstances including time and a fastidious Nigerian football community make that task more than daunting.
Given this scenario, we should not expect anything radically different from the first leg in Kigali or any subsequent matches either for the 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers or that of the 2014 World Cup. There is too much at stake for Keshi for him to want to gamble no matter how enterprising NPL players may become as time progresses.
This is because they have not been tested on the big stage unlike the foreign legion no matter how inconsistent and unproductive they have become in recent times. For Keshi, playing safe would be the name of the game.
I do not envy Keshi; he has taken the Eagles job at a ‘wrong’ time. Our failure to qualify for the Nations Cup, which just ended in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, has upped the ante of expectation from Keshi. Nigerians do not expect that when teams file out for the 2013 Nations Cup in South Africa that the Eagles will not be there. They also expect that one way or another, Keshi should get the Eagles to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. No excuses will suffice on these two counts.
Mindful of this expectation, Keshi is not likely, if I know him very well, to allow sentiments get the better of him. May be at a different time and place, he would take the home-based Eagles experiment more seriously but as things stand he is walking a tight rope and he will not want to take the chance of wanting to please football fans who want to call the bluff of our foreign players and get himself into trouble.
March 2012
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