Nigeria Still Hopeful For Nations Cup

Posted by admin Headlines, Soccer, Sports Sunday, June 12th, 2011

When the draws for the Nations Cup were made and Nigeria was pitched with Guinea, Ethiopia and Madagascar ,football analysts predicted an easy ride for the Eagles as the Super Eagles were percieved to be far superior to the rest of the teams in the group. Four games in to the qualifications, Nigeria is at the brink of missing out of the Nations Cup next year in

Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Last Sunday, in a must win game for the Eagles’ away to the Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia, the Eagles could only manage a draw, putting a serious dent in their qualification. Where did it go wrong for the Eagles?

It all started with the FIFA ban on Nigeria after FIFA cited government interference in football, Nigeria was suspended from all FIFA activities few days to the game against Guinea. Players reported to camp and were unsure if they will play the game or not; last minute moves by Nigeria saw FIFA lifting the ban and the Eagles travelled to Guinea and lost by a lone goal to

Guinea. Since then, the Eagles have been playing catch up to Guinea in the race for qualification. The Eagles were handed a lifeline when Guinea drew away to Madagascar, while the Eagles defeated Ethiopia in Abuja and the points were reduced to just one. But last week draw puts the Eagles qualification hanging in a balance. The Eagles Coach, Samson Siasia in a press conference recently said, “We will qualify for the Nations Cup. We know we can play better than we did against Ethiopia because, the players were tired from jetlag and we will work with the NFF to resolve all those issues before the next match.
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We can still make it. If we score three unreplied goals away to Madagascar, which is quite possible, and we beat Guinea at least 2-0 at home since they beat us 1-0 when we last visited them, then we will be home and dry. I have been told they will use the head-to-head rule in deciding the winners of the group.

“It is not over now until the last game, even though the Guineans won 4-1 in their own match. If we had lost, it could have been over by now. All we have to do now is to watch our videos and make our corrections.

“We didn’t play well against Ethiopia and so we shouldn’t give any excuses. We didn’t play like we ought to, although there were the problems of fatigue, high altitude and other minor things. But the truth is that, we didn’t attack the way we should have done and that element of urgency and determination to win the game were not in our game.

“We don’t want these kind of things to happen to us anymore. So, we need to win our remaining two matches away to Madagascar and at home in Abuja to Guinea.”
Siasia continued: “This time around, we are going to Madagascar with players who are very positive minded and could go out there and do their best for the nation. I guess we played better against Argentina because the stake was high. Our bane was coming to play with Ethiopia with a relaxed kind of attitude which actually killed us.

“I think we have learnt a bitter lesson and we just have to forge ahead and make good plans to win the remaining two matches.
“I know that we need to score as many goals as possible against Madagascar and Guinea to have a chance. I can also take solace in the fact that I have a side who can score goals. We have been scoring four, four, three, three goals in our recent games.

“We just have to carry that same attitude into the remaining two matches and also defend properly and we will get there.”
Also, Nigeria’s Caf and Fifa instructor, Adegboye Onigbinde in a reaction to Eagles possibility of qualifying said that Nigeria has box herself into a tight corner at qualifying for the 2012 Nations Cup. According to him, “Preparations for the remaining matches are important, the coaches must sit down, analyse what has been done and proffer a solution.

“Objectively, the team will need administrative support; else nothing makes it impossible for us to qualify.
“Everything however depends on the frame of mind of the players and coaches, after yesterday’s game (referring to last Sunday), it becomes more problematic if you have a misfortune and you did not learn from it,” he said.

Boboye Onduku,a football enthusiast based in Abuja said, Nigeria’s qualification for AFCON 2012 hangs in the balance because we are back to permutations, Nevertheless,Nigeria will come round the bend. we have always qualified in this manner, besides, Siasia cannot afford to fail.”

Group leaders in each of the groups are guaranteed automatic qualification while Equatorial Guinea and Gabon also qualify automatically as host leaving three spots for grabs which will be taken by three second place teams with the highest points.

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