Eagles under pressure to put an end to the 19-year wait

                         

The year 1994 was a glorious one for football in Nigeria as the Super Eagles won the Nations Cup and played at the World Cup for the first time. But that has been the nation’s best for the past 19 years.

Although the Olympic team won gold at Atlanta 1996, the victory did not translate to success for the senior team. Perhaps Nigeria would have retained the cup in the 1996 edition hosted by South Afric, but a political differences and unnecessary marriage of sport with politics under the Abacha regime deprived Nigeria of the joy of celebrating a third Nations Cup trophy.

Nigeria did not take part in the 1998 edition as CAF imposed ban. The Eagles returned in 2000 when Nigeria co-hosted with Ghana and reached the final, losing to Cameroon. Three successive bronze medals followed between 2002 and 2006. It got to a head in 2008 as Nigeria left the stage at the quarterfinals while in 2010 the Eagles won another bronze medal.

Failure to qualify for the 2012 edition led to the dismissal of former coach Samson Siasia while his successor, Stephen Keshi, has been on a rebuilding process since taking over in 2011.

For the first time in several two decades, Nigeria is presenting a young side with the average age of 24. About 16 of the players are playing at the Nations Cup for the first time while Joseph Yobo, who is attending his sixth Nations Cup at 32, is the oldest in the team.

Ordinarily, much should not be expected of the team in the face of stiff opposition from more experienced sides like Ivory Coast, Ghana and champions Zambia, but several factors have put pressure on the young side.

Former national coach Tunde Disu said the Eagles are coming at a time when Nigerians would use Zambia success as reference point.

“The Zambians won the competition last year with home-based players, beating Ghana, Ivory Coast and Mali on the road. I do not envisage failure but if the Eagles fail to win the Nations Cup, Nigerians will find it difficult to accept the excuse that we presented a young team.

“The Zambia experience is hard to come by. I can recall that Denmark stunned the world by winning the1992 European Championship, but that was another rare exception. One advantage we should have is that our young team will have nothing to lose if they fail to win, but Nigerians have waited for too long to celebrate a major title,” said the coach.

“There should not be any problem at the group stage where we are expected to move to the next round. People have spoken about Burkina Faso’s strength and Ethiopia’s huge financial motivation to win the cup. But I thinks it’s between Nigeria and Zambia in that group. In the knockout stage, the real competition starts,” Disu added.

One major burden that Keshi shoulders as he leads the Eagles out is how he will justify the exclusion of West Brom striker Osaze Odemwingie and in-form Levante of Spain striker Obafemi Martins.

Both players were not even included in the 32-man list that fought for positions in the team in Faro, Portugal. Although Osaze reacted angrily and created controversy for being overlooked, Keshi had his way as the coach. But many have queried his attacking line up after the team failed to score during friendly matches, especially against Cape Verde. They did beat Portuguese second division side Farense 5-0 on Tuesday but it was such a feeble opposition and Nigerians had no opportunity to watch the match and assess the team.