Montreal, here we come

Montreal, here we come

By Clem Oluwole

Our national soccer team, the Green Eagles, will leave Lagos on Tuesday for a playing tour of Yugoslavia and West Germany en route to Montreal, Canada, for the 1976 Olympic Games.

This tour will expose the boys to new experiences and what obtains in modern football.

The tour had earlier been cancelled because of inadequate financial allocation to the Nigeria Football Association.

It is, however, commendable to note that the National Sports Commission has stepped in to rescue the situation. Such exercise is a must if we are not going to Montreal only to parade our national costumes.

Our last appearance in the Olympic soccer dates back to 1968 in Mexico where we were eliminated in the qualifying round.

This year, Nigeria is drawn in the same group with crack teams like Poland… of all people. The Poles are the defending champions.

The performance of the Green Eagles for the past one year is an indication that Nigeria is back in business.

In 1973, Nigeria won the All-Africa Games soccer gold medal. After that impressive feat, we have maintained a low profile to the detriment of our national prestige, until some few months ago when we found our feet both in the last Africa Cup of Nations soccer competition held in Ethiopia (Nigeria placed third) and the Olympic qualifying series (Nigeria showed Morocco, the Nations Cup holders, the way out to secure a place in Montreal).

The Eagles should strive to reach the final stage and bag a medal. And those of them who are faint-hearted should stay behind.

It is also on record that insincerity on the part of officials and disappointing arrangement coupled with lack of incentives were some of the factors responsible for the poor performance of our contingent to the 1968 Olympics. Our officials – those unpatriotic ones – saw the Olympic Games trip as an opportunity to “globe-trot” and buy those cheap things that are expensive here.

The Kampala episode
Rangers International Football Club of Enugu, written off as a bad coin, flew home from Kampala on Tuesday after surviving a soccer “war” with the Express FC of Uganda, thus qualifying for the quarter-finals of the current Africa Cup of Champion Clubs competition.

“These boys are going to fight a lost battle in Kampala”, remarked a soccer fan after reading about Rangers’ departure for Uganda in one of the dailies.

But alas, the champions’ club caused millions of Nigerian soccer fans to swallow their words when they survived the Kenyan referee’s man-made obstacles and went on to outscore the Express by 4 – 2 on goals aggregate.

Very few Nigerian clubsides could survive the open wickedness dished out to the Rangers in Kampala last Saturday. What saw the coal boys through are discipline, dedication, determination and patriotism worthy of emulation by other clubs in the country.

According to skipper Christian Chukwu, the Kampala episode has taught them one good lesson: “From now on, we shall always go out for a resounding victory in all home ties of our subsequent matches in the Africa Cup of Champion Clubs championship so that the return leg, wherever it may be played, will be no more than a mere formality”.

Good talk, Christian. And let us hope the Nigeria Football Association will give your team the necessary co-operation during home ties – that is to play in Enugu.

Congrats, great boys!

(Culled from Saturday Commentary, first published on June 19, 1976).