Nations Cup: What is our hope?

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Nations Cup: What is our hope? 

By Clem Oluwole

Good morning, dear readers. I am really glad to be back with you after taking leave of this column unceremoniously for a couple of months.

My return, you will agree with me, is very timely. Timely in the sense that the 12th Africa Cup of Nations Finals Tournament is taking off today on our soil… and for the first time.

But before we get down to business, I will like to express my sincere gratitude to you all for your concern over my sudden ‘disappearance’.

Today, we shall witness the dawn of a new era. In fact, the first ball will start rolling at 4.30 p.m.

To an ordinary sportsman or woman, there should be no extra fanfare about this tournament which is featuring only eight countries when in 1973, we hosted the 2nd All-Africa Games… a tournament of greater magnitude. But to a soccer lover in Nigeria, this tournament is next to the World Cup.

There is no doubt that the stage is set and the ball is in our court. Now how do we play it? Of course, we shall play it the Brazilian style!

Talking more seriously, what are the chances of the Green Eagles? What is our hope as the host country? If tradition is any guide, then one could be fully confident that the cup is already won. Remember, we hosted the 2nd All-Africa Games and we won the soccer gold in the face of crack nations like Guinea and Egypt. We also won the soccer gold at the 1st ECOWAS Games held in Lagos in 1977. Then why should Nations Cup be different?

Now let us take a closer look at the competing nations. In Group A, we have Tanzania, Egypt and Ivory Coast to deal with. The countries are fully prepared and each confrontation in this group should produce tension. The Tanzanians came to Lagos straight from Mexico; Ivory Coast flew in from Argentina. The Egyptians are here after a series of international tune-up matches with formidable European clubsides – one of them is Nottingham Forest.

From the preparations so far made by the teams in our group, it goes to show that none of them is here to watch the traffic jam in Lagos. They are here for business… real business. But thank goodness, our Eagles went to Brazil. In that case, we should watch purely a Latin American soccer in this group with Egypt providing some little changes here and there.

The teams I fear in this group are Egypt and Tanzania… Tanzania’s Taifa Stars being the dark horses from the eastern part of the continent. Remember the Ugandan Cranes in the last Nations Cup in Accra? The Egyptians as they now appear should be dreaded. They had sworn to nurture their 1978 All-Africa Games soccer squad for this tournament with little or no changes. If actually those young wizards are still around, then the Eagles will have to sit up right away. Eagles’ last match in this group with Egypt is on March 15, and by the time they meet the Egyptians, one would be able to assess the chances the Eagles have. In fact, their outings against Tanzania this afternoon and Ivory Coast on March 12 will go a long way to determine the outcome of their duel with Egypt. By then we would have known how deadly the Egyptian squad is.

One thing I admire in the Pharaoh’s squad that came for the 3rd All-Africa Games in Algiers is the way they swapped positions. In the forward line, no player is assigned to a particular wing. The forward liners interchange positions at will, thereby confusing the opponents. They are very fast, mobile and deadly at goal.

One should feel very concerned about what will be going on in Ibadan – venue of Group B. In this group, we have three French-speaking countries, namely Morocco, Guinea and Algeria. Ghana Black Stars are the only English-speaking team in that group. This group is a zone of death and it is uncertain which team will emerge as winners. The Algerians are the current holders of the All-Africa Games soccer title. And they beat Ghana and Nigeria on their synthetic grass to clinch the title. The Algerians I saw at the games impressed me a great deal. They were young and fast. One thing the teams in this group have in common is that they scheme from the left. In that case, they will play the same pattern and goals could either be hard to come or easy to get.

I need not mention here that our coaches should watch Group B teams closely. In 1978 in Accra, all the three coaches, including Tiko (though Tiko was sick), who accompanied the Eagles to the last Nations Cup ignored the happenings in Group B. And so we knew nothing about the Ugandan Cranes. And that spelt our doom when we met them in the semi-finals, losing 1 – 2 disgracefully.

I understood we have two Brazilian coaches attached to the Green Eagles. The two Nigerian coaches who took the Eagles to Brazil on a build-up tour were shown the red card on return to the country. This is not the time to discuss their sack. The Brazilian coaches should be told through their interpreter (I wish I could communicate with them in their mother tongue) that one of them should be shuttling between Lagos and Ibadan to study our possible opponents from that group should we qualify for the semis.

And I am confident that we shall emerge for the semis. I am banking my hope on the rapid manner the Eagles hit their current form.

The new pattern (4-4-2) imported from Brazil is ultra defensive with less emphasis on goal scoring. And it takes time to master this pattern to be able to produce goals, more so that we don’t even have the materials to be used as target men. Up till last month, we were still hunting for strikers. This should not discourage us but it is something to be worried about.

All the same, the Eagles and their handlers will be left alone today to justify the huge ‘bread’ spent on them. Already, the Head of State has thrown his weight behind the team by visiting them yesterday. The National Assembly members were not left out. But the attitude of the crowd is what bothers me. It is now left for the Eagles to live up to expectation this afternoon. By so doing, they will have no problems from the terraces.

However, this is appealing to the entire soccer lovers who will be turning up in thousands, to cheer the Eagles from the first blast of the whistle match by match. This is the only way to help them add more feathers to our hats.

To the Eagles, I say best of luck.

(Culled from Saturday Commentary, first published on March 8, 1980).