A year that promised so much after qualifying for the
World Cup finals ended in disappointment and recrimination for Nigeria
as their hopes of retaining the Afcon fell at the fi...
REVIEWBy Lolade Adewuyi
What a year we have just had!
It started with a lot of promise for Nigerian football following our impressive performances in 2013 where we won the Africa Cup of Nations and reached the World Cup finals with seeming effortless strides.
Two years is a long time in anyone’s life, and so it has been for Nigeria and her beloved sport.
I have been a front-seat witness to the story of Nigerian football in these two years and can boldly claim to be confused why both of them have become antithetical.
In 2013, Nigerian football became the envy of the continent as the Super Eagles returned to the pinnacle of the game, following 19 years of wallowing in ‘bronze arena’.
It looked like a miracle in Rustenburg as Sunday Mba’s goal dispatched giants Cote d’Ivoire as the Nigerian juggernaut marched on towards victory in Johannesburg.
I remember asking an old friend and former Ghanaian defender Tony Baffoe, who incidentally was match commissioner, his thoughts about Nigeria’s chances of winning the title against Burkina Faso.
All he said was that, Nigeria had it in their hands and if they truly desired it, they could win it.
And so it was that Sunday Mba once again rose up to score the lone goal against the Stallions in a packed Soccercity in Soweto. Just like Spain did three years earlier at the World Cup, the Eagles took a joyous lap of honour as it became clear that they had become ‘super’ again.
Later in the year, I witnessed the team claw back from a deficit in Addis Ababa to win 2-1 as they reached the World Cup in grand style, a departure from years past when we always seemed to need mathematical permutators on the final day.
The cult of Stephen Keshi had been made.
In January 2014 he took the domestic-based Eagles to third place at their maiden African Nations Championship appearance in South Africa.
Keshi | Squandered the opportunity to shatter the glass ceiling
However, everything seemed to go south afterwards.
The Eagles failed to win any of their friendly matches leading up to the World Cup and went to Brazil lacking in confidence and only won a match as we reached the Round of 16 for the first time since 1998.
The thought that the team would build on this failed woefully as internal issues came out in the open.
I was once again in the front seat of history when the Eagles decided not to train in Campinas ahead of their second round clash with France.
The French team that had begun to feel some fear due to our physical and tactical prowess took this as a sign, for it happened to them in South Africa and they would never forget how it left them winded as they crashed out in the first round.
Opportunity to finally break the glass ceiling and reach the quarter finals was lost as players shared money into the wee hours of the morning ahead of their game against Les Bleus.
We lost 2-0 in Brasilia and exited the World Cup as the sixteenth best team.
Afterwards, the Keshi merry-go-round and the Nigeria Football Federation leadership crisis put paid to preparations for the 2015 Afcon qualifiers.
Losing in our first game in Calabar to Congo jolted everyone awake but it seemed we were hell bent on committing suicide as things continued to deteriorate.
Claims of sabotage and counter claims of tactical inexperience flew back and forth like arrows on a Trojan battle field.
Sad exit | 2014 ended in disappointment for the Super Eagles
At the end of the day, South Africa put paid to our hopes of defending the Afcon title in Equatorial Guinea.
To say that many Nigerians were devastated at the failure to qualify for the Nations Cup is an understatement.
Apart from missing out on the ticket to the Afcon, Nigeria will also lose key financial sponsorships due to brand Super Eagles having taken a huge dent.
Players would lose endorsements, corporate bodies would keep their money to themselves and media houses would lose huge advert revenue.
While the rest of the continent prepares to play in January, Nigeria has not yet sorted out its coaching job.
A year that began with great promise has petered out into one of name-calling, allegations and had-we-knowns.
While 2014 could be likened to the Queen’s famous annus horribilis, there was some shining light from the women who returned to the top of the game on the continent.
The Super Falcons have excelled and ought to be given more focus in order to continue doing us proud.
What does 2015 have in store? I don’t have a crystal ball, but if we continue to do things the way we do them, we might just have a repeat year on our hands.
Amaju Pinnick and his lieutenants have a lot to do in order to make positive change happen in the New Year.
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