Abuja — Super Eagles, yesterday in Abuja, humped and laboured with their flight for the best part of 90 minutes to get their journey to the World Cup 2010 ticket on course. Still they had a 3-0 victory that looked emphatic enough to flatter them and their massive supporters on at the end of the game against the Harambee Stars of Kenya.
Coming into the stadium under the late afternoon sun, they looked spiritedly ready for the match, notwithstanding the fact that they were under the nomenclature of their main enemies, Tunisia, having won their tie a day before by 2-0, at home against Mozambique.
And by the time Ikechukwu Uche had powered himself into the area to snippet his shot past the bewildered Arnold Otieno, in goal for the Harambee Stars, it seems their confidence was well placed and that the fans were up for the afternoon of their lives.
But no sooner than they had that goal, which came in the second minute of the match, than their shortcomings started showing. And despite the fact that it was them who had the account for the afternoon opened and who were actually still in front, by the 15th minute of the encounter, it was the visitors who were dictating the pace with crisp passes.
At first, the lack of everything in the team looked like some affliction that was going to pass away soon, but then it soon dawned on even their most believing fan in the stadium that this was no ordinary plague and that in fact, it could be that their darling team was less than what they thought they were.
The Super Eagles were ordinary in every department of the game, and no particular section could be made out to be their major failure.
Surviving the first half would soon become obvious to be the result of naivety on the part of their opponents from East Africa.
The Kenyans had many opportunities to cancel the lead, instead they played like a set of Sunday School players at best, and like dilettantes at worst.
Rather than capitalizing on the lethargic state of the Eagles and the many gift-openings the home side were presenting, they seemed to be competing with the Eagles on who could present the highest number of gift openings. And that the Eagles failed to consolidate on their 1-0 lead looked to be a measure of how really not up to the task on the day, the Nigerians were.
If the Super Eagles were ordinary in the first half of the encounter, then the second was more of an abomination, despite the fact that they had two goals to show for their performances in that same half. And it was an irony that it was the substitution that ensured that result - Nwankwo Kanu and Obinna Nsofor.
The ageing captain, Kanu, who just had a new one-year contract given to him by his Premiership club, Portsmouth, became by far the missionary, evangelist and visionary in a team that have enough youth and energy to be able to project well.
It was the evangel movement of the Portsmouth player and his visionary pass that led to Osaze Odemwinge being bundled clumsily to the ground when he went for a through ball in the six-metre box; and consequently, the penalty award that looked soft on the first view but visibly justified when later seen on camera.
Obinna, who had just come in as a replacement for Michael Eneramo, was very precise with his shot. For the third goal, the team still had to depend on the old war-horse to release Odemwongie on the left, whose resultant head cross, perhaps his only effective cross of the afternoon, met Obinna, again, in vantage point.
Employing his Inter Milan and Serie A experience, Obinna had enough intellect to cleverly take the defender that was breeding on him, out of his way, before releasing a rocket of a shot, that beat the goalkeeper clearly to hit the roof of the net.
Again, after that goal, the Eagles showed how really unfit as a national team they were as they began to play negatively, taking the ball back to their goal area even when they had open and inviting chance to go forward.
MEN OF THE MATCH (NIGERIA)
It is really an irony that the three players who were brought in, in the second half, were the ones whose performances could be said to be most outstanding in the match - Nwankwo Kanu, Obinna Nsofor and Onyekachi Apam. Apam came into the game to make the defence line more solid on the right hand side, while Kanu's vision in the period that he joined the side became the weapon that broke the defence of the Kenyans down in the second half.
As for Obinna, the fact that he was the substitute that ended up with a brace in a match where three goals were scored, speaks volumes about his contibution, if even one of the goals was a spot kick. However, his second on the afternoon was such a classic that it bellies any argument that could have been raised over his contribution to the spot kick.
THEIR RATINGS - Apam: 7, Kanu: 8, Obinna: 9
Source: ThisDay
Coming into the stadium under the late afternoon sun, they looked spiritedly ready for the match, notwithstanding the fact that they were under the nomenclature of their main enemies, Tunisia, having won their tie a day before by 2-0, at home against Mozambique.
And by the time Ikechukwu Uche had powered himself into the area to snippet his shot past the bewildered Arnold Otieno, in goal for the Harambee Stars, it seems their confidence was well placed and that the fans were up for the afternoon of their lives.
But no sooner than they had that goal, which came in the second minute of the match, than their shortcomings started showing. And despite the fact that it was them who had the account for the afternoon opened and who were actually still in front, by the 15th minute of the encounter, it was the visitors who were dictating the pace with crisp passes.
At first, the lack of everything in the team looked like some affliction that was going to pass away soon, but then it soon dawned on even their most believing fan in the stadium that this was no ordinary plague and that in fact, it could be that their darling team was less than what they thought they were.
The Super Eagles were ordinary in every department of the game, and no particular section could be made out to be their major failure.
Surviving the first half would soon become obvious to be the result of naivety on the part of their opponents from East Africa.
The Kenyans had many opportunities to cancel the lead, instead they played like a set of Sunday School players at best, and like dilettantes at worst.
Rather than capitalizing on the lethargic state of the Eagles and the many gift-openings the home side were presenting, they seemed to be competing with the Eagles on who could present the highest number of gift openings. And that the Eagles failed to consolidate on their 1-0 lead looked to be a measure of how really not up to the task on the day, the Nigerians were.
If the Super Eagles were ordinary in the first half of the encounter, then the second was more of an abomination, despite the fact that they had two goals to show for their performances in that same half. And it was an irony that it was the substitution that ensured that result - Nwankwo Kanu and Obinna Nsofor.
The ageing captain, Kanu, who just had a new one-year contract given to him by his Premiership club, Portsmouth, became by far the missionary, evangelist and visionary in a team that have enough youth and energy to be able to project well.
It was the evangel movement of the Portsmouth player and his visionary pass that led to Osaze Odemwinge being bundled clumsily to the ground when he went for a through ball in the six-metre box; and consequently, the penalty award that looked soft on the first view but visibly justified when later seen on camera.
Obinna, who had just come in as a replacement for Michael Eneramo, was very precise with his shot. For the third goal, the team still had to depend on the old war-horse to release Odemwongie on the left, whose resultant head cross, perhaps his only effective cross of the afternoon, met Obinna, again, in vantage point.
Employing his Inter Milan and Serie A experience, Obinna had enough intellect to cleverly take the defender that was breeding on him, out of his way, before releasing a rocket of a shot, that beat the goalkeeper clearly to hit the roof of the net.
Again, after that goal, the Eagles showed how really unfit as a national team they were as they began to play negatively, taking the ball back to their goal area even when they had open and inviting chance to go forward.
MEN OF THE MATCH (NIGERIA)
It is really an irony that the three players who were brought in, in the second half, were the ones whose performances could be said to be most outstanding in the match - Nwankwo Kanu, Obinna Nsofor and Onyekachi Apam. Apam came into the game to make the defence line more solid on the right hand side, while Kanu's vision in the period that he joined the side became the weapon that broke the defence of the Kenyans down in the second half.
As for Obinna, the fact that he was the substitute that ended up with a brace in a match where three goals were scored, speaks volumes about his contibution, if even one of the goals was a spot kick. However, his second on the afternoon was such a classic that it bellies any argument that could have been raised over his contribution to the spot kick.
THEIR RATINGS - Apam: 7, Kanu: 8, Obinna: 9
Source: ThisDay
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