The Super Eagles of Nigeria played a total number of 15 matches in 2022. For now, it’s confirmed that the three times African champions will not be having any engagement untill the march of 2023 when they resume their 2023 AFCON qualifiers series.
However, a deep dive in to how the team has fared in the year under review has again raised some questions on its continued struggle to restore lost glory amid an erratic flow of results.
In total, Super Eagles won six games, recorded eight loses and had only two draws in 2022. Such is not to good of a team that is considered as the most talked about on the continent and that perhaps at least boasts of top strikers in Europe.
Out of the 15 matches, ten of the game were competitive encounters. The team was able to manage five victory in total. In a broader sense, Super Eagles didn’t win any of its friendly matches in 2022.
The record above also includes the matches of the home-based Super Eagles. For the sake of identity, the latter can’t be sufficiently detached from the image of the ‘main’ Eagles. I just hope i am not opening another round of conversation. Yet, ‘Eagle na Eagle’.
AFCON story and the back and forth
The Eagles began their 2022 campaign on an impressive note with three wins from three matches at the AFCON 2021 which held in January of 2022 in Cameroon.
Then tutored by Augustine Eguavoen, the momentum nosedived when Nigeria lost to Tunisia in the knockout stage of the African showpiece. Alas! the discourse around the team changed. Of course, finger pointing and blame game surfaced and the Eagles never remained the same again.
Earlier before the Nations Cup, NFF had sacked Gernot Rohr as the Coach of the team in December. The football governing body noted that the decision was imperative on the heels of the ‘lack of discipline in the dressing room’.
Like many before it , a lot of revelations accompanied the sack of the franco-german Coach and Nigerians were just eager to see a different ‘Eagle’ leading other ‘Eagles’.
While some had criticized the sacking of Gernot Rohr at the time his contract was terminated, other school of thoughts believed it was the right thing to do giving the failure of to deliver a silverware in his five years in the saddle – apart from the 2019 Egypt AFCON.
Nigeria would go on to have the best results at the group stage of the Nations Cup but lost to a team that qualified for the knockout round as ‘best loser’- ‘football no be anybody mate’.
Ghana, the ‘nemesis’ of Eagles..
Nigerians will not forget in a hurry how Ghana took away two most precious slots from Nigeria in the year under review.
One among the slots was the World Cup qualifiers match that was eventually decided via away goal rule and the other; African Championship for the home based players which was lost via penalty. For detail sake ,all these debacles took place at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
On these two occasions, the teams were managed by indigenous coaches (Austin Eguavoen and Salisu Yusuf). This, further cast a big shadow on whether and truly the country have qualified football managers that can handle its National teams.
In essence, the narrative of indigenous and foreign handlers have over the years come to characterized the efficiency and deficiency of Super Eagles technical crew. However, it seems that, whether home grown or foreigners, the bottom line is Super Eagles have not had the ‘best man’ for the job lately.
How do we also define a best man for the job in the face of other factors militating against the team: influence from administrators, improper welfare system, selection of players and corruption all eating deep at the heart of things.
The coming of Jose Paseiro and the ‘calls’ by Sports Ministry
The current Coach of the Super Eagles, Jose Paseiro had earlier being taunted as the replacement of Gernot Rohr. He was introduced immediately after the sacking of the former Coach ahead of the Cameroon AFCON with the call to only monitor the games and resume fully after the African showpiece.
In a twist of things, Nigeria’s impressive run of play at the group stage of the AFCON swung the pendulum of the managerial role to the side of Eguavoen who remained a favourite despite the loss to Tunisia in the round of 16. Nigerians had a total shift of attention from Jose Paseiro to their own.
That Eguavoen now failed to led the team to World Cup occasioned another shake up in the coaching crew of the Eagles. He was consequently flushed out alongside other crew. There and then, the conversation about Paseiro was reignited.
The Ministry for Youth and Sports development had by this time deepened its involvement in the thick of things. Led by Sunday Dare, the Ministry was keen to be part of the process of getting a new Coach for the team, for which it encouraged interested Mangers to apply and be interviewed.
Jose Paseiro eventually got the job despite the back and forth and even notably at the expense of other Managers whose profile speaks volume than that of the Portuguese.
So far, he has only won two competitive games and lost four friendly he had overseen. While these results may not be sufficient for the parameters to judge the Coach’s tactical prowess, it’s safe to say that the Eagles are still lacking the much needed technical and tactical approach to get the best out of ‘grade A matches’.
While the 10-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe seemed more resonating to Nigerians, they would also like to see the team effectively outsmarting the North African sides, who have lately outplayed the three times African champions in all fronts including the continental inter-club competitions.
The case of the foreign-born players
It’s a total disservice to our common patrimony and heritage to see the NFF coming with a plan to reduce the quota of the Nigerian players born in the Super Eagles and other national team cadres.
For the umpteenth time, the advocates of this ‘theory’ have forgotten that football is a unifying factor and ultimately serve a society in its quest for clear identity.
“As for me, what to do is try and see how we can reduce the higher number of the Nigerian born diaspora players in the team.I am not saying they’re not Nigerians nor am I saying they’re not good enough. But their mentality is not good for African football and most of the matches we played are in Africa” NFF President Gusau said recently.
The seeming failure of the Super Eagles can’t be totally placed on the rung of the foreign born players. I have mentioned some of these factors above and it will be discerning of many to change the tone of narratives on the basis on the soo called foreigners and place premium on the merit.
That the roll call of Eagles success is tied to both home grown coaches and foreigners, such has effectively defeated the premise for measuring the success of the team based on the number of foreign-born players in its fold.
Although many question the way some of the players born abroad are being approached to play for the team, but it doesn’t change the fact that a good player is readily appreciated by everyone and it’s not out of place to invite them to play for the team.
Although, the Nigeria league, where some of the players that are supposed to form the fulcrum of National teams are expected to be scouted for is not in a good state, such situation has left the team with no choice to cast its net wide to attract eligible players.
2023 in focus
The Super Eagles tend to fare more virile in the face of what the new leadership of the NFF have to do to change things. A team is as good as its leaders.
By 2023, the new NFF President should have charted a clear path for the revival of the Eagles or else the next AFCON will be another show of shame.
There lies much in what we can get from the ‘Eagles’ than what we need to give to it.