football

Lagerbäck Drops Nigeria’s Highest Goal Scorer

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Adeola Aderounmu

Ikechukwu Uche will not be in South Africa. I doubt if this boy will ever play for Nigeria again.

He could not have been dropped for his injury since Mikel Obi is also just back from Injury lay off period.

Well, it could have been that he was not impressive in training. Or maybe the coach didn’t want to give 2 slots to the same family, since Kalu his brother is in the team.

Some people feared that the team was selected by Nigerian government officials. From past experience/ occurence, this may also be the case. You never know.

Depending on what happens in South Africa the truth will eventually unfold-if it was Lagerbäck’s team or a team packaged for him by NFF under the influence of this-and-that Minister or Governor. Actually it is not a rumour that government officials have or used to have slots in the National team. A former member of the super Eagles told me that just 2 days ago.

Well, I wish Uche a wonderful career ahead of him. If I was the coach to be candid I would take Uche to the World Cup and leave behind one of the tired legs. The man who scored the highest numbers of goals to take us to the world cup (unless the team doctors rule him not fit) deserve to be rewarded with a slot in the World Cup.

Life does not always bring what we wished or hoped for. Uche will have to learn to leave this sadness and disappointment behind. He should support his brother and wish the team well.

I HOPE THAT he will bounce back and continue to play good football. I hope that he will achieve more greatness in his international career. If he decides to play for Nigeria again in the future, he must show the coach and Nigerians that we made a big mistake to have dropped him in this crucial tournament.

Inter Milan Wins Champions League 2010

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BY Adeola Aderounmu

Inter Milan 2: Bayern Munich 0

Inter Milan are Champions of Europe. D. Milito scored the first goal in the 35th minutes and sealed the game 35 minutes later, that is the 70th minute with a wonderful strike after receiving a wonderful pass from Samuel Eto’o.

Inter didn’t care much about the possession. They got only about 30% of it. Bayern Munich should have known better than making all those unnecessary short passes that led to nowhere. Football is not about number of passes or percentage of possession. You have to find the net. With 30% possession Inter Milan found the back of the net twice.

Two moments of magic and two moments of excellent strikes. Milito is not the one who scores 2 goals out of two chances but on the day of the final, that’s what he did. Two chances, two goals!

Mourinho is the greatest coach alive. He is definitely the special one.

Congratulations Inter Milan, Congratulations Italy!

NIGERIA’s WORLD CUP SQUAD

/ Adeola / 18 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Lars Lagerbäck is not going to the World Cup to perform experiments. Conventional wisdom shows that that may be a fatal approach. The Nigerian coach will be going to South Africa in June with the players he inherited from Shuaibu Amodu.

What is then the difference between having coach Amodu in South Africa and Lars Lagerbäck who failed to qualify Sweden for the same competition? The outcome of the performances of the Nigerian team will be known in June 2010.

I cannot give a prediction of the outcome in South Africa but I know that the strategy of Mr. Lagerbäck will be different. Nigeria may end up playing a more defensive-style football and if this happens people are really going to be upset with the coach especially if the Super Eagles are disgraced out of the tournament.

Every Nigerian is a football analyst in his/ her own rights. If Lagerbäck’s strategies fail they will tell him what he doesn’t know about our football. They will let him know in clear terms that next to God, the next thing on the minds of Nigerians is football. To hell with politics and the looting politicians. Give us good football and take our sorrows away.

It doesn’t matter that Nigeria qualified for the world cup by a slim chance. The expectations are the same as if we qualified in a big way. Hence it is clear from the team squad that Mr. Lagerbäck himself is not willing to take chances. But the big question is “will he and his boys deliver when the heat is on in South Africa?”

Football coaches have one of the most fragile jobs in the world. Lagerbäck may not realise this because it took so long for him to get booted in Sweden despite several imperfections. Nigeria’s imperfections have produced coach after coach and the recycling of Amodu is a clear piece of evidence. He’s been there 3 times in the last 12 years !

If Lagerbäck fails in South Africa-not getting to the second round or quarter finals-there will be extreme pressure on his employers to fire him. That sort of failure will seal the automatic end to the international careers of the present crop of Super Eagles, most of whom are already past their primes anyway. If Lagerbäck survives he may eventually get the chance to try and do something new for Nigerian football. In that case, say 3 years from now, it would have become evident what he can do with the bunch of talents that Nigeria boast of. Some of us will get the chance to compare his records in Sweden with the situation in Nigeria if he survives 3 years as the coach of football-crazy Nigeria.

Just before the world cup, Nigeria will play 1 or 2 friendly matches. That is if the Football Authority is not fooling around like they did last month. These matches will not be adequate preparations for a country that is serious in going far in the tournament. If Nigerian plays the friendly matches, they will provide rare opportunities for Lagerbäck to see his squad first hand.

Performances in the friendly matches for those who get to wear the national colours and the few days in training will culminate in final selection of players for the world cup.

My expectations are not so high. Still the Nigerian in me wants Nigeria to do well in this world cup. Nigerians need something to cheer about, something to soothe us despite our political and social worries. Football is our religion and history has it that during those moments when Nigeria could have been torn apart, we were kept together by the common glories that football brought to our troubled nation.

I wish Mr. Lagerbäck and the Super Eagles all the best that the god of soccer can give them. With such a dull preparation, they will need all the luck in the world if they want to survive any game at all in the tournament. Good luck may even come from the seat of power. In Nigeria and for Nigerians, anything can happen!

Goalkeepers: Vincent Enyeama (Hapoel Tel Aviv, Israel), Dele Aiyenugba (Bnei Yehuda, Israel), Austin Ejide (Hapoel Petah Tikva, Israel), Bassey Akpan (Bayelsa United, Nigeria)

Defenders: Taye Taiwo (Marseille, France), Elderson Echiejile (Rennes, France), Chidi Odiah (CSKA Moscow, Russia), Onyekachi Apam (OG Nice, France), Joseph Yobo (Everton, England), Daniel Shittu (Bolton Wanderers, England), Ayodele Adeleye (Sparta Rotterdam, Netherlands), Rabiu Afolabi (SV Salzburg, Austria), Terna Suswan (Lobi Stars, Nigeria)

Midfielders: Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi (TSG Hoffenheim, Germany), John Utaka (Portsmouth, England), Brown Ideye (FC Sochaux, France), Peter Utaka (Odense Boldklub, Denmark), , Kalu Uche (Almeria, Spain), Dickson Etuhu (Fulham, England), John Mikel Obi (Chelsea, England), Sani Kaita (Alaniya, Russia), Haruna Lukman (AS Monaco, France), Yusuf Ayila (Dynamo Kiev, Ukraine), Osaze Odemwingie (Lokomotiv Moscow, Russia)

Strikers: Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Everton, England), Victor Anichebe (Everton, England), Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth, England), Obafemi Martins (Wolfsburg, Germany), Ikechukwu Uche (Real Zaragoza, Spain), Victor Obinna Nsofor (Malaga, Spain)

Nigeria Appoints Lars Lagerbäck As Coach of The Super Eagles

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Lars Lagerbäck has been appointed as the coach of the Nigeria Super Eagles. Shuaibu Amodu has been sacked from that position because of the poor performances of the Nigerian team at the Angola 2010 African Cup of Nations. The sack is also connected to the pattern of play and the unconvincing manner in which Nigeria qualified for the world cup.

This is not the first time that Amodu would qualify for the world cup. He did it before and was sacked. The reasons and the circumstances are exactly the same. In fact the administration of football and sports in general in Nigeria has gone worse under the same period of time.

By sacking Amodu the NFF is actually sweeping the dirts under the carpets. NFF did so in France 98 and Korea Japan 2002, the outcomes were disastrous. More devastating when we lost our qualifying spot to lowly rated Angola in 2006. Not that Amodu is indispensable or that he could not have done better, but the fact is that there is more to sports and football in Nigerian than the use of Amodu as a scape goat. Goodbye Amodu, I hope the day will never come when they will ask you to come and help Nigeria to qualify for the world cup again.

The baton has now been passed to Lars Lagerbäck. I have followed Swedish football since 2002. That year Sweden defeated Nigeria 2-1 in the Japan-Korea 2002 World Cups. That was after Aghahowa put Nigeria ahead with a beautiful header off Yobo’s cross. Henrik Larsson and Fredrik Ljungberg got a goal each for Sweden.

Before 2002 I knew Martin Dahlin, Henrik Larsson and Tomas Brolin. Brolin was a huge success in the Italian league and he has a famous way to celebrate his goals. I don’t have any problem per se with the appointment of Lagerbäck. I think his track records give him a good edge for that position.

Sweden has not produced several big names in recent years but Zlatan remains outstanding. Sweden failed to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. Lagerbäck was relieved of his position. Lagerbäck was not a failure but I am convinced there are a few things he would have done better as the head coach for Sweden. Sweden does not have many skilful and talented players as Nigeria.

As the coach of a Nigerian team Lagerbäck has entered into a position where non-performance will not be tolerated. There are 140m football analysts in Nigeria. His seat is even hotter than that of the president. Does he know that? Nigerians don’t care about the presidency as much as they do football-football is the number one religion in Nigeria.

Lagerbäck who has been used to organised environment and structured attitude to work has now suddenly entered into a position where he may probably be looking for jerseys on match days. Lagerbäck will be shocked to know that his salary will not be paid on the 25th of every month. He will have to get used to be living in advance as the salaries will drag and drag. He needs tolerance, endurance and perseverance to survive the 5 months that have been handed to him.

Lagerbäck will inherit players of different ratings and attitudes. Obviously he needs to get used as quickly as possible to the Nigerian football ages and get rid of tired legs as soon as possible. He will see players who think they are doing Nigeria a favour by playing in the national colours. Lagerbäck will see players who are dying for their club sides because of the money they earn and strolling on the pitch when they play for Nigeria. He will be shocked! In fact he will see players impressing in training but posing on match days.

I have suggested in a previous post that we need to work on the mentalities of our players. But the complexity of the problem is that our players are Nigerians and we cannot isolate their mentalities from the national mentalities. Most of the people in governance or administrative roles in Nigeria are doing things that will profit them and not Nigeria. We have an attitude that has robbed us of our pride and duty to nation. Nigerian players are not exceptions!

I don’t know the nature of Lagerbäck’s contract but if I could just imagine-it would be wonderful to have him bring some organisation and structure into our football. If they could employ him not just as a coach but as a “tool” to institute the organisation that is missing in our football, that would be great.

Imagine if our democracy is structured like Swedish democracy-where you can vote at a post office or at designated centres before the Election Day-and your vote will still be counted. Imagine if we could sack corrupt people and let good and knowledgeable people run our sports, our football and our government-the world will be at our feet.

I wish Lagerbäck the best of luck. I wish I could meet him and give him some solid advice and information about his new task and terrain.

I wish Nigeria goodluck in South Africa. And I sincerely hope that Amodu will find the place in his heart to forgive Nigerians, we are a bunch of _________people..!

FIFA, Nigeria and Under-17 age cheat: Leave Amiesimaka alone

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

A message to FIFA

by Adeola Aderounmu.

Amiesimaka is an ex-international for the Nigerian Green Eagles. He wrote about the Nigerian under-17 team and that there are overage players in the Nigerian team. He is right! Nigeria always field players who are older than 17 and that is why many of the boys disappear into thin air after the competitions. Only a negligible percentage of them play football for 5 or 10 years more after the age competitions.

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) should leave Amiesimaka alone and stop deceiving the world. As Nigerians we cannot deceive ourselves, we know the truth. Of course there are several countries fielding over age players in these FIFA age group competitions. The only way out is for FIFA to disqualify teams/ countries that cheat. For example countries that cheat should face ban of up to 10 years. Without that FIFA is just wasting time with these age-group competitions, esp the under 17. It’s all rubbish!

Some people argue that Amiesimaka would have been mute if he was part of the LOC. That can be argued. If he was in the LOC, maybe he would have prevented over age players from being registered. Perhaps he could have used his experience to assist NFF in identifying over age players that are not detected or tested by the MRI used by FIFA. We will never know the role that Amiesimaka would have played if he was in the LOC. But it is stupidity to think or conclude that he would be a part to age-cheat. It is carelessness to think that he would encourage that.

The ball is always back to FIFA’s court. The players that Amiesimaka have pointed out should be tested by the MRI. If the players are found to have lied about their ages, Nigeria should be disqualified and sent packing. The country should be disqualified for a decade if possible. As mentioned earlier FIFA should intensity the MRI and try to detect if other countries have also cheated. To do nothing about this allegation is to further encourage corruption in football. It will be true to speculation that football is run like a mafia organisation-that host country/team for example can get away with football crimes.

For us as a country we need men and women of honour. We need people who can speak the truth and live by it. We live in a country in search of honour and integrity. We live in a time when corruption, lies, deceit, unfaithfulness and political madness have destroyed our sense of social responsibilities (including sports). Somewhere along the line (with revelations like this one from Amiesimaka) there are still signs of hope that Nigeria will rise again. This will only be possible with men and women of honour who have what it takes to lead by good examples.