This piece is a sort of continuation of last week's. Despite all the negative comments around me, I made it to the National Stadium in Abuja to watch the Nigeria versus Mozambique game.
I wasn't impressed by everything around me but thank God we managed to win. I don't know if the narrow victory on Sunday will make a difference on November 14, in Kenya, but as always, I pray it does.
Starting from the entrance, I didn't think that security was tip top. Half of the police officers manning the gates were drunk. At some point, I got scared because they started their usual harassment and we had to hide before managing to get into the Stadium.
I was not surprised at the thousands of empty seats I saw. Rather, what shocked me was the fact that most Nigerians were actually supporting Mozambique. It made me realise how angry and disappointed Nigerians are.
A dismal performance
That game was one of the worst performances I had seen from the Super Eagles. Truth be told, we do not deserve to be at the World Cup. Save for Osaze Odemwingie, everybody else was woeful. The boys played like they had nothing at stake. It was almost as if they had given up on going to South Africa.
After Obafemi Martins missed a couple of chances, it was Obinna Nsofor's goal three minutes from time that kept our slim World Cup hopes alive.
We already heard that Tunisia were a goal up early. At some point, I forgot who the Super Eagles coach was. I started to think it was Daniel Amokachi because as opposed to Shuaibu Amodu, he was on his feet all through dishing out instructions to the players.
Even the ever cool Kanu Nwankwo lost his temper and was on his feet together with Jay Jay Okocha controlling the game. It was about 10 minutes to the end of the game that a confused looking Amodu got up to participate in the touch line activities.
Now the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia are boasting and have told our Eagles to stop dreaming about the World Cup.
Do I blame them? No! Not after the Eagles messed up their best chance in Abuja last month.
There are people who say they do not blame the players but the administrators and that it's unfair to compare them to their fellow players in Europe. And that if Wayne Rooney gets injured playing for England, he has insurance to cover him.
Sure, there were Nigerians at the IAAF - participating under new nationalities, British, German, Portugal and even Canadian... Why? Even if my country won't pay my medicals, believe me, I would not change my nationality, instead I would ensure I am an example, a good example, to be followed. It's in the head, the patriotism and the pride. Just imagine having your country's national anthem being played for you because of your achievement. Go to Ghana - see the Ghanaian flag in every taxi cab. The drivers are proud of what they do and even more proud to be Ghanaians.
Amodu not good enough
Did Cameroon not change their coach in the middle of the qualifiers? They looked far from a team that was on its way to South Africa. Now, they are sitting comfortably at the top of their table. My guess is (and I hope I am right), our administrators are only waiting for the last match in Kenya and when the Eagles qualify, they will kick Amodu out.
I maintain, as usual, that he doesn't have what it takes to go to the World Cup. Even if he is not fired, the honourable thing for him to do is to hand in his resignation. Let him go back to being a Local Organising Committee contractor. In him, we have a coach preparing to qualify a team for the biggest tournament in the world, who refuses to play a friendly match on a FIFA free day. He didn't and what was his reason? That the boys need to retain their positions in their clubs! Does this make sense to anybody?
I was reading a comment recently by some guy about why Nigerians like to set themselves up for heartaches and we should forget about the world cup and concentrate on what gives meaning to our lives like power supply, education and medicare. Even though I agree with him, I still think that qualifying for the World Cup and putting up a good performance will bring a lot of joy to Nigerians. We need to pray to God to bring back our glory.
Whether we like it or not, we are always UNITED by football so let us not stop supporting and hoping.