Post-Amodu thoughts

Nigerians deserve commendation for not coming in droves to watch the Super Eagles battle against Mozambique at the National Stadium, Abuja. Where those that attended lost me by booing the Nigerian players when our national anthem was being rendered and when the boys were fumbling. That was going too far. The Super Eagles and their coach, Amodu Shuaibu, have consistently displayed little or zero passion and commitment to qualifying for the World Cup. The players do not seem to understand the extent of the frustration and disappointment of Nigerians with the senior national team. Our distress could be likened to Germany's disappointment with their national team after they lost to Algeria on June 16,1982 at the World Cup held in Spain. Horst Hrubesch, the present coach of Germany's U-21 team, was such a hate figure for fluffing myriad chances that one commentator suggested that Hrubesch should be taken aboard an helicopter and be dropped into the sea and lifted, ... until he drowns. Odemwingie dares to be different
Except for Osaze Odemwingie, the other players were on sabbatical.Those making a mountain out of the molehill of booing do not get it. The players and officials have taken the support of Nigerians for granted; that explains why they are attributing their shambolic performance to the psychological impact of being booed by their compatriots. When they were cheered in previous matches, were they better? When they play badly in their European clubs, are they arguing that they don't get booed by their supporters?The Super Eagles have become purveyors of death. Various people will tell you their own experience of losing dear ones in the wake of ineptitude of our national teams. Take this: a retired senior military officer passed on following the score draw with Tunisia. Several persons have had heart attacks due to the forlorn performance of our national teams. Support for Amodu
In the 1990s, this writer had incurred the wrath of a minister of sports for supporting Amodu Shuaibu. But Amodu is now a lost case. The coach's understanding of the game is not only suspect but his judgment is pathetic. What was responsible for Yakubu Aiyegbeni starting the game against Mozambique-a player that is being nursed back to games at Everton?With the paucity of Nigerian-born playmakers, would it be a bad idea if we offer citizenship to myriad playmakers that are surplus to requirements in other countries? Honestly, I do not believe that a serious search of the Glo Premier League would not unearth a playmaker that has potentials? The problem is that our national coaches are lazy: they are looking for ready-made players-those plying their trade overseas. Amodu and Globacom League
Amodu should tell us when last he watched a Glo Premier match? Every weekend, Fabio Capello, the Italian coach of England, watches at least two matches of the English Premier League (EPL.) It was same with his predecessors, Steve McClaren and Sven-Goran Eriksson.Given that some players from the League were invited to the Super Eagles, one hopes they were not selected through the Newcastle model: by obtaining a video of a match they played that is on You Tube.Nigerians pilloried Berti Vogts for his disdain of the Nigerian League and the players that ply their trade there. So, how can we offer comfort to Amodu for the same ‘haram' of not watching the Glo League? Non invitation of Etuhu
It's such laziness that made Amodu declare that he would not invite Dickson Etuhu given that he has not seen him play. Was he canvassing for his employers to send him to London to watch Etuhu play for Fulham? Every week, HITV and DSTV show all the matches of the EPL. In these days of Nigerian Football Federation's dereliction in not paying the wages of our national coaches, was Amodu indirectly drawing attention to his financial status?It may be immoral, but it served us well in the interim. Recall that Clemens Westerhoff was not only the coach of the national team, he was the agent of some players. He discovered Finidi George when he was playing for Calabar Rovers and within six months of inviting him to the national team, he had sold him to a European club. At least, Westerhoff watched the league. Let Amodu watch the league, even if it turns him into a player agent.And if we cannot find a good playmaker, can't we go back to wing play which proved successful in the past?May be, the search for wingers would not be as daunting as that of playmakers? Brazil "jogo bonito"
Let us not forget that the tinkering of Brazil's "jogo bonito" was due to that country's successive failure in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. The Brazilian Federation appointed Sebastião Lazaroni, winner of three consecutive Carioca Championships with Flamengo and Vasco de Gama, to implement a more pragmatic approach for the 1990 World Cup. If our nameless system (without playmaker or winger) is failing us, there is nothing to lose if we go back to what produces results.Kunle Solaja, my friend and editor of Soccer Star, Nigeria's only daily football newspaper, articulated this viewpoint lucidly in an article published in his paper last year: "Abandoning the wing play has turned the once lively Nigerian sides to laborious outfits. It is a well-known fact that Nigeria's national teams ruled the continent at the time of great wingers. The successes at the 1980 and 1994 African Nations Cup were tied to effective use of wing play which enabled the Nigerian sides gain much ground by the speedy wingers, thus reducing the labour input of potential scorers at the central attack."The strength of Westerhoff's squad lay in effective use of wing play-a situation that produced chains of wingers like Friday Elaho and Emmanuel Amuneke on the left and a Finidi George on the right."With the style of play that the likes of Obafemi Martins and Yakubu Aiyegbeni have adopted, they need to be fed effectively by wingers who would have done nearly 100 per cent of the workload, leaving the strikers to merely finish the job. That wing play brought out the scoring element in Rashidi Yekini, setting a 34-goal mark which the present day strikers looked unlikely to surpass." Let us not forget that there is no playmaker in the Cameroon national team. But their aggressive system produces results and they make no apologies.These thoughts might be too late for Amodu but whoever succeeds him after November 14, 2009 should explore options.
cnwokoh@gmail.com