No hiding place for Super Eagles

As Nigerians and football fans worldwide wait with bated breaths to see the outcome of the World Cup draws taking place in South Africa on Friday, former captain of the national U-16 team Nduka Ugbade has said the Super Eagles are in for a tough time irrespective of the group they are drawn in.

Tough group

Speaking to NEXTSports on Tuesday, he said, "This is the time all the big nations are present; Germany, Brazil, Spain, England and so on, so I don't expect anything short of being in a tough group. I'm not even praying that we be in a weak group, though from what I know, no two nations from the same continent are put in the same group.

"This leaves us with the option of being grouped with countries like Argentina, Holland and France. Of course the host is usually drawn in Group A so we know where South Africa is."

In the same vein, ex-international Adokiye Amiesimaka believes that Nigeria will be engaged in a battle for supremacy, hence they must use the African Cup of Nations to consolidate on their performance for the tournament in South Africa.

"From what I know, they try to separate the most highly rated teams so that they do not meet in the early stages, though they cannot be completely successful in doing that; they do it to try to maintain high quality of play so that the teams that meet in the finals wouldn't be weak teams. This will be the final stage, because there is no other tournament superior to the World Cup," he said.

Nations Cup first

"However, I'm more concerned about the Nations Cup because it is more immediate and the group we've been placed in; that is talking of Egypt, Mozambique and Benin Republic. This is a group that doesn't have teams going to the World Cup so they are going to use the Nations Cup to make up for their inability to qualify for the World Cup."

Amiesimaka says the Nations Cup will more or less be a testing ground, hence Nigerians shouldn't nurture high ambitions. "A team like Egypt, who are defending champions, will want to prove their mettle and we may be too careful because we wouldn't want to risk injury. If you ask me, I'm not very optimistic of our performance because, from information reaching me, we may be building a new team by injecting new players; this will affect our, so I'm not thinking of us winning," he said.

For former national midfielder Henry Nwosu, "there are just three teams I will like Super Eagles to avoid in the group stage: Brazil, Argentina, Germany and England. These four teams are potential winners and are focused on winning, I'm not saying we can't beat them, but the task will be greater in the first round than in quarterfinals or semi finals.

"In the 1988 Olympics against Brazil, we were pummelled 4-0 in the group stage. Though I was on the bench that day, it is something I can hardly forget. Apart from that, these countries have the best players in the world today, playing for top clubs in England, Spain and Italy."

‘No tension'

But France-based Super Eagles defender Adefemi Olubayo believes there is nothing to worry about as far as the 2010 World Cup draws is concerned. "I don't think we need to be panicking on what group we may fall in or what team we would be playing against," he said. "I believe that most of the teams are even afraid of the Super Eagles as they know what we are capable of doing. Any team we are grouped with should be ready for a tough time as we would approach each match with the right game plan."

Olubayo, a key member of the Super Eagles team, believes the team would spring surprises when the World Cup finally kicks off in South Africa as he refused to see the likes of Brazil Spain and Argentina as teams Nigeria stands no chance with.

Sharing the same optimism is Tunisian based striker, Micheal Eneramo, who is still basking in the euphoria of the possibility of playing in the world's biggest football tournament.

"I am looking forward to the draws to know which teams we would be facing, but not exercising any form of fear on which team it is going to be. It could be France, it could be Brazil it could be any country. I think we only need to do our own part and see how the games turn out," he said.

Weak Eagles

However, a players' agent and a veteran journalist Chris Eseka views the upcoming draws differently as he believes that there is all to fear even as he regards the Super Eagles as one of the weakest teams heading for the tournament.

"You cannot rule out Nigeria being pitched against tough oppositions even as we go into the draws as one of the weakest teams," he said.

According to him, the Nigerian team has not shown enough promise of been able to hold its own in the World Cup. He however says he is looking towards the Nations Cup in Angola to see if there would be any improvement. " The present team as it is and as it is being tutored has no chance in the World Cup unless there is a great change," he said. "We should not be thinking of going to the World Cup to make up the numbers, but to aspire for nothing less than a quarter final finish or more."

The list and criteria for the seeded teams are expected to be released today by FIFA ahead of the World Cup draws proper billed for Cape Town, South Africa on Friday.

No weak opponents

Like others, Super Eagles midfielder Oluwafemi Ajilore is not anticipating any favourable pairing for Nigeria. The Groningen of Holland player, who played his part in the Eagles World Cup qualification for the competition, insists that all of the 32 countries which would be represented earned their place and will give a good account of themselves at football's biggest stage.

Ajilore, who helped the U-23 Eagles to win silver medal at the Beijing Olympic Football Tournament last year, pointed to the difficulty our Eagles went through before securing their ticket to South Africa, saying that the level of competition in modern football is a very strong indication that no team must be underrated anymore in the game.

" For me I am not expecting any easy draw for us on Friday because my understanding of the game now tells me you can no longer look down on any team again in this game. We knew what we went through before qualifying for this competition," he said.

"Though people found it easy to criticise the team because of their passion for the game, but it was not that easy after all. And honestly, it is not about us alone, we can see that African champions Egypt will not be playing at the World Cup. That tells you how competitive it has been for those who eventually made it to South Africa.

"We can also talk about Cameroun who also struggled till the end before making it to the competition, so as far as I am concerned, anybody that turned out to be our opponents, we will have to do a lot of work to be ready for them because they will be ready for us too."

Commitment and planning

The former U-23 star believes adequate planning and level of commitment will make a huge difference between the participating countries when the World Cup hostilities begin next summer in South Africa.

"For sure, some teams have better quality in terms of players, but we have seen times and times again when great teams are upset by so-called minnows at a very big stage. So I think we have to prepare very well for the competition, regardless of who we are going to meet.

"And of course commitment and luck will play some parts in how far we go in the competition because sometimes you need luck to succeed in life," he said.