2022: Eagles On A Good Start

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have started their World Cup qualifying campaign on a good note having beaten Liberia 2 – 0 and Cape Verde 2 -1. Although the match against Liberia was consolidated at home while Cape Verde were thrashed on away, which made the Eagles’ two legs an interesting one in Group D.

No doubt, the matches for the Mundial qualifications have always been an easy task in recent times for the national team since Gernot Rohr has been contracted to be in charge of the team. No one will be surprised to see the Eagles pick a ticket to berth for the Qatar 2022 FIFA Mundial. In this regard, it’s expected that the Nigerian side will emerge from that supposed group of death.

The Coach of the Eagles knows quite well that he has a very serious task at hand by making sure that the Eagles are able to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Therefore, it’s no gainsaying that the team must live up to the expectation reposed in them by Nigerians to qualify in the first place.

The team’s qualification for both the AFCON and FIFA Championships has become a cliché; therefore, what Nigerians want to see is a spectacular performance of the team at the stages proper.  Of course, Rohr has not been able to pick the AFCON’s gold trophy neither getting to the second round of the mundial since his resumption.

The team’s method of play both at competitive or friendly matches have always left Nigerians in awe, given their lackadaisical play in most cases which had always caused critics in rebuking the German-born manager for poor performance. This situation was evident in the match against Cape Verde. It was glaring that the Eagles were not spectacular in that encounter as one of the Eagle’s goals came from the host.

We have always celebrated the Eagles’ qualification for a major championship. However, their performance proper is one reason football bedfellows now believe that qualifying for any major tourney is not the issue but coming out in flying colours; as this had always been their bane. The Eagles qualification for any tourney has been tagged a cliché. So, Nigerians have always been looking beyond this stage, but how much they could hold on to their own has remained a mirage when all the teams across the continent of the world gather for the battle of supremacy!

The Nigeria Football Federation must be up and doing this time around if the Eagles pick a ticket for Qatar. It’s sufficed to say that the Eagles only achievement is just mere qualification. The team should be able to advance further from their mediocrity on the world stage. It has never been palatable at all the way Nigeria has always been exited from some of these major tourneys.

Having said so, the coach must know his players inside out this time as the world cup proper is not the pitch for experimentation. It is the venue for serious business because laurels are at stake. Teams don’t go to the World Cup for jamboree; they go there for business and to achieve a dream! It is also an interesting thing to note that the last of the four teams from the entire participants of the championship is a big deal.  So, Nigerians are looking beyond the qualification exercise for the Eagles.

Thank God it’s a world without end. Amen. Good Morning Nigeria!

•Independent