17 Apr 2009 |
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Nothing stops the Super Eagles going the way of the Magical Magyars Ayo Akinfe Like most other football enthusiasts, I browse the Internet everyday looking for interesting stories and this week, one news item that jumped out at me was Angola sacking its national team coach Mabi de Almeida. It surprised me somewhat because Mr de Almeida had only been in the hot seat for seven months but on reflection, I can see why he had to go. Ever since Angola got back Germany 2006, their football has been on the wane and the way the fortunes of Palancas Negras have been sliding, if something drastic was not done, it would only be a matter of time before they come another Hungary. Yes, Hungary were once one of football’s biggest giants but today, everyone blushes when you mention them and the beautiful game. Today’s football fans should be reminded that Hungary’s national team once known as the Magical Magyars’ were the Brazilians of the early 1950s, when Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and the rest of the team were playing the most delighful football ever seen. The high-point for this generation was when they cruised to victory in the 1952 Olympics and reached the final of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. How they lost to Germany in that final I will never know but they were by far the better side. In the early 1950s, the Magical Magayrs went on a 31-match unbeaten run that spanned four years. They scored an incredible 25 goals in four matches at the World Cup finals before crashing 3-2 to West Germany in the big one.
Since then, they have failed to scale the heights of their glory days. They have qualified for the World Cup six times since 1954 but without any real success. With their last participation coming at Mexico 1986, they have missed the last five editions. Angola is obviously aware that this is the path along which their football is going at the moment. Despite a wonderful World Cup, Angola could not get beyond the quarter finals of the 2008 African Cup of Nations and they uncerimoniously crashed out of the 2010 World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifiers. Since then, their talismanic coach Luis Goncalves has departed and a series of friendlies have been organised to get the team back on its feet. Fortunately for Angola, they host the 2010 African championships so can still redeem some lost pride but over the last seven months, nothing has suggested that this will happen. Coach de Almeida has paid the price for a string of miserable defeats under his watch. Since he took control of the team, they have drawn with Venezuela and been beaten by Mali, Cape Verde and Morocco. The Palancas Negras are under pressure to improve to avoid embarrassment in front of their home fans in January. Like Hungary and Angola, South Africa, who will be hosting the next World Cup, is another case of a nation falling from grace to grass on the football pitch. In 1996, they won the African Cup of Nations but ever since then it has been downhill. Bafana Bafana got to the final of the 1998 tournament, crashed out in the semi finals in 2000, went out in the quarter finals in 2002, came third in their group in 2004 and were rock bottom of their group in 2006. They missed out on the 2006 World Cup and will now watch the 2010 African Cup of Nations at home. Football is one of those cruel games where the fall from grace can be very sudden and brutal. It is not have to be a gradual, corrosive and evolutional decline. One minute you could be the toast of the world and the next you could be a nobody. Unfortunately, Nigerians are too arrogant to accept that this is the reality staring all of us in the face at the moment. In 1994 and 1998 we topped our groups at the World Cup, only to crash out with one point in 2002. In 2006, we did not qualify and looking at 2010, Amodu Shaibu could make us suffer the same fate that Christian Chukwu put us through. Ever since the Maputo debacle, all sorts of individuals and officials have been calling for calm, saying there is no need for drastic action. Some have even suggested that nothing should be done until after the game away to Tunisia in Tunis. Well, I have news for them. By then, it will be too late. Nothing about our current Super Eagles fills me or any other football enthusiast for that matter with confidence. Nothing about the way they play is inspiring, motivating, captivating of entertaining, yet we still cannot grasp that we are in a crisis. We are currently engaged in a six-match knock-out series in which there is little margin for error and having collapsed at the first hurdle, alarm bells are yet to start ringing. Let me spell it out for my people. We are heading for an impending catastrophe if Amodu Shaibu continues to manage our national team. At least the likes of Angola have done something about their fate, while Hungary is desperately seeking to revive past glory. Dutchman Ronald Koeman has been put in charge of the Magical Magyars and is doing everything he can to qualify them for South Africa. Hungary had Puskas, we had Jay-Jay. They won Olympic gold, so too did we. They played some of the most entertaining football ever seen, so did we. If they can become an unknown in world football, what stops Nigeria from going the same way too? Now is the time to take action, not after we have been knocked out following a defeat in Tunis. If we want a guaranteed place in South Africa next year, now is the time to appoint a coach of the calibre of Ronald Koeman to take charge of the Super Eagles. Looking at his native Holland that has produced the likes of Leo Beenhaker, Luis Van Gaal, Frank Rijkaard, Marco Van Basten and Gus Hiddink, there is no shortage of talent out there. Ayo Akinfe aakinfe@aol.com
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