30 Jul 2009 |
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Not playing a friendly on August 12 is downright irresponsible Ayo Akinfe Browsing through Fifa’s website this week, I could not but notice how much ground African football federations have made up in terms of organisation. Believe it or not, our African football associations are catching up with their colleagues elsewhere. This is evident in the fact that almost every African team is playing a friendly game during the August 12 Fifa window. Knowing that every European, South American, North American and Asian team would make use of the forthcoming window, I decided to check on who was playing who and to my pleasant surprise, African teams were equally busy. There was one notable exception – Nigeria. Across the length and breath of our continent, all our FAs are planning to make the best use of the last window before the World Cup/African Cup of Nations qualifiers start again in September. From Ivory Coast and Cameroon at the top of the African rankings to lesser-ranked teams like Tanzania and Congo Brazzaville, everyone is using the opportunity to fine-tune their teams. Those that are hoping to go to South Africa 2010 and Angola 2010 are using the chance to take one last look at the players before September, while everyone else is using the opportunity to build for the future. Tunisia are playing Ivory Coast, Algeria are playing Uruguay, Togo are playing Angola, Mali are playing Burkina Faso, Cameroon are playing Austria, Morocco are playing Congo, Egypt are playing Guinea, Benin are playing Gabon, Zambia are playing Ghana, Tanzania are playing Iraq and South Africa are playing Serbia. There are many more and I do not want to bore you with a long list but the picture should be clear to everyone. After years of club versus country rows about when teams should play games, Fifa decided to wade into the matter and the federations and the clubs agreed on a timetable that is mutually beneficial to all. Nobody disputes the need for and effectiveness of this Fifa window system, making it downright irresponsible for anyone to refuse to comply with it. Our Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and head coach Amodu Shaibu have come up with all sorts of excuses as to why Nigeria is not playing a game on August 12 but the lousy reasons they have proffered are laughable at best. Amodu recently said it is because the European season will just be starting and his players will need the time to settle into their clubs. Someone needs to tell our head coach that Nigeria is just one of Fifa’s 203 members and if everyone from Brazil ranked number one to Liechtenstein ranked 153 is playing, we have no excuse not to be. Nigeria is not the only country in the world with players plying their trade in major European leagues. African countries like Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Mali and South Africa have just as many footballers as us in the English, French, Italian, German, Spanish Dutch, Russian, Belgian, Portuguese and Ukrainian leagues. If their players can fit a friendly into their schedules, so can ours. What I find most infuriating about the whole episode is that we desperately needed this friendly to fix some serious problems with our Eagles. We are now going into the September fixture with Tunisia gambling and hoping for a miracle. Why not fix the leak rather than just hope and pray that it does not rain? Having pondered over why our Eagles are playing so badly of late, I took the time over the last few weeks to watch some tapes of our games from 2006 to the present to see if I can figure out what is wrong with our team. After watching about half a dozen matches, I kind of laid my finger on what is wrong and am amazed that Amodu is not as desperate as me to fix the problems. I observed that during the 2006 African Cup of Nations, Tunisia and Ivory Coast dominated us in midfield in the quarter and semi finals as we played 4-4-2 in those two games and our midfield problems stemmed from the fact that John Utaka/Osaze Odemwingie and Obinna Nsofor did not tuck-in enough to help the central midfield duo of Yusuf Ayila/Sani Kaita and Mikel Obi. This problem repeated itself in Maputo, where Mikel and Kaita were left exposed in central midfield and picked off by the Mozambicans. On the whole, we tend to play better when we play 4-3-3 but we still have not got the formation right. We struggle to get the balance between offensive and creative midfield play right. Against Kenya in Abuja, we played 4-3-3 with two defensive midfielders in the form of Seyi Olofinjana and Dickson Etuhu, with only Uche Kalu being the offensive midfielder. Kalu was ineffective because he was left to shoulder all the attacking responsibilities on his own. He needed one of the other two midfielders to contribute creatively. Under Amodu, our best game was his inaugural match against Austria in which we played a 1-1 draw. In that game, Mikel anchored in front of the back four, with Uche Kalu and Nwankwo Kanu playing offensively. Essentially, we need one anchorman who can pass well, one genuine two-way midfielder and one playmaker in central midfield if we are to be effective. In addition, out on the flanks, we are impotent. We still have not found a way to get our fullbacks to provide us with width. Chidi Odiah and Taiye Taiwo are great at going forward and providing crosses but they have been unable to do this because the team is not structured to provide them with cover when they venture forward. From what I have seen, we need to get Mikel playing as our anchorman, with maybe Christian Obodo (when he is not injured) as our two-way midfielder and one out of Uche Kalu, Haruna Lukman or Rabiu Ibrahim, as our playmaker. I have watched Yusuf Ayila closely and he works tirelessly but does not have the passing range required of a top flight anchorman. If one compares him with Sunday Oliseh, Yaya Toure, Michael Essien or Mohammed Sissoko, you will see that too many of his passes go astray for the team to function at its maximum with him playing. I have come to the firm conclusion that we have no option other than to play 3-5-2 so our fullbacks can get forward and provide width and our central midfield trio are equipped to win their fair share of balls in the centre of the park. The fact that Amodu has not noticed this problem or more worryingly, the fact that he is not doing anything about it ahead of the Tunisia game is just frightening. Amodu regularly plays without a targetman, denying us the option to play the ball up to someone who we know can hold it up and bring his team mates into play. Neither Ike Uche, Osaze Odemwingie or Obinna Nsofor are natural goalscorers and neither of this trio are tall enough to win their fair share of aerial battles. In addition, none of this trio has the required anticipation to gamble on crosses and get ahead of defenders before the ball is played into position, Also, playing 4-3-3 means that two of them are stuck out wide with only one person in the penalty area when the ball comes into the box. Our midfielders are simply not getting into the penalty area to support the strikers. If you watch the Austria game, you will notice that it was Uche Kalu who scored running from deep to get on to the end of a Yakubu Aiyegbeni pass. Simply put, I do not see us winning anything playing 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. They both leave us vulnerable in too many areas. A friendly game on August 12 would have given us the perfect opportunity to address these flaws ahead of the Tunisia game. I would personally have liked us to use it as an opportunity to try out 3-5-2 but alas, we are wasting the Fifa window once one. Our not playing shows a total lack of seriousness on our part. This for me is where the Presidential Taskforce has to intervene and produce immediate results. Seeing how everyone else but us is making use of the opportunity makes me really ashamed to be Nigerian. We can be an irresponsible nation at times. As the saying goes, you reap what you sow. If we do not make it to South Africa 2010, we have only ourselves to blame.
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