They were all there on the 17th November 1993. The big shots of French Football sat down in the executive box of the Parc de Prince Stadium in Paris. France having lost out of 2 automatic tickets of Italia 90 World Cup to Yugoslavia and Scotland some 4 years earlier were now on the verge of making a return to the big stage. The face of the current European Football boss Michel Platini was seen filled with expectations as millions in the land. The game itself was against the Bulgarian National Team who requires an outright victory to steal the second ticket behind Sweden. The French Team had seemingly done the hard bit to this stage. They previously to the Bulgaria game needed 1 point out of a possible 4 in their remaining 2 home games. One was against Isreal who were the then whipping boys of the group but alas! Isreal defeated France 3-2 in Paris to defer celebrations for another day.In that game, France did led 2-0 up till the last quarter. As at 90 minutes it was 2-2...still sufficent for them to make it to USA 94...but they conceded another goal from the last kick to make an herculean task of a job that already looked done. This game against Bulgaria had Eric Cantona shoot them into the lead. Everything looked under control until Emil Kostadinov pulled one back for Bulgaria. Time check 90 minutes, freekick to France on the edge of Bulgaria's box .David Ginola collected a short pass from Vincent Guerin who had stood over the freekick... the whole of France were in rapture. He(Ginola) crossed what was better destined for the stands to Bulgaria's goalkeeper Mihaylov who caught it, threw the ball towards Luboslav Penev in the centre circle; He superbly played a 25 yard pass to Kostadinov who chested and crashed a shot in with the aid of the crossbar to effectively put France's World Cup 'Champagne' on ice for another 4 years. Such is the heartache you get if you dont see the marathon to the end in football. Nigeria is another example; they needed Ghana to beat Liberia for them while they took care of business against Sudan in Omdurman in 2001. Liberia with George Weah were the Group Leaders poised for a 1st World Cup. And The Eagles won 4-0 while Ghana beat Liberia in Monrovia 2-1. Now the question is suppose Nigeria did not beat Sudan and Ghana won Liberia of what significance will the Ghana victory be to Nigeria? In the Earlier said game between France and Isreal, Bulgaria played Austria on the same day and won 4-1....If they had dropped the maximum points before their last game against France the match in Paris would have just been for the records. My point?

Well my point stems from the current World-Cup Qualifiers...It dont do you any good to top your group's table only to lose it by the end of the rounds. As long as there are 90 minutes to die for, go play it because it is till not over yet. Struggling in Qualifiers for World Cup is as old as the the Qualifiers itself.I do beleive France can only make it to South Africa 2010 by play offs because Serbia have won their group. And you would readily choose France over Serbia as a fooball country...so also Portugal and Russia are in the pot for the European round play offs. And for all we see Argentina might not even make it at all but they do need to beat Uruguay in Montevideo to make it through...so there is 90 minutes of hope there for them. In the African Zone, 4 teams in 5 groups with 1 to qualify from each while the top 3 from each group goes to the African Cup of Nations in 2010... yet into the last game only 2 slots have been decided for the World Cup with Ghana and Ivory Coast confirming their places ...while Giants Cameroun, Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt Algeria and suprise team, Gabon fight it out in the last games. The incentives for their opponents varies from a Nations Cup berth to pride...with the former being the most important. I looked at my fellow Country men and their attittude towards the Country and honestly think it sucks. While i undestand the health reasons as the one reason for people doing away with National Team games...I cant comprehend booing your National Team even during the reading of the Nations Anthem. The fans at the Abuja National Stadium did not do well when the Eagles heads dropped during the  game against Mozambique last weekend because they booed them when encouragement was needed...But when the goal came as typical, they were celebrating like they had been supporting them from the word go...such is the Hypocrisy in the average mind of Nigerian football fans. To think these same fans would back Ferguson or Wenger if they hadn't won trophies in a decade. Yet they wont even endure low periods for Nigeria.I am wondering what happens if tables turn like it sometimes does in football and Nigeria finds SA 2010 ticket in their hands by mid November? What will the Nigerian fans do?

But at the moment Champagne is on Ice for every body whose qualification proccess is still on ...Including Tunisia. Don Peters of the ESPN Soccernet wrote about the possible rigours in this years qualifiiers when he epitomised the Tunisia, Nigeria situation in the African Group B zone as thus:

"The pressure is clearly telling on these African heavyweights, with both sides still unbeaten and both facing away games next month for their dates with destiny. If the Carthage Eagles triumph in Mozambique, they will automatically qualify but any North African slip-up in Maputo - where Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal have all been held in recent years - will clear a path for the Super Eagles". As at press time, Argentina have made it to the World Cup in 2010 at the expense of a Uruguay Team who needed to win at home to make it through themselves. But they actually lost with the Home advantage counting less. Big Teams sometimes struggle because of so many reasons but the main aim is to fight it to the end. Yours Truly is not saying Nigeria deserves the World Cup Ticket better than Tunisia. All am saying is this: There are 90 minutes deciders for everyone hence the celebration Champagne is on Ice.

Robot  # 1 | 14.10.2009 18:34

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