As Eagles Walk Tightrope

Hope of African Champions, Nigeria’s Super Eagles, qualifying for the African Nations Cup is dimming by the day following the dismissal performance of the country’s national team in the qualifying campaign. After playing three matches, the Super Eagles are at the lowest point of the group’s table with only one point.

Nigeria lost 2-3 in the opening match of the qualifiers against Congo in Calabar and played a 0-0 draw away against South Africa in Cape Town in the second game.

The country’s qualification woes were compounded last weekend when Sudan defeated the Eagles 1-0 in Khartoum. With this result, only a miracle would see the Eagles through to the tourney they are the defending champions.

South Africa now tops the group with 7 points, followed by Congo with 6 points while Sudan is third with three points. As Nigeria’s Super Eagles languish embarrassingly at the bottom of the table in their group, tongues are wagging over the poor performance of the Eagles, with some Nigerians and former players calling for the sack of coach Stephen Keshi and overhauling the team completely.

Keshi should stop blaming saboteurs for his team’s poor performance. He is the architect of his own misfortune, having failed to invite players that could have made a great difference in the squad. We expected the Super Eagles to have done better than this.

They have three outstanding matches through which they could redeem themselves, though the obstacles appear insurmountable. The away match against Congo could be the toughest, having lost at home to the team which played better than the Super Eagles in Calabar.

The urgent task for the Eagles and their technical crew is to go about serious plans to defeat Sudan on Wednesday in Abuja if they nurse any hope of qualifying for the tournament. They should set aside every distraction and focus on a winning strategy. Nigerians won’t settle for excuses if they fail to qualify for the tournament.