EAGLES OF HOPE: AMODU NEEDS TO SEEK GOD’S ADVICE IN CHOOSING THE FINAL 22 FOR THE NATION’S CUP.

Coach Amodu has chosen the provisional team, and it includes most of the players that played in the qualifiers. This is a wise move as continuity is best for the Super Eagles at this moment in time. But great caution needs to be taken in choosing the final 22 players that will carry out the assignment. I will advice Coach Amodu to seek God’s help in choosing these players, as it was God that brought us to the stage that we are right now, so neglecting God will not be a good idea. May I remind us that right from the first match we played in the qualifiers for both the Nation’s cup and the World cup, we have always been seeking God’s help; it is advisable to seek him in choosing the players for the coming tournament. God wants us to always ask for his advice and favour and he is always willing to help. If we look in the Word of God we will see that people were able to make a lot of progress only after they have prepared themselves through praying. The people of Israel learned to pray before going to any war, they sought for God’s directions and instructions, and every time they followed God’s advice, his favour was upon them. But the moment they choose to do things by themselves and ignored God’s advice they end up defected. Coach Amodu needs to learn from this and seek for divine intervention always. May I remind anyone that the very moment Coach Amodu invited God to help us in our matches he has chosen to put his trust in him, so God expects him to do that all the time in everything he does with the national team.

Luke 6:12 says that Jesus went on top of a mountain to pray to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Now if Jesus could seek God’s advise in choosing his apostles, who are we to think we can do things by ourselves?

Whilst it was good for Coach Amodu to be loyal to the players that qualified us, he needs to take a close look at some of the players that are coming out of injury. There are question marks on players like Obafemi Martins, Joseph Yobo and Danny Shittu are they going to be fit enough for the tournament? . I hope Coach Amodu will put the country first and choose players that are 100% fit and ready to fight for the nation.

HAND OF HENRY NOT OF GOD

This might be a belated comment I am making on this incident in the match between Ireland and, France but it still counts. My take on this is simple, people had no right labelling this the hand of God. There was nothing miraculous about what Thierry Henry did, infact I will call it cheating. Though Henry showed some compassion for the Irish players after the game, he should have hold a press conference and apologise for what he did, and that will have nail everything in the bud. As for the Irish, they need to stop crying over spilt milk and just move on. This incident should not damage the relations between the two countries, after all it is just a game. Fifa did the right thing not allowing a replay as that will lead more countries calling for the same thing. One thing Fifa can do is use Henry as an example by banning him from the first two game in the world cup. That will deter other players from doing the same.

EAGLES OF HOPE: GOD’S FAVOUR CONTINUES

ARGENTINA

NIGERIA

KOREA

GREECE

The recent world cup draw in south Africa has brought some joy and sadness to the countries involved, in the case of Nigeria’s group, I can not help but proclaim that God’s favour is written all over it. It is a known fact that when God starts something he goes on and finish it, I believe Nigeria is going through that process right now. Looking at the teams in our group, I am happy that we will be meeting Argentina and Greece again for these are teams that we have played against before. The South Koreas are a team we have never met at the senior level before, but for the fact that they qualified from their region they cannot be under rated. Our preparation for the world cup in South Africa in my view will determine how far we will go. I believe we have the players that can do us proud at the world stage. Now that we know who are opponents will be at the group stages, it will be advisable for the NFF to organise friendly matches with countries that are similar in style of play to the ones we will be playing against. For example in other to prepare for Argentina, friendly matches can be organised with all of the South America teams that also qualified for the world cup be it (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and brazil). Countries similar in style of play with Greece include (Serbia, Slovenia and Slovakia), whilst country similar to South Korea will be North Korea. All these matches must be played in Africa in other to acclimatise for the tournament in South Africa. Organising these matches should not be a problem considering the fact that these countries will be looking to play friendly matches and acclimatise at the same time for the world cup. I will recommend we play all of the countries mentioned starting from after the African nation’s cup (February). By playing all these matches about eight in number we stand a chance of gaining a better knowledge of our opponents and this we give the coaching crew the opportunity to have a close look at the players. I believe it is possible to organise a friendly at least once a month leading to the world cup. The PTF and the NFF must put all hands on deck to make sure we have a good preparation for the world cup. The NFF should approach corporate bodies in the country and get them involved in organising matches for the Eagles. I read in a Nigerian newspaper about a corporate body willing to organise friendly matches against Brazil and some other countries, if this is true, it is a good development.

Playing in the world cup is every footballer’s dream, so Nigerian should expect to see the very best of our boys. Nigerians should stop judging our boys on what they saw in the qualifiers. Preparing for every match in the qualifiers was not the best as far as Nigeria is concern but we were still able to qualify without losing a single match, and this cannot be attributed to the fact the we had an easy group, all the matches we played in the qualifiers were competitive. Starting from the African nation’s cup Amodu Shuaibu now has the chance to build his team. I believe he knows his team already so the only thing left will be to fill the weak areas.

Back up for Mr Amodu:

I read in a newspaper about the PTF and the NFF holding a meeting and concluding that coach Amodu will need some support for the world cup. This is a good development, and this support should not come from anyone other than Samson Siasia and Stephen Keshi. Hiring a foreign coach will only destabilize the work that was been done since the qualifiers. The coach will come with his own ideas only to quit or be sacked after the world cup, and we will end up turning to another home base coach to lead the team. Apart from this, it is very important to keep the people God has decided to work through in place. Nigeria cannot keep making the same mistake; it is time to put our trust in our own and pray for God’s continuous favour.