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.