Olawale Ajimotokan
18 February 2008
Lagos — As darkness was already advancing, the mood at the Sekondi Stadium on January 20 could be said to be upbeat. Rather than watch the televised first game of the tournament involving Ghana and Guinea the battery of international photographers and press corps gathered into the small media room for a conference session with the Nigerian team. It was a day to remember. Sekondi was in festive mood ahead of the Nigeria versus Cote d'Ivoire Group B opening fixture.
Just as the Ivorian team was about rounding up its training session at the Essipon Stadium pitch the Nigerians arrived to take their turn. In between, coach Berti Vogts (derided by Ghanaian media as Dirty Votes) with Nwankwo Kanu, John Utaka and media officer Peterside Idah in tow arrived the media hall for the conference.
"With the quality of players in this team, we are ready for the 26th African Nations Cup campaign. We know that talent for talent, player for player, we have no match in this tournament. Our desire is to win the cup," Kanu boasted. Vogts also regaled the media with how good and versatile the players were insisting his term of reference was to win the Nations Cup
But it turned out that the Eagles and their officials were living a Fool's Paradise. The tournament was an unmitigated fiasco for the team and the entire nation. Nigerian businesses that aimed to make fortunes in Sekondi in expectation of a remarkable flight of the Eagles recorded losses as patronage was low.
Nine members of the Nigerian supporters club developed high blood pressure while one died in Ghana after the Eagles quarter final exit. This campaign was dismal and atrocious and will go down the memory as the worst by Nigeria since Libya 1982. No one saw the way the soap opera would unfold. But when it eventually unfolded it was akin to the Fanny Amun "Wombling and Fumbling" episode of 1995.
Money, the usual evil was not the problem in the Nigerian camp. Rather it was how to spend it. Each player stood to rake in $49,000 enroute to the cup. Also there was no Patrick Ekeji to engage the players in ego trips.
Things assumed a bad course on the day of the match. About 30 minutes to the match kick off, Kanu started walking with a limp after puling a tendon in his right kneel during pre match warm up. Every body was alarmed by the development.
Vogts opted to remove him from the team list but the team physiotherapist who worked on the leg declared the player fit to start the match. Kanu aggravated the injury, collapsed after 59 minutes and agonizingly watched the rest of the Nations Cup from the dug out.
His fitness crisis also exposed the poor preparation of the Nigerian technical team as well as lack up quality back up players for Ghana 2008.
Key players like Joseph Yobo, Obafemi Martins, Dickson Etuhu and Ifeanyi Emeghara were not 100 percent fit.
Without Kanu, the Eagles who had a fair share of possession against Cote d'Ivoire, soon wandered about the pitch like a weather beaten flock of birds. They lost their initiative as well as confidence. Onyekachi Okonkwo was thrown into the fray as a replacement for Kanu. But he was instructed by Vogts to play deep in the midfield while Mikel John Obi was pushed forward to support the firing line. It turned out that both Okonkwo and the technical strategy were the wrong options. The FC Zurich player just like his namesake, Onyekachi Apam who manned the right wing back, was clearly nervous and overwhelmed by the occasion. Okonkwo is a protégé of the Vogts' technical Assistant Emeka Ezeala.
Last year, his proposed transfer to FC Cologne was hijacked and ordered to Zurich by outside forces. The Ivoiriens capitalised on his nerves and inability to operate in a holding midfield role to seize the initiative and score the winner through Salomon Kalou. Vogts also tactically erred with one of his other substitutions in the form of Ayo Makinwa who came on for Obafemi Martins. The loss to the Elephants resulted in the ebbing of team spirits.
Mikel and Martins had a heated remonstration on the way to the dressing room while all the players continued with the blame trading on their official team bus on the way to their hotel. The crisis was so pronounced that Yobo and goalkeeper Austin Ejide had to be physically restrained on the bus as their diatribe nearly degenerated into a boxing bout.
Ejide held Yobo liable for the resultant net shaking slalom run made by Kalou through the heart of the Eagles defence.
Vogts made several changes for the must win match against Mali in order to salvage the situation, but to no avail. Kanu's injury was a source of worry to all and after the Ivorien match Portsmouth asked the leggy player to return to England for thorough assessment of his fitness. But he declined to underline his commitment to the cause and to show leadership as the captain.
Players like Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Martins at team meetings criticized the poor midfield play blaming the lack of creative midfielders for the inability of the team to score. The Eagles were faced with a break or make match against Mali after a stumbling start against the Elephants.
But without Kanu to keep possession, the midfield remained the Eagles weakest link at the tournament. The Eagles had their worst game against Mali which ended 0-0 to make their qualification for the knock out stage an uphill task.
It was only Vogts that attended the post match media briefing while the players hid in the dressing for over an hour. When they eventually alighted, they trudged out like shell-shocked combatants, making their way to their bus. They were escorted to their hotel by armed guards as some disgruntled Nigerian fans laid in ambush for them.
Following the draw against the Malians most of the players gave up on the Nations Cup campaign and started to confirm their flights to their respective European destinations.
But there was still one game left for Nigeria against Benin while Mali and Cote d'Ivoire would play the decider in Accra. And the Benin game offered the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board members led by Sani Lulu Abdullahi to cover up their tracks by blackmailing the Ivoriens to take the match against Mali serious.
The ploy was to play up Francophone accord and Didier Drogba's marital ties to Mali to alert CAF in taking a fleeting interest in the outcome of the match.
And true to the unpredictable nature of the game, Cote d'Ivoire crushed Mali 3-0 while Nigeria expectedly beat Benin 2-0 to book their passage for the quarter final.
Mikel's 53rd minute goal for the Eagles finally broke the deadlock, making it the first Nigerian goal at the tournament after 233 minutes of slow motion action.
After a lifeless first half against the Squirrels, adrenalin was flowing in the dressing room when Amos Adamu, a member of FIFA Executive Committee passed on information to the players that the Elephants were a goal up in Accra.
That pumped the players into action as they went all out to break the Beninoise.
The Eagles' progress to the quarter final was at the instance of the Ivoiriens who wanted to top the group by avoiding Ghana, a neighbour with whom it has frosty political relations.
Despite Nigeria's pre-Nations Cup ranking as Africa's top team, the Eagles were doomed to failure from the time Vogts decided to prepare the team in Malaga, Spain which weather is colder than Ghana's.
Aside from that, the German's relations with his Nigerian assistants were at best frosty.
Austin Eguavoen was once reviled for daring to make a technical contribution at a training session, while the keepers' sessions were supervised by Stefan Fraund and not Ike Shorounmu, a former international keeper.
There was also lack of discipline among the players some of whom felt they were in Ghana on holidays
They infringed on camp curfew by keeping surreptitious night lifestyle.
Martins, Dele Aiyenugba and Richard Eromoigbe were a few night cats among the Eagles.
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