Olawale Ajimotokan
19 November 2008
Lagos — IIke Uche can be counted on to bring sanity to a chaotic Super Eagles when they confront Colombia for the first time in 13 years in an international friendly in Cali, Colombia, tonight. This is despite the fact that the preparation for the international friendly could at best be described as "atrocious" after several Europe based players opted against making the Trans-Atlantic flight to South America.
Stand-in captain Joseph Yobo, Osaze Odemwingie, Chidi Odiah, Seyi Olofinjana and Chinedu Ogbuke-Obasi are in the category of players who pulled out of the Cali tie because of injuries, while two goalkeepers, Dele Aiyenugba and Vincent Enyeama apparently missed the trip after failing to process their visas on time.
Despite the hitches in assembling his 'army', four-time Eagles coach Shaibu Amodu is upbeat about the ability of the rest of the players who made the trip to Cali to be up to the task. The match will kick off, in Nigerian timing, on Thursday 3:00 a.m.
Much attention would definitely be given to the Nigerian striker of La Liga team, Getafe, Uche who plays with lot of pace, gut, directness and enthusiasm. The petite striker with16 caps since making his debut in the goalless outing against Macedonia in Skopje on August 22 2007, has been showing sterling qualities in the team in recent times, especially during the 2010 qualifying matches.
His strike against Equatorial Guinea in Abuja in a 2-0 win had the touch of class as he literally tore apart the Guinean defence in the process of blasting home Nigeria's match winner.
Shorn of the services of Obafemi Martins and Odemwengie, Nigeria will look on the former Recreativo player to show the hunger that will help in ending their jinx against the Los Cafeteros who have triumphed in all three showdowns between the two sides.
Instructively, all three past encounters between Nigeria and Colombia have ended with the South American side winning by the same 1-0 margin.
The Battle against Colombia will be Amodu's eighth game in charge since he was re appointed March 2008.
Since the 1-1 draw with Austria in Graz last May, the Eagles have prevailed over all opponents, making them to reach to the position of third highest ranked team in Africa in the FIFA world ranking.
Colombia team who visited sick children at the University hospital of Cali yesterday, had their workout under the supervision of coach Eduardo Lara, who like Amodu is missing some of his key players because of injuries.
According to reports Cristian Marrugo and Sergio Herrera were called to take the places of Fabian Vargas of Boca Juniors and Wason Renteria of Sporting Braga after their clubs issued medical reports about their injuries.
Fourteen players were at the team's Intercontinental Hotel camp last night and the number will swell up with the expected arrival of Radamel Falcao Garcia (River Plate), David Ospina (Nice), Camilo Zuniga (Siena), Mario Alberto Yepes (Chievo Verona), Amaranto Perea (Atletico Madrid) and Juan Carlos Escobar (Krylia Sovetov, Russia).
The warm up against Nigeria will help the Latin American side to brace-up against the rigours of campaigning in the South American qualifiers to the World Cup finals of 2010.
Colombia is currently placed sixth in the single group of ten teams after ten matches. The players will be hoping for plenty of luck to see them through the 18 match-marathon contest, which resumes in January.
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