Last year, I wrote about Team Nigeria losing fundamental competence. The article examined the country’s track record in sprints, relays, and Egypt’s table tennis dominance. Nigerian male and female sprinters used to constantly finish first or second on the continent, sometimes winning gold, silver, or bronze. Athletics’ 100m and 200m.
Ghana, South Africa, and Cote d’Ivoire sprinters dominate relay events, while Nigerian sprinters struggle to earn medals. Nigeria today struggles to win two or three gold medals at continental meets to come second behind Egypt, unlike in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s when the country swept all gold medals in any continental table tennis event held in any venue.
The Golden Eaglets and Flying Eagles, the U-17 and U-20 national football teams, have struggled recently. Continental teams at FIFA championships regularly challenge the country’s representatives, and the Confederation of African Football’s regional qualifications made tickets harder to procure.
Before the AFCON finals, countries compete regionally to determine FIFA qualifiers. Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets, five-time FIFA World Cup champions, competed in Algeria’s AFCON earlier this month after winning the WAFU B tournament. The Nigerian team under Nduka Ugbade won the first match against Zambia 1-0, lost 1-0 to Morocco in the second, and fought hard to overcome South Africa 3-2 in the penultimate group encounter. Nigeria defeated 2-1 to Burkina Faso in the critical quarterfinal after the Burkinabes took a 2-0 lead.
Two schoolboy blunders gave Nigeria two goals. Ugbade had chances, but no strong striker against the same squad Nigeria defeated to win the WAFU B title. Ugbade talked too much before the event, and the team’s preparations needed to be more for the boys to perform well. In prior U-17 tournaments under coaches Emmanuel Amuneke and Manu Garba, the team had more time in camp to learn tactics, cohesion, and bonding.
The Ugbade boys were young, and most were academy guys, but they needed better training because other countries are catching up with Nigeria. The NFF and technical staff should only accept some players after failing to qualify for the U-17 World Cup, and letting talented players rot would be sad. Yahaya Lawali, who won the AFCON’s first two MVP awards, should play for the U-20 team.
With coach Ugbade, the NFF should find a method to promote some of these youngsters to the U-20 team. Ladan Bosso’s U-20 team will debut internationally this weekend, and Italy and Brazil follow the Dominican Republic. The Flying Eagles have a tough call and inadequate preparations.
The country’s U-20 team’s expectations could be higher due to their tough group and Bosso’s poor handling. The federation should assess its coaching method to find the finest candidates for male and female national teams. Austin Eguavoen’s technical committee should improve team performance.
To improve teamwork, the NFF should provide proper preparation and training excursions. If a decent handler and camping arrangements are made, the U-17 ouster might be a blessing in disguise.
