Considering that Nigeria could have lost that match by 3-0, giving their soulless performance, I can understand Oliseh’s “delight.” So poor were the Eagles that the overall man of the match was Nigeria’s debutant goalkeeper Carl Ikeme, a player who in all fairness I had criticized Oliseh for inviting him.
Ikeme impressed very well in Dar-es-Salam and should have a future in the team. He made a couple of decent saves to save Nigeria’s blushes. And he could be a decent goalkeeper should he work on his goal-kicks which often went into touch, thereby costing Nigeria opportunities to start attack.
Conversely, the so-called experienced leaders of the team Emmanuel Emenike, captain Ahmed Musa, HarunaLukman and Kenneth Omeruo failed abysmally to inspire the team against a very average hosts.
Oliseh had promised fluid football akin to his eloquent punditry on cable TV. But he couldn’t have imagined the shambolic display his team put up in Tanzania.
The team looked appallingly unrecognizable both physically and for their insipid display against the Taifa Stars, so much that at the end of the final whistle, the question on most observers lips was where were the Eagles (never mind that sometimes underservedly overused adjective: Super).
Yes, it was only his first game in charge, and the team can only improve as well as Nigeria’s chances of going to the next Nations Cup finals. But whatever his lofty thoughts ahead of this putrid display against one of Africa’s minnows, Oliseh now knows the world of difference between the comfort of football punditry and hot technical dugout.
Seeing him as he threw away his suit barely 20 minutes into his team’s tepid outing against the suddenly plucky Taifa Stars shows a man who suddenly realizes the staggering challenges before him. Best of luck Sunny because you surely need a large dose of it.
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