NIGERIA, A PEOPLE THAT NEED NEAR NOTHING TO BE HAPPY

  I must have watched a different match today, all the views and the exhilaration expressed today on the social media after Nigeria´s 2 – 0 away win against Congo confirmed that we are indeed a nation that needs very little to doll out the drums and throw decorum to the winds.

  I saw a Nigerian team that played without any purpose whatsoever, a team that still could not make three straight passes in 90 minutes, a team eternally under construction where the players looked like they had never trained together and that the match against Congo was the match they were all playing together for the first time, a team very slow and predictable, with many childish errors in all the departments of the game.

  Yes, we won and it is true that the three points at stake today were very key to our options of continuing in the qualification race for Equatorial Guinea 2015 but to want to say that our boys played a very good game is preposterous as it is incredible. Apart from Enyeama who once again was exceptional, Egwueke who also played with a lot of conviction today as well as Ogenyi Onazi who was very resolute as usual and maybe Ikechukwu Uche who had some intermittent actions in the course of the game, the rest of the players were mediocre.

  The Nigerian national team that I watched today is a world away from that Nigerian team that won the nations cup in South Africa in 2013, we were lucky that the Congolese side was worse than our mediocre team today and that the god of soccer continued to show that it holds Nigeria dear to its heart at least as far as football is concerned.

  We may eventually qualify for the nations´ cup as the second best in the group but we should not misinterpret our desperation and fervent thirst for something, just anything at all to celebrate, after a long time of so many bad news emanating from our nation to begin to exaggerate and embellish a lackluster performance of a selection that cannot be termed a team.

  If indeed the Super Eagles must retain the super accolade, the players and the coaching crew need to do much more than what is being exhibited.

PLAYERS PERFORMANCE AGAINST CONGO:

Vincent Enyeama – 9

Ambrose Efe – 4

Oshaniwa – 4

Oboabona – 4

Azubuike Egwueke – 8

Onazi – 7

Mikel Obi – 5

Hope Akpan – 5

Aluko – 5

Musa – 4

Emenike – 5

Uche Ikechukwu – 7

Aaron Samuel – 6

Gbolahan Salami - 3