DIARY OF A WORLD CUP ROBBERY

You have the right to disagree. But Brazilian fans are the most exotic of them all. With their beautiful girls, samba displays and side attractions, they literally lit up Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg before and after Brazil’s match against Chile on Monday, June 28 for a place in the 2010 World Cup quarter finals. The match itself was full of fireworks and poor Chile, they were no match for the samba rhythms of the night. 3-0 for Dunga’s men and it’s up and away to face the Orange men of Netherlands.

However, a robbery incident almost an hour after the match almost marred a perfect night for the fans and media persons who braced the cold to watch the game at Ellis Park. It happened in one of the media shuttles as it was waiting to depart. An American photojournalist discovered that his hefty bag containing his expensive camera, photography equipment and laptops was missing. It was a wrenching sight to see a middle aged man looking so devastated. I and some other guys from the shuttle tried to calm him down as he frantically searched the bus and around it for his equipment worth nothing less than $50,000 or more. “They f....king took my bag!” he wailed. The commotion around the shuttle attracted departing fans from the stadium, and then the Johannesburg police. While the police asked questions, the American lay crumbled on the floor looking absolutely gutted. “All my work in this tournament is gone, everything!” he said painfully. Two weeks of painstaking work taking exclusive pictures and preparing reports. If you’re a journalist, you would understand his pain. Because of the incident, the bus was delayed for about 25 minutes or so.

According to the American, while the bag was beside him in the bus, he noticed someone knocking on the window to get his attention. And in that few seconds of distraction, he lost sight of his bag and it was gone. A couple of persons said that they saw someone passing a bag from the window some minutes ago. One of the South Africans said he noticed it was a white man and thought maybe he was just one of the media persons in the bus, so didn’t think it strange. Another man said it must have been two people, one working from the outside and another for the inside, But nobody knew for sure who took the bag. The general view was that the thieves may have been trailing his movement for days before to have pulled such a fast one. Since the robbery incident involving some Spanish and Portuguese journalists days before the World Cup kicked off, there has not been any major incident of crime during this tournament. Or maybe, FIFA and the South African media have been able to hush most of it.  

“This is Johannesburg, man. Where are you gonna find the guys who stole it?” one Ugandan journalist asked no one in particular. Sure, with its frequent crime rates and size, combing the city for the thieves would be an arduous task for the World Cup police. Seeing the way I showed concern about the American’s plight, one of the policemen asked if I would accompany him to make an official complaint of the incident so that swift investigation would begin. The American gratefully said I shouldn’t bother because the bus driver was already blaring his horn for me to join them. Later in the bus, I found out the reason why the Ugandan was sceptical about the police recovering the American’s bag. Some few days ago, he also was robbed off some items just around the street by his hotel lodge. And he suspected the cab driver he frequently used may have given the thieves some tips about his movements. “How come, they knew I was returning at that exact time? Then, I always brought out my money from that small bag whenever I want to pay the cab driver,” he said. He ended up losing two phones, four hundred rands and his accreditation badge. To get another one, he had to pay 1,500 rands. FIFA rules. Interestingly, when he reported it to the police, they told him he was lucky that it was not at gun point (or knife-point).

With the alertness of a mother hen watching over her chicks, I clutched ever more tightly to my laptop bag as we drove the way back to the hotel. It was almost 1 am in the morning. Father, I am covered. Into your hands, I commit my life, laptop and other essentials, I prayed silently as we took the next taxi home.

Welcome to the other side of South Africa 2010. I believe everything would stay just Ayoba: Perfect.

INTERVIEW WITH DICKSON ETUHU AFTER SUPER EAGLES 2-2 DRAW WITH S. KOREA

REACTION TO EAGLES OUSTER FROM THE 2010 WORLD CUP

It’s difficult when you have the chance to win the game and you don’t take it. It hurts. All the lads are down, everybody can’t believe it. It’s all over now.

YAKUBU’S FLUFFED GOAL SCORING CHANCE

Yeah, you would put your hands on him scoring that. But, today was not our day; everything that would go wrong went wrong. We missed our chances and it’s over now.

AN EXTRA GOAL WOULD HAVE SEEN NIGERIA THROUGH WITH ARGENTINA’S 2-0 WIN AGAINST GERECE, RIGHT?

Nobody knew the score. We weren’t interested in the score. We just wanted to win the game. And then, let nature takes its course.

THOUGHTS ON YAKUBU DESPITE MISS IN 2-2 DRAW WITH SOUTH KOREA.

He is a top, top striker, great player. I love playing with him. It could happen to anyone. It’s done now. This world cup has a lot of downs because there are a lot of chances that we could have got the points we needed to get. But we just didn’t do enough. It’s just almost, almost, almost. Everything is almost.

DASHED WORLD CUP HOPES

It just was not our world cup. Everything was just this close. But it was not enough. We have to do better......There is a lot of people crying in there. It’s so hard to deal with. Nobody wants to go out. We are a great nation. We have got 150 million people behind us. We’re out of the world cup. It’s finished....

IT WOULD BE GREAT FOR AN AFRICAN TEAM TO MAKE THE NEXT ROUND.

It’s very important. I’m sure an African team will make the next round.... My concern is with Nigeria. My country is everything.

Well, thank you, Dickson Etuhu. Ghana just did

AFTER A COLD, KAITA-STROPHIC BLOEMFONTEIN NIGHT

It started with a five and half hour drive from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein on Wednesday. Packed into a chartered bus, off we went to watch the Super Eagles play Greece. Every one of us was in an upbeat mood. From their impressive performance against Argentina, we all believed the Eagles could beat this Greece team. The match was scheduled for the next day. With a temperature forecast of minus two degrees, I wore two pairs of jeans and two thick wool sweaters, with an inner T-shirt. My outfit also included hand gloves, head warmer and a muffler. First rule in a freezing climate: always protect yourself.

The journey, although long, was s sharp departure from what obtains in Nigeria, with smooth road network, no potholes, less traffic and the absence of blaring car horns. Almost everybody in the bus kept wondering why despite the good work that Fashola is doing in Lagos, people are still trying to rubbish him. The tragedy of any nation is the absence of quality leadership or the abundance of charlatans in power circles who are ready to stifle any semblance of good leadership as long as it doesn’t conform to their selfish interests. Interestingly, I felt the driver was driving painfully slow, hovering between 80 km/h and 90km/h. But he explained that he didn’t want to beat the set speed limit on the highway. We later saw South African police cars and another car they had flagged down for probably driving too fast. Hmmn.

We arrived Bloemfontein just before 6pm, almost thirty minutes after the Super Eagles had begun their training. So we couldn’t gain access to their training session at the Free State Stadium because only the first 15 minutes of their training session was open to the media. No big deal, back to the FIFA media centre to organize for the pre-match press conference which was to hold immediately after the training ends. There, Lagerback expressed confidence about an Eagles’ victory. He also expressed satisfaction over Sani Kaita’s performance so far. Twenty four hours after, that comment would come back to haunt him. For South Africans and other international fans, Nigeria looked good for a win.

On match D-Day, the atmosphere was electric. “Greece gonna win 2-0,” one Greek fan boasted outside the stadium hours before the match. “Remember we beat you guys 2-0 in USA 94,” I reminded him. “No problem, we win this time,” he asserted. Let the boys prove us right or wrong on the pitch. We took pictures and went our separate ways. The carnival was still outside with Nigerian, South African and Greek fans blowing their vuvuzelas and screaming their support for their teams. Inside the Free State stadium, the atmosphere was absolutely electric. The vuvuzelas, at multiple decibels, were almost deafening, from all sides of the stadium. It was so vuvulectric. When both the Greek and Nigerian teams filed out for opening proceedings, the noise from the over 31,000 fans was deafening. This is what the World Cup was all about; passion and people.

And the games began. Kalu Uche got Nigeria’s 1^st goal in the 16^th minute and the Nigerian fans and well wishers went wild. The noise from their vuvuzelas increased, drowning that from the Greek supporter’s end. Until Kaita’s silly school boy rush of blood that earned him a red card in the 33^rd minute. He left the pitch in tears and left Nigerians supporters everywhere apprehensive for the next hour the match lasted. When Greece equalized in the 44^th minute, their fans hope were revived. At the start of the second half with the Greek team piling more attack on the Eagles defence, Nigerian fans sensed doom. Enyeama, again in the form of his life, was the only Nigerian player who restored the screams of delight among Nigerian supporters whenever he made a save. Greek sealed a deserved 2-1 win with a Vasileios Torosidis rebound in the 71^st minute. Game almost over. Even before the final whistle, the Eagles looked a defeated bunch already. The bench had no answer.

It was a sad sight to watch a forlorn Vincent Enyeama later presented with the Budweiser Man of the Match award just before the start of the post match press conference. You could see it on the poor guy’s face; he was wrenched with pain as he struggled with the tears. “Ol’ boy, no cry now. No be you cause am,” one Nigerian journalist tried to console him as he lfet the centre. Just then, Yobo, Lagerback and the FIFA official walked in. There was nothing new. Lagerback said playing with one man down was difficult for any team, especially on the World Cup stage. Fingers were also subtely pointed at the Jabulani ball for Greece 2^nd goal. No use crying over spilt milk. The Eagles had lost their second straight match in as many games. Qualification to the 2^nd round now hang in the balance. Few Nigerian journalists asked questions during the post match conference. They were livid with raged when Kaita and Obinna Nsofor later passed by the Mixed Zone, refusing to speak with the Nigerian media. Yobo, Martins and others also walked past without speaking to them, despite calls for them to say something to Nigerians. Some persons made excuses for Kaita that he had been crying all through. Although after much prodding from team officials (I think), he came back to speak with the media (not Nigerians). Minutes later, Kanu Nwankwo, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Enyeama (the darling of the night) and Chinedu Obasi were the few ones to speak. Nigeria deserve better than this. And the Super Eagles players also need re-education. You can’t do this with the British media. They will skin you alive. Calamity Rob Green had no choice but to apologise to the whole of England after his blunder. Although getting a red card in a match could happen to any player, Kaita had a chance to redeem himself with the press. He didn’t take it immediately. Is this the end of his Eagles’ career?

We had planned to stay another night in Bloemfontein, but reconsidered it. It was a smooth night journey back to Johannesburg. A tasty chicken dinner plus banters and a 45 minute long distance phone call to a friend made it more pleasant for me. Kalamity Kaita and the Eagles loss was the discussion for most part of the trip. But, Nigerians will always be Nigerians, we made jokes about it and saw the light side of the match. Still, it was a cold, cold night in Bloemfontein, where the Eagles froze against a Greece side.

EAGLES WORLD CUP HOPES HANG IN THE BALANCE

Nigeria’s chances of making the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup hang in the balance after losing 2-1 to Greece in their second match played on Thursday at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein. After going up in the 16^th minute courtesy of a Kalu Uche free kick, the Eagles lost Sani Kaita to a reckless red card and were condemned to their second defeat in as many games by conceded two goals in the 44^th and 71^st minute.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria started the match brightly, making incursions in the Greek eighteen yard box. Kalu Uche atoned for his miss against Argentina in the first match when he converted a free kick in the 16^th minute of the match.  It was a cagey match afterwards with the Eagles attacking force of Osaze Odemwingie and Yakubu Aiyegbeni not showing enough bite to really trouble the Greek defence.

On the 33^rd minute, the match turned on its head in favour of Greece when ?Nigerisa was reduced to 10 men after Sani Kaita committed a reckless foul by stamping in foot on a Greek Player. On the eve of the crucial encounter, Lagerback had told journalists that he was satisfied with Kaita’s performance so far. The Swede must be regretting his comment by now. After then, Nigeria’s goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, was called into action repeatedly as Greece attack made forays into the Eagles eighteen yard box. The Greek showed more attacking intent when Geogios Samaras replaced Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the 38^th minute. After sustained pressure, Greece finally got their deserved goal in the 44^th minute when Greek striker Dimitrios Salpingidis left foot drive was deflected into Enyeama’s goal by Lukman Haruna foot.

Chunedu Obasi replaced Odemwingie at the start of the second half to strengthen the Eagles attack. But it was Greece who pushed forward, asking questions of the Eagles’s defence. Kalu Uche could have put Nigeria 2-1 ahead in the 48^th minute with a deceptive flick from outside the left corner of the Greek 18 yard box. It took a smart one hand save from Greek goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas, to parry the ball which looked destined for the roof of the net.

Nigeria’s hopes of mounting any serious onslaught were dealt a blow as Taye Taiwo was pulled out with what looked like a groin injury in the 54th minute. He was replaced by uwa Echiejile. At this time, the Eagles had lost control of the midfield and were already playing too deep and inviting more deadly attack from the Greek strikers. Just like it was in the first half, Enyeama was called into action. He made a spectacular save in the 55^th and 60^th minute to stop Greek defender Sotiros Krygiakos from scoring. A swift counter attack from the Eagles saw Obasi run solo with the ball into the Greek area to lay a pass for Yakubu Aiyegbeni only for Tzorvas to save. Obasi, who started the move, squandered the rebound by shooting waywardly. Enyeama made another full stretch save in the 68^th minute to deny Samaras header. More holes began to surface in the Eagles defence when Greece forward Theofanis Gekas hit the bar on a rebound ball but was ruled offside by the referee. Three minutes later, Greece was not to be denied a goal when Vasileios Torosidis perched on a rebound ball from Alexandros Tziolis shot to score in the 71^st minute. Greece piled more pressure on the Eagles. It was only Enyeama who denied them from inflicting more damage. Despite the four minutes of added time, there was no miracle for the Super Eagles. They looked truly and well beaten by a more tactical Greece side.

LAGERBACK EXPECTS TOUGH MATCH AGAINST GREECE

Super Eagles coach Lars Lagerback, says he expects the match against Greece to be a tough one, but believes his team would fly. He stated this at a press conference in Free State stadium, on the eve of the crunch encounter which could decide the fate of the Eagles in South Africa 2010 World Cup.

“The Greek team have many good players, strikers, midfielders. But we try to prepare with our starting eleven,” Lagerback said when asked about the quality of Otto Rehhagel’s team. “I see it (the match against Greece) as a positive challenge. Everybody in the team wants to go out and play a good game,” he said, while adding that the team is working more on its attacking prowess during training.

Although the Eagles lost their opening match 0-1 against Argentina, many Nigerians have expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Eagles and are full of optimism that the Eagles will do better against a tactically efficient Greek team, a thought that is not lost on Lagerback. “We hope that we can do more to live up to the expectation of Super Eagles fans in the Greece game,” Lagerback said.

Eagles coach also expressed satisfaction over the team’s attitude towards Thursday’s match and hinted that they have been working on defending set pieces better than they did against Argentina, whose goal came from a corner kick. Although he felt Gabriel Heinze’s goal should have been disallowed because of the foul on Chinedu Obasi, Lagerback admitted his defenders were a ‘little bit passive’. “We talked about it with the players and said we can do better with adjustments with the corners,” he noted. Obasi, who had a forgettable game against Argentina says the Eagles are focused on winning the match against Greece. “I don't know much about Greece. But we just have to focus on our game and do our homework,” he stated.

With a minus two degrees temperature forecast in Bloemfontein on Thursday, Nigerians are hoping that Lagerback and his Eagles team would not freeze against Greece. They would be praying for the Eagles to soar and secure a victory. At the USA ’94 World Cup, a Clemens Westerhof-led Eagles team ran away with a 2-0 win against Greece. Would it be more of the same on Thursday with Lagerback's Eagles? One hundred and forty million Nigerian fans wait with bated breath.

40,000 players tested for drugs At WOZA 2010

In its bid to reduce doping to its barest minimum, the world soccer body, FIFA, says it has conducted 40,000 tests on players so far this year through its affiliates, national associations and confederations.

Prof. Jiri Dvorak, the FIFA Chief Medical Officer, said at the world soccer body's daily press briefing in Johannesburg on Sunday, that its out-of-competition and in-competition testing programmes were designed based on statistics and risk assessment of doping in football.

Dvorak, who admitted that positive doping cases in football was comparably low compared to other elite sports, said that FIFA was continuing its stringent fight against doping.

He said that FIFA, in conjunction with the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), launched the ``Say no to doping'' at the ongoing World Cup in South Africa. Dvorak said FIFA had spent about $40 million on the testing exercise at $41,000 per test.

FIFA Medical Commission also said that no positive results have been recorded so far on the 32 teams competing in the 2010 World Cup. 18 teams were tested in their camps in Europe, while 14 were tested in South Africa , adding that random tests would be conducted on two players per team after every game in South Africa , to bring the total to 256.

According to the commission, only four positive tests were returned between 1994 and 2009 in 6,964 controls in 57 final rounds in FIFA competitions including Olympic tournaments.

It said that FIFA medical officers were expected to submit medical reports on injuries and diseases daily to the FIFA Medical Research Commission (F-MARC). The commission also observed that medicine in general, and in particular sports and emergency medicine were of the highest standard in South Africa

CAN THESE EAGLES FLY?

Johannesburg

Nigeria 0 - 1 Argentina. That wasn’t the score most Nigerians expected. With the likes of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuan, Diego Milito and Carlos Tevez in the star studded Diego Maradona led team, many feared a whitewash. For some others, the score line was a flattery. They feel the Eagles would have conceded more goals were it not for the man-of-the-match performance from Vincent Enyeama, who made crucial saves to keep the score respectful.

On board the South African bound airline to Johannesburg, Nigerians were divided about the changes Lars Lagerback has brought to the Super Eagles. Going by their first match against Argentina in the 2010 World Cup, a group praised Lagerback for bringing more cohesion and tactical organization into the Eagles’ game. The other group believed that it would have still been the same team if the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) had left Shuaibu Amodu in charge. After all, only Lukman Haruna was the new player in the post Lagerback era, they argued. “Boye, if NFF pays me N39 million for one month for six months, I can coach the Super Eagles, maybe even better than Lagerback,” one said. His argument was that Lagerback’s ‘new Eagles’ is the product of good renumeration package for the coach, who can now afford to hire extra tactical know-how from elsewhere to assist him. Simply put, if Amodu was being paid as much as Lagerback, he would produce better results. It went on and on until one threatened to eject the other out of his hotel room if he continues asserting that these Eagles, despite losing the match, played well against Argentina because of a new tactical orientation from Lagerback.

It remains to be seen if these Eagles can fly in their next two remaining group matches. But from what we have seen against Argentina, just maybe. “Oh, but your team played well yesterday,” one Brazilian fan told me at Johannesburg airport when he realized I was Nigerian. “Yeah, yeah, “I replied him. “Hopefully, the Eagles can win their next two matches.” Three points is what counts. Lagerback’s Eagles played with promise of better things to come and seem to have the right mentality to win their next matches against Greece and South Korea. Then, they would make the second round for the third time in their World Cup history. Who knows, anything can happen from there. Did I hear you say we could get to the semi-finals? Well, it’s possible. Don’t write these Eagles off yet. With the Argentina match, they have shown that they could still pull a pleasant World Cup surprise for Nigerians. If they are able to win their next match, it would now be a matter of how far they can go in the tournament.

P.S. Some renowned Nigerian players refused to talk to Nigerian journalists after the match against Argentina. Instead, they preferred talking to the foreign media.

DESTINATION SOUTH AFRICA!

32 teams. Eight groups. Nine cities. 64 matches. Millions of fans worldwide. And one goal: the FIFA World Cup. After six years and billions of rands spent, South Africa finally welcomes the football world to the 19th FIFA World Cup, the first ever to be hosted by an African country.

Although the loss of Nelson Mandela's 13 year-old great granddaughter on the eve of the tournament meant that the great Mandiba would not be there, the opening ceremony was spectacular and befitting of a World Cup that has been known for its high entertainment value. Musical icons such as R-Kelly and Shakira gave us some great music. And then, our own Femi Kuti was there live representing. when he performed his hit song 'bang bang bang' to the delight of the 91,000 capacity crowd in Soccer City stadium, Johannesburg. The hosts, South Africa, also were able to come out unscathed, with a point in their opening match against Mexico, which ended 1-1.

For the records, 2 goals made it the first time in the four fixtures between South Africa and Mexico that there have been fewer than three goals. The three previous games were all played in USA, with Mexico winning the first two, 4-0 and 4-2, and South Africa extracting a measure of revenge with a 2-1 victory in 2005. 10 of the last 12 FIFA World Cup Opening Matches have featured two goals or fewer. The exceptions were 2006, when Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2, and 1998, when Brazil beat Scotland 2-1.

In Capetown, Raymond Domenech and his French team would be biting their nails for not being able to snatch a victory in the dying minutes of their match against Uruguay, who ended the game with ten men. Final score, France 0-0 Uruguay

For the records, 17 players have now featured in four FIFA World Cups, with Thierry Henry becoming the latest with his second half appearance in Cape Town. He is the first Frenchman to achieve the feat.

Now over to Nigeria Vs Argentina. Can the Eagles stop Lionel Messi and co?

Let the game begin!