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.