Irrespective of what happens in the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations between the Super Eagles and the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, Nigerians are excited, happy with the gritty, committed displays put up so far by the team.
It’s not just because the team is winning and have found their way to the final of the tournament, but because even Nigerians themselves can glaringly see the determination in the players to win by giving their all since after their nervy start against Equatorial Guinea in their opening match which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Again, the coach, Jose Peseiro seems to have found a tactics that works for team which has taken care of most of the noticeable flaws in the squad in the past. Most significantly the goalkeeping department nightmare with Stanley Nwabali’s commanding performances match after match at the tournament with best goalkeeper of the competition award beckoning.
There’s no gainsaying that Peseiro took all the criticisms and calls for his sack by Nigerians as a challenge to push him to think outside the box and everyone is happy for it. He deserves some credit for that and I hope he has learnt enough with the AFCON to put him and the team in pole position to get Nigeria’s world cup qualification back on track.
With abysmal world cup qualifying performances against Lesotho at home in Uyo and Zimbabwe away which both ended 1-1 respectively and Nigeria could only garner 2 points from a possible 6, the Eagles sure do need to return to winning ways fast to avoid imminent disaster.
The country cannot afford another world cup miss after missing out at the last tournament hosted by Qatar in 2022, but with the way the team is playing now and is set up, there is every reason to be hopeful.
Why some of us strongly criticised Peseiro before now is owing to the team’s setup which lacked balance and one of the major reasons they struggled to get results. But the moment he got that right at the AFCON particularly from the group game against Cote d’Ivoire and also fixed the problematic goalkeeping department, some of us knew it was deja vu for the team.
Football is not only about winning, the way and manner the team plays, team setup, balance and organization are equally very essential. This is because the culmination of all these factors leads or guarantees success.
As the Super Eagles of Nigeria face the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire come Sunday, Peseiro and the boys must realize that it’s not yet uhuru till after the final battle. The players must all bring the A game as it’s going to be another fierce battle even more than their group meeting.
I say this because the Ivoriens have grown and improved with every game since after the group phase which they managed to survive by whiskers and the twelfth player, their fans, is going to play a huge role since they are playing at home as hosts.
But I want to believe the team and the officials know the magnitude of the task at hand and that they cannot afford to blink now until the task is accomplished.
Meanwhile, it has however been so far so good for the team as the Eagle seems to have finally landed.
