The Super Eagles needed to beat South Africa in Uyo, but
could only manage a draw, and paid the ultimate price
Almost two years ago, Nigeria stood triumphant on South
African soil, having vanquished all comers.
It was quite the change from failing to qualify for the previous
edition in Equatorial Guinea, and went completely against the
grain of performances at continental level. In the grander
scheme of things, that win should have marked a resurgence.
It will instead look like some freakish spike in the graph;
Nigeria are back at the foot of the mountain, on the outside
looking in.
The game that dealt the death blow was supposed to be the
most benign of fixtures: home against South Africa. No matter
how low it got through the years, Nigeria could always count
on a favourable outcome against the Rainbow Nation. Allied to
this was that Bafana Bafana had secured qualification already,
in theory there was nothing to play for.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, everything did in Uyo.
Nigerians are a deeply superstitious people, and the outcome
may forever taint what is a truly magnificent ground, at least
in the mind of the population. The support could not be
faulted either, it was a full house who watched on as the
horror unfolded before their eyes.
Stephen Keshi made the expected alterations, all enforced:
Raheem Lawal replaced Hope Akpan, stricken by injury, and
Kenneth Omeruo came straight into the side for the suspended
Godfrey Oboabona. The Middlesbrough man did not look at
all fit, and was caught in possession for Bafana Bafana’s
second.
Broadly like-for-like introductions, but the set-up was
different. John Obi Mikel played as a No.10, while Ogenyi
Onazi and Lawal held behind him in a 4-2-1-3, though
neither is a natural holder. The Chelsea man has played
increasingly advanced roles throughout the qualifiers: this was
escalation at its most extreme, the most complete opposite of
his club persona.
The surprise was that he did it quite well. He caused Dean
Furman problems repeatedly, drawing the Bafana captain out
of position and forcing him into clumsy fouls. The problem
was no one was moving into the space vacated; Uche came
short a couple of times, but his touch was persistently poor.
Uche | Touch found wanting
The natural solution would have been for either of Lawal or
Onazi to advance, but both seemed to over-compensate for
their unsuitability to their deep roles by sitting too deep, even
after possession had been consolidated. The team was often
broken as a result, and could not build moves cohesively.
The Super Eagles had three excellent opportunities in the first
half, all of which fell to Ahmed Musa. The first from when he
won the ball in the centre circle, the second after a harmless
ball was allowed to run through, and the third after Mikel
turned quickly in midfield and slid him in. Tellingly, none
came from any sustained possession or incisive build-up.
The CSKA Moscow man failed to capitalise, but all three came
from runs no one else in the team would have made. Even on
a bad day, Musa is invaluable to the team.
The South Africans were not particularly impressive either
defensively or going forward. Too much relied on the fearless
running of Tokelo Rantie. Shakes Mashaba instructs his team
to defend in two very narrow banks of four, but it is as much
a trap as a weakness: by encouraging the opposing full-
backs forward, his two strikers can isolate the centre-backs
and run at them.
It is a risky strategy up against full-backs proficient in attack,
but it was Efe Ambrose and Juwon Oshaniwa, not Cafu and
Roberto Carlos, so he just about got away with it. The
Ashdod left-back in particular had a poor game, slowing
down attacks with poor control; the less said about Ambrose,
the better.
If ever there was a time to bemoan Nigeria’s options at full-
back, this was it. Elderson Echiejile twiddled his thumbs on
the bench.
The opener predictably came via this route: Rantie pulled into
the channel, shrugged off Lawal, sped past Azubuike
Egwuekwe and finished beautifully. It was coming, the forward
had wasted an opportunity earlier in the half when Omeruo
gave away possession cheaply, firing over when a square
pass was on.
Rantie | A Nigerian's Nightmare
After the break, Rantie and Bongani Ndulula worked a lot
harder to close the ball down. Whereas the Super Eagles were
able to fire the ball into Mikel to tempt out Furman in the first
half, they now struggled to play the initial pass out of defence,
with the two forwards blocking passes into Onazi and Lawal.
The second goal was a direct consequence, seeking to play
out from the back, Omeruo was muscled off the ball by the
Bournemouth striker, who went round Vincent Enyeama to
complete his brace.
As in the last two games, the introduction of Sone Aluko made
an impact with a brace off the bench. The Hull City man
picked the perfect time to open his goal account for the Super
Eagles, but it was all too late. In other circumstances, the
fight-back to tie at 2-2 would be applauded, but the news
that Congo had done the business in Khartoum put paid to the
ambitions of the African champions.
‘African champions’. It will not be long till we can no longer
call them that. At the “Nest of Champions” in Uyo, all that
25,000 eager fans went home with was rotten eggs.
Keshi has run his course as coach now, surely. Nothing is
impossible when Presidents wield the prerogative of veto, but
there are no grounds now. Had Amodu Shaibu taken charge
of the team as initially decided, there would have hung over
the team the tantalizing ‘what if?’
We had to know, and now we do.
He took over a team that had failed to qualify for the 2012
Afcon in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, and took it to the
pinnacle of the continental game in just over a year. The Big
Boss’s tenure has been the perfect heroin trip, a mind-
bending high, and now a low even more crushing than the
one he picked the team up from in 2011.