By Daily Sports on July 1, 2019

In those days on the Sports Desk of once upon a time biggest and best newspaper conglomerate in Nigeria, the Daily Times; during the Africa Cup of Nations contest, no story is given prominence and space on the sports pages than the topmost football summit in the continent, AFCON.

It then meant that other stories were just merely published as the Nations Cup eclipse the rest even after two weeks when the curtain is drawn. I also remember in those days when sports reporting had its full bearing and heartbeat, especially as a tradition in the then good old Daily Times. Any reporter that covered such major events must write his travelogue to cap his reportage of the champ which further tasks one’s ability in the area of observation, agility, and mastery of the environment where the championship was hosted, among others.

It was when all the tenets of journalism were followed to the letter and the reporters equipped to the teeth hence the beauty and hunger for the beat and the zeal to cover first-rate international assignments. That was how some of us were retrained after our functional education. The profession and beats we covered then were exciting and there was this healthy competition across the board, with a hunger for excellence amongst the reporters.

Nowadays, reporters do not know what is travelogue after each trip. I remember vividly my travelogue after the coverage of Nigeria 1999 World Youth Championship hosted by Nigeria. It was published in the very widest circulated then Sunday Times when the very suave Tunde Ipinmisho was its editor. It was adjudged sweet by some of the finest editors then in the largest and biggest newspaper conglomerate and it brought me closer to those great minds.

That was how yours in sports enjoyed the beat and grew in-depth in it. Now the most talked about biannual football summit has been ongoing in the land of the Pharaohs, Egypt and Nigeria as one of the strong football playing nations is deep competing and it is no longer news that she advanced into the round of 16 nations before the rest of the  teams, even with a game to spare.

It is great to be a Nigerian outside the shores of this nation.  Though the Eagles team is domiciled in the group that is on paper very easy, however, if you have been following the round leather sport, you will bear me out that such group has oftentimes produced upsets than where more established sides are grouped. Even for Eagles to thrash Burundi, first-timers in the African premier football game, the way they did, can safely be described as an upset. The Burundians stretched the Nigerian side up till the 70th minutes when Odion Igalo came calling. Needless to posit here that the story has never been different in other groups as the tournament goes on. It has been narrow, narrow scorelines and many of the big teams have struggled before they can make hay against their opponents.

It is the cheering level African football is growing into and it is better for the continent that is yet to hit the semifinals in any of the World Cup tournament. A continent that has spent fortunes in a bid to hire foreign technical hands, who they believe would improve the lots of their nations technically, tactically and otherwise. It can be said without any iota of prejudice that such billions put together that Africans have spent on these foreign coaches have not amounted to much to up the development of the sport in the respective African national sides. This edition of the Cup of Nations has improved in terms of keen competition amongst teams but not many goals have been recorded pointing to tighter defence by teams that our strikers have found it difficult to penetrate.

One will not also say that teams in the ongoing AFCON resort to playing defensive games, no, but rather lowly rated sides have taken these top sides gamely forcing most of them to either jettison their match plan or adopt swift measures on the spur of the moment in other to contain the threat of their day’s opponents.  For instance, for the Nigerian squad, while the going is on as planned, one would not lose sight of the fact that while the way and manner the Eagles are playing may look smooth to an onlooker, without goals it lacks merit.  Since goals make matches, the Nigerians cannot afford to continue with goal drought, judging from the knowledge that fans throng the arena to cheer goalscoring sides not minding whether they played badly or not.

As the Nations Cup progresses, so will the game toughen and the boys gradually separated from the men. When the hen comes home to roost, the men are left to confront themselves to settle scores. It is where the nitty-gritty of the game comes to play. The beauty of 22 men chasing one round leather aired filled object becomes the best toast as pundits, analysts and even emergency coaches lock horns in prediction on teams based purely on their past and present pedigree.

Whether Gernot Rohr’s Nigeria is ready for the big showdown would be seen from the round of 16 teams that has no second chance whatsoever. It is also the stage you confront sides with great depth via the proficiency or otherwise of the technical hands manning the teams. Sides with tight and effective tactical discipline would readily turn the result in their favour when the tide is high.

I have covered this champ severally and can say that mere ingenuity of technical hands has tilted fortunes for their teams with little mother luck smiling. The truth remains that you must work hard before you start looking at the other side. Football is no magic. If you prepare well, good result will come but definitely not on ‘jakara’ preparations.

Rohr will be put to test from the round of 16 teams. Nigeria has some good ball joggling lads that can turn things around but another fear is the area of goalkeeping which has remained a black spot in the team of late. As the stage keep changing in Africa’s football festival; one hopes that Rohr and his lads are aware of the tough encounter ahead. Nigeria has great potentials to hit the roof and go after victory. This Egypt 2019 tournament may not be an exception if the technical crew does their work well. And for the boys, the earlier they start taking their chances, the best for the team’s advancement in the whole set up. It is obvious that the people and government of Nigeria are behind them.

The toga of group stages must be left behind and a brand new slate started with. Eagles can do it. The players, though young in age are no longer rookies. Fact is that the round of 16, from whichever angle you may be looking at it is dicey and little distraction can prove costly. Therefore vigilance and absolute concentration is the watchword and the boys must be told the same in clearer terms.

As we keep our eyes open and fingers crossed, let us discuss more via our social media platforms as usual. Keep shooting hard till next week!!

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 1, 2019

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