By Daily Sports on July 4, 2017

Nigeria's remaining campaigners in CAF organised competitions, Rivers United of Port Harcourt are teetering on the brink of elimination from the confederations cup.

Against visiting Club Africaine of Tunisia, Rivers United were outfought, outthought and conquered 2-0. Does the embarrassment of such elimination still really bite?

Once again we rue the failure of our clubs to make any impact in the continent since the heady days of the Governor Orji Kalu-inspired Enyimba of Aba who won the Champions league double in 2003 and 2004.

We have spoken for years about the organisational deficiency in club football running in the country today, and this likely elimination of Rivers hardly holds any promise of being a definitive moment when there would be an honest and collective soul-searching to figure out ways of improvements on the technical, tactical and mental fronts to face the challenges of the modern game.

But if there are some few things I can chip in about the Rivers United team that played against Club Africain last Sunday I would like to just touch on their tactical approach and their physical side.

Whatever tactical game plan coach Stanley Eguma had going into the match, it was clear from the outset that the Tunisians were going to be hard to break down. What was perhaps frustrating is that I’ve seen North African teams come to Nigeria for many years, refusing to fold up under the pressures of Nigerian clubs, with an unchanging plan to sit deep and strike on the counter. A simple research into how North African clubs have played in Nigeria would reveal this.

What’s baffling is that Nigerian clubs have not found a tactical response to this style over the years. This is what every club must think about before going into the continent. “How do North African teams approach games against us from a purely tactical angle; and how do we overwhelm them?”

This is a job for the technical department, working with the coaches, of clubs playing continental to do. But because of all the politics that come after a team's league success, this crucial assignment is overlooked, leaving our clubs looking startled when faced with a more disciplined north African opposition.

Another thing I noticed about the River team that filed out on Sunday is their average age. Many of the players look old. Forget their official ages; most of the players I saw looked well above their 30s.

A team full of ageing stars would most likely not find the legs to go 90 minutes against a well drilled and more youthful team.

We saw an example on that same Sunday when Chile with much older and experienced players couldn’t find a way past the far younger German side in the final match of the confederations cup which Germany won 1-0 in Russia. Despite the early bombardments by Chile, they went down by a sucker punch of a counter by Germany in the first half and when the Chileans needed to press more and move more to get back into the game, they didn't have the youthful legs that could create spaces in the German box.

With a group of mostly geriatrics, it’s usually too much of a stretch chasing a game against fitter and younger foes, and that’s what Rivers United (maybe) found out against Club Africaine.

I hear another rumbling following this loss emanating from the club’s camp as I write this; the management of the club are deciding to reduce the estacode of the players as they prepare to fly to Morocco for their last away group game. This is despite the fact that the players are reportedly being owed two months’ salary by the same management. This (cutting estacode) is an inhumane thing to do and it disrespects the energy levels put in by the players in their games even if they failed in their sporting objective.

This is part of the problem with Nigerian football. Failure to honour agreements breeds distrust that affects morale.

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 4, 2017

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