Before the recently-concluded African Youth Championships (AYC) held in Congo Brazzaville began, Flying Eagles, as the defending champions, were the team to beat. When the chips were finally down, the team, which had instilled fear into others crumbled like a park of cards. Uzor Odigbo, who covered the championships reports how the bubble burst
Nigerians may be angry over the performance of the Flying Eagles at the just-concluded AYC in Congo Brazzaville. However, only a few cared to know why the team that held so much promise failed to worm their way into the hearts of Nigerians like the Samson Siasia-tutored side that won the 14th edition in Cotonou, Benin Republic, two years ago.
The appointment of Godwin Koko Uwua as chief coach of Nigeria’s U-20 team was made possible by the then acting secretary-general of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Fanny Amun, when there was trouble in the Glass House.
That was not the only appointment Amun made. Two other appointments, Oluyemi Tella (for U-17) and Daniel Amokachi (for U-23) were announced as coaches. Siasia and Austin Eguaevoen were retained as coaches of the Super Eagles.
Of all the coaches the new henchman of the NFA redeployed, Uwua and Tella escaped untouched.
While Uwua may receive knocks for failing to perform in Congo, it would also be said that the NFA contributed to the failure of the team by failing to take interest in the team during the qualifiers and final preparations for the AYC.
In the history of age-grade football in Nigeria, observers have noted that coaches who prepare their teams in a certain geographical part of the country, always find it hard to succeed.
But how true this is can only be substantiated by the experiences of coaches James Peters, Tunde Disu, Musa Abdullahi and Uwua. The experiences of these coaches showed that preparing a junior national team and fortifying the team with over 70 per cent of players from the area has done more harm to Nigerian football than any good.
When Uwua was putting the Flying Eagles together, he went through hell providing for his players’ welfare. An instance one could vividly remember was how the former team manager, Chief Edington Kuejubola, canvassed for the team’s welfare, but NFA failed to respond until the team played its first qualifying match.
The difference between Uwua’s team preparation and that of Siasia was that while Uwua kept quiet over lack of training kits and adequate welfare for his team, Siasia was shouting and was getting help from friends, which he used in providing for his team. Again, while Siasia prepared his team in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, an area accessible to the ever-critical Lagos press, Uwua tucked his team in far away Kaduna, where even the NFA hardly knew what he was doing.
Uwua’s problem started when he decided to fortify his team with 95 per cent home-based players with a strong warning that any of the players that goes away on foreign trials would be summarily dropped from the team.
Unfortunately for him, four of his key players went on foreign trials abroad and he dropped them.
While Siasia never gave such rules, he made sure players were free to journey outside the country for trials, but insisted he must first be briefed when they want to embark on such trips.
Similarly, Uwua drew some of his players from the Super Four league - finals of the abridged Premier League held in Abuja. Some of them starred for division one league clubs, while others played in amateur division. Of all the players Uwua recruited, none could be said to be exceptionally good in any department of the game. Some of them were redeployed from their natural roles to new ones, a development which turned them to rookies overnight.
The consequence: Rather than advance their cause, the whole experiment turned out to be a disaster, as players incurred injuries that never healed before the AYC began in Congo.
Example of players whose roles were changed included captain Friday Iyam, Blessing Okardi and Emmanuel Sarki, to mention a few.
When Uwua dropped those that went for trials in Europe, he did not replace them with those that could naturally fit into their roles. Instead, he resorted to making players to adapt to the new roles – Learning to use left hand at advance age! This turned out to be counter-productive. During trainings, they picked up injuries at the slightest mishap.
Closely related to this was the filling of remaining quotas, which the coach did without its adverse effect. Instead of inviting those who play regular matches in their clubs, the Tiv, Benue State-born Uwua went for players who were either on loan from other clubs or were in the second team of their clubs. Implication: They were match-rusty. Tarvwarse Zenke (Strasbough of France), Emmanuel Sarki (Chelsea of England) and Mohammed Salihu (FC Barcelona of Spain) were typical examples.
With these players, it was evident that the team would not go far in Congo. This was evident by its low-scoring form even during the qualifiers. However, Nigeria’s pedigree at youth level and the defending champion toga, which the Flying Eagles took to Congo, instilled fear into other teams. Otherwise, how would you reconcile the team’s qualification for the final?
On arrival at Congo for the tournament, the coach gagged the players by forbidding them to talk with anyone. Also, they were placed under close surveillance, as their movements were closely monitored.
At the time the team played its first match against Zambia, injuries hitherto hidden through the qualifiers started cropping up, as players started complaining of fatigue. First to complain was Friday Iyam, who consequently missed two matches. In the match against Cameroun, Zenke was half fit. Nevertheless, the coach forced him to play, even against his wish.
As at the time Nigeria squared up against The Gambia in the semi-final, 70 per cent of Flying Eagles regulars were down with one form of injury or another. Unfortunately, the coach kept this out of the prying pens of the press.
When Siasia handled similar team two years ago, he was frank with all Nigerians, particularly on the kind of players he wanted for the tournament, and what he wanted each player to do on the field of play.
But in Uwua’s case, the role of each player was unknown. Ask him why a player did not do well in a particular match, Uwua, instead of tendering a sane reply to such a harmless question, would get crossed. This happened when Okardi was playing badly in the match against Cameroun. All he could say was that Okardi was the fittest player on the pitch and therefore central to the team’s stay in the championship. While Zenke was failing to deliver upfront, Salihu, another striker, was languishing on the reserve bench; a development that did not go down well with soccer buffs both in Nigeria and in Congo.
While other teams were attack-conscious, surprisingly, the flying Eagles’ coach adopted catch-up pattern. This stretched the Nigerian defence beyond limits.
While Siasia was in the business of explaining why his team performed poorly, Coach Uwua ignored everyone, instead became combative even with journalists who sought clarification from him.
On team discipline, Nigerians were amazed at the level of indiscipline exhibited by the players as they challenged the referees whenever they made any call against them. This fetched them 15 yellow cards and one red.
The calibre of players Uwua took to Congo were those tired of action in the Nigerian League. They thought the AYC would be a walk-over, but they met more determined Zambia, Gambia, Egypt, Cameroun and Congo youth teams.
Nigeria was adjudged as having more individually skillful players but lacking in every department as a team. This did not surprise quite a few. They were amazed that a team, which featured in the final, could not produce a single player that won an individual award. Such a team, they submitted, could not be said to be a team of the future.
Coach Uwua may have underestimated Siasia’s achievement when he said, "It would amount to a failure if I fail to return home with the trophy".
http://www.independentngonline.com/n...007-02-11.html
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