EAGLES COACH LARS LAGERBACK, SEND HIM PACKING AND BACK TO SWEDEN!

It is now obvious that the dream is dead and that there is no way in hell Nigeria will proceed to the next rounds in the World Cup 2010 competition in South Africa. They fell to a lowly-rated Greek side that had never scored any goal or won any match in any world cup tournament since the inception of the World Cup competition, over 74 years ago. Icheoku therefore says, for having fallen to such a rock-bottom low, and to a mediocre footballing nation Greece, a country still mired in the worst economic disaster of all times comparable to the BP gulf of Mexico oil spill, Nigeria has become a caricature of its past football glory days.

What a testament to the new level of mediocrity and hopelessness that Nigeria has sunk to as their foremost Eagles could not survive preliminary rounds in South Africa World Cup 2010. As far as Icheoku is concerned, no excuse is good enough notwithstanding the undeserved red-carding of aggressive and explosive Alaniya Russia’s Sani Kaita; who Icheoku thought only deserved a caution of yellow card but not the over-killed red card. But who knows what hallucinatory powder was ingested or inhaled by the referee to make him see red where he should have seen yellow, afterall he is from Colombia? Kaita’s conduct was unsportsmanlike and a closer slow-motion view shows that he made little or practically no contact with the pretentious Greek player, who faked serious excruciating injury and it also happened outside the field of play.

However, Icheoku is not making any excuses for Kaita as he should have known better, being a professional player in Alaniya Russia; and supposedly fully aware of the politics of football and FIFA’s rules, especially regarding the good guys and the usual suspects? But Kaita’s unprofessional infra-dignitious misbehavior is not on trial in this piece; but the incompetent coach Lars Lagerback who did not and failed to deliver on his performance based contract. His country, Sweden’s press-corp warned Nigeria that it was getting a dud with their hire of the then jobless coach Lars Lagerback, but no one at NFA or their supervising Sports Ministry listened? They were instead busy, scheming and salivating about all the goodies including bloated expenses and inflated estacode they are going to rake in from the South Africa jamboree? Icheoku learnt that the number of government officials who went to South Africa just for the World Cup tournament, conservatively put is about 164; and you wonder what that many officials are doing watching football when the business of governance is suffering? From the president, to the 64 senators, 58 representatives, state governors, local government chairmen, directors, ministers and NFA officials etc, all went on a jamboree to South Africa?

But back to Lars Lagerback’s incompetent outing with Nigeria Eagles in South Africa 2010 World Cup. Icheoku’s verdict, he is simply not good, he is incompetent, uninspiring and technically not savvy enough to take on such a world class big project of taking Nigeria to its world cup glory. Now that he has woefully failed by leading Nigeria to its worst world cup appearance, Icheoku says the authorities at Abuja should invoke the all inclusive performance clause of his contract and revoke his contract for his lack of performance. His duty was to take Nigeria to a successful world cup run, he has failed to perform his said obligation; therefore his contract should forthwith be terminated since the condition subsequent has failed.

When a third rate country and its third rate football authority which has been plagued by third rate leaderships hires a third rate coach from a third rate footballing country to lead a third rate, ill-prepared, timid, unfocused, non-motivated, and dis-shovelled team to a world cup competition, what you get is what was got. An abysmal mediocrity below-par performance by the timid and uninspiring side that was too afraid to take on Greece, with a ten man squad and fight to finish as if their lives were dependent on the outcome! But why should they sacrifice for motherland that has done nothing for them to become what they are today, and when behind their minds, they are thinking about the outrageous 90 million Naira each per quarter being demanded by the Nigerian Senators; and you wonder why the plundering! Icheoku says this world cup outcome is worst than the coach Clems Westerhof conspiracy of the 90s when he unceremoniously pulled out Amokachi and Amuneke to facilitate Italians’ come-back win from a 2-0 first half deficit? How can a Nigerian side with so many world class international players, competitively playing in some of the best clubs in Europe and elsewhere, not win or draw any match in their Group B’s preliminary play-off matches? There is no explanation that is acceptable other than that the incompetent Lars Lagerback could not coordinate these fine players and weave their play together; and it is not as if Nigeria was not warned of this supposed coach’s rustiness, but they choose to ignore it anyway to their detriment of a Nigeria’s first round elimination from the first Africa, South Africa hosted world cup mundial.

Kaita’s red card should not be an excuse since it was not the first time a player was sent out in a football match; and therefore it is not out of place for a team to sometimes finish a game with ten men or with a two man deficit. A determined, highly motivated and driven team would have still thrived despite the Kaita bump on the road. But nay, they fell apart like a pack of cards and the outcome included a second goal that was rather too easily conceded by the Argentine-match much celebrated Hapoel Tel Aviv Israel goal-keeper, Vincent Enyeama. Icheoku asks where was the team’s psychologist or counselor to give them pep talk and psyche them up, not to be crest-fallen because of their one man shortfall. Where was the technical acumen of Coach Lars Lagerback in re-arranging their playing formation in order to withstand whatever trickery, the lowly-rated Greece might deploy? Nay, he just stood there throwing his hands up in the air, hoping for the miracle of soccer to take control?

The early warning signs of coach Lars Lagerback’s gross incompetence were clearly written on the wall when he did not allow one of Nigeria’s best known international, Kalu Nwankwo, to play in any of the games, despite his professional soccer exposure and gifted experience with goal-scoring; and this is his third world cup call to duty? It is inexplicable that this designated captain of the Nigeria’s Eagles was never allowed a playtime in the tournament? Coach Lagerback’s final list also excluded Everton striker Victor Anichebe, Nice defender Onyekachi Apam, Real Zaragoza’s Ikechukwu Uche who happen to be the top scorer in Nigeria’s Eagles world cup qualifying matches; and Lagerback sparingly made use of ace striker, Obafemi Martins,

In conclusion, the story of Nigeria’s Eagles South Africa World Cup 2010 inept outing when told, will gravitate around the incompetent coach Lars Lagerback who as his country’s head coach could not qualify his own country Sweden to South Africa 2010; a marvelous goalkeeper, Hapoel Tel Aviv Israel goal-tender Vincent Enyeama, Uche who scored Nigeria’s only goal in the tournament and Alaniya Russia’s midfielder Sani Kaita who was red-carded in the Greece match. But the biggest bullet-point that will be written is that Nigeria could not survive from their Group B, did not win any match and hopelessly disappointed millions of Nigerians, Africans and black people all over the world when they failed to qualify in the first world cup hosted in Africa!

Icheoku says, Swedish coach turned Nigeria Eagles non-performing coach of South Africa 2010, should be sent packing from Johannesburg and never allowed to return back to Nigeria for whatever reason, including to collect his articles of possession which he may have acquired over the brief period he domiciled in Nigeria. A third-rate coach who was written off by his home country, Sweden, for his inability to qualify them for the world cup and who Swedish journalists warned Nigeria against hiring, has now abysmally failed in his assignment to take the Nigeria Eagles to a successful world cup outing and therefore, should be fired! Except the squad he went to South Africa with was imposed on him by the ever “federal-character” minded Nigeria Football Association (NFA), which federal character only comes to play when it favors the north, Icheoku says, that squad sucks and deserved their humiliating exit from the world cup competition. Also were it not for the saving grace of the gummy hands of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, may be Nigeria would have also had the atrocious record of being the team that sustained the most goals in a world cup competition as Argentine Lionel Messi severally threatened their goal-post.

It is instructive to note that the fabled goodluck of President GoodluckJonathan failed to and could not positively impact the dismal outcome, recorded by the Nigeria Eagles in South Africa. It is also very safe to posit that President Jonathan’s first international football outing ended in a disaster since he couldn’t take Nigeria beyond the preliminary rounds; even the midget of Kano, Sani Abacha brought home a cup to Nigeria during his murderous regime. On a last note, Shaibu Amodu should be apologized to by all those Nigerian officials who threw him under the bus, in preference to a pale-skinned foreign coach; despite his near miraculous qualification of the Eagles for the tournament. A colonial people’s mentality that “the master is good and fellow citizen is bad,” which makes less traveled and less exposed Nigerians and Africans in general to always defer to white people rather than patriotically supporting one of their own. It is also interesting to note that Shaibu Amodu did not get near what Lars Lagerback both in support, resources and financial perks got including payment in foreign currency; yet they want to compare both men. Icheoku says, look who is laughing now, as he who laughs last laughs best and Shaibu Amodu’s laugh is cosmetic-dentist approved. If only Nigeria will learn from the foolery of jettisoning Amodu Shaibu and hiring an incompetent foreign coach to reap where he did not sow; and this foreign mercenary-coach lacks any real vested interest in Nigeria’s success to make him go an extra mile to see the Eagles through? As a lasting panacea, may be Nigerian authorities should consider disbanding the Eagles and reconstituting them into a more nimble and dynamic football group; and also completely gutting or doing away with the NFA might not be a bad idea at all; so should every attempt be made to privatize the football association.