Nigeria:One game to go

Yes, I have called this one game to go. One more bridge to cross before the water mark will finally rest at its level. Well, I must start by congratulating the entire nigerian squad for playing and winning a tough game under tough conditions. You can not fault them on commitment,endeavour or resolve . The boys fought like warriors on the day, controlled the game for large parts of it ,looked the stronger of the two sides but then for all the endeavour of  the fourteen on display ,they had to rely on the skills of a certain victor moses in attack for the final quality required to break down a resolute Ethiopian side . Indeed the entire team worked very hard (right up to the mercurial Vincent Enyeama whose point blank save ensured we didn't follow our tradition of conceding late equalisers) but it s quite disturbing to know that the game would have ended goalless without the intervention of victor Moses even if both sides had played for the whole week! That obviously shows a glaring quality problem as it means there was nobody else in attack either on the pitch or on the bench who possessed the final extra quality that could ve made the difference on the day. Against tougher opposition i.e a Cote d'voire we would most definitely have lost the game as we will indeed see on Monday. Point - Quality wins crucial games and tournaments and this Nigerian squad simply lacks that level of quality. Someone said we should go back to the drawing board and prepare. The news is if you don't have enough quality and depth in your ranks,no matter how hard you prepare or how hard you work, you cant give what you dont have and indeed water will allways find its level except if you have a phenomenal amount of luck like Zambia did last edition, but then lightning hardly strikes twice on the same spot.

How they fared:

Vincent Enyeama - was a Trojan ,stood up when it counted to single handedly keep us in the competition. Would feel a lot better If his defenders were better particularly during set pieces as the opponents had too many free headers. 8/10

Elderson Echiejile - most confident display I've seen of him in an eagles shirt. Defended well apart from set pieces, supported the attack well. 6/10

Kenneth Omeruoh - I'm beginning to see why he s a Chelsea player. Has been a revelation so far.Will go places if he is still within five or six years of his official age. Very confident,agile. 6/10

Godfrey oboabana - did well yet again. Has a lot of potential. - 6/10

Efe Ambrose - most improved player in the nigerian line up.had a good game in full back position. Showed a lot of composure,joined the midfield and attack very well though he held on to ball too long atimes thereby forcing fengor ogude to clean up the mess and get a second booking in the process. 6/10

Individually, you could say the defenders didnt do badly but there is a nagging problem of organisation so collectively they were poor.Too many free headers, too many free shots in the eighteen yard area,a few corner kicks with either posts unmanned .point to the coaches for assigning specific roles.

Fengor Ogude - An improved outing by his quite modest standards. Covered for the defence, made some timely tackles. Lost the ball each time he tried to deliver an offensive pass on the counter . The creative and game reading aspect of his appointed role is simply not there or he hasn't shown it yet. - 5/10.

John obi Mikel - I've run out of expletives for him. I'm yet to see him play a bad game for nigeria . His composure and control of the midfield was once again apparent . I'm wondering what will ever happen to this Nigerian team if he gets injured as there is absolutely no back up or replacement - 7/10

Sunday Mba - the replacement for Nosa Igiebor who for reasons best known to him has failed to pull his weight even though he has the abilities. Did well to support MIkel and unlike Igiebor stayed in the thick of the action most times even though he is not the magical no.10 we are looking for. He is expected to get better. Good for a first major outing 6/10.

Ike Uche - I feel very sorry for Ike but there is obviously something wrong with him in this competition . I've seen him play too many times to know that he is simply a Jaguar in gear one on a high way right now. We know all the ability,flair and technique is there but he can't just get it started. I've never seen him perform so poorly in a space of three games. Traditionally, his game which is all about dribble runs, committing  defenders and unleashing shots at keepers from all sorts of angles has been totally absent in this competition. Ike is certainly not in South Africa at the moment.His morale and overall game is obviously at a rock bottom now and in dire need of a boost. Needs some talking to from a manager/psychologist perspective and unfortunately Keshi has proven to be a very very poor man manager as the Osaze saga and the absence of many of our other top players readily points to this fact -3/10

Emmanuel Emenike - I was extremely shocked to see him deployed on the right side of attack for the entire first half. No wonder we got no where near scoring goals. Now chapter one in a coaches manual says know your players and deploy them according to their strengths. Emenike is a player who's major and probably only strength is in his physicality. A bully of a striker, he s got so much strength, can scramble and muscle his way through two and atimes three central defenders and beat them to the ball like a wrestler would outmuscle his opponent(see nigeria's first and second goal) hold up the ball and shield it with his body and cause a defence problems for either him or others to benefit from.This means he has to play in a goal facing position like Rasheed Yekini or Drogba does (I'm not trying to put him in the same class please) or even Yakubu did. He most certainly is not a winger as he lacks all the basic ingredients for wing play which are: pace,dribbling ability,techniques such as the ability to turn quickly,crossing ability,body flexibility etc. While he can be quite a handful playing straight down the middle,he  is simply too stiff to play on the wings and I'm still in shock that the nigerian bench of keshi,amokachie et all don't know this. Shows how bereft of tactical ingredient this lot are.He could simply have been asked to play alongside and slightly ahead of Uche as our top striker with Uche supporting in a free role. Simple! Came to the middle in the second half and fared better as he was then able to pose a threat - 4/10

Victor Moses - Class speaks doesn't it. The fact that he learnt and plays  his football in much higher climes was all the difference on the day. His first penalty was a product of his ability to effect a quick change of pace and eliminate the defence line before committing the goalkeeper to a challenge.The truth is that such quality and ingenuity often single handedly win games when everything else fails and that was exactly what happened on the day.The problem with the Nigerian squad is that we don't have enough of such players in there. Just two - A young and still learning Victor Moses who can not yet do that every match day and a Mikel Obi who for lack of personnel has to play in too deep a position to be able to score a crucial goal. A championship winning team needs to have about four or five such influential players (except you are playing with the luck of Zambia in 2012,but then every day is not Christmas )-8/10

Ahmed Musa- Our speedster, this player in the mould of Aaron Lennon and tijani Babangida quite delights me even though like these two other people,his final cross often falls short of the quality of his run. Allways good to run at tiring defenders.Gave the telling pass on a classic counter attack that lead to Moses's second penalty and kept running in for the return ball which never came as the latter had already chosen to go it alone. Allways a refreshing addition to any squad but like I say, he should allways be played with or as an option  as his dribble runs can be predictable if studied intensively 6/10

Brown Ideye- a late sub. Didn't see much action -5/10

Joseph Yobi- another late sub . Couldn't organise the defence much when he came in 4/10

Summary- like I said earlier, water will find its level and when we meet the first real quality side in the Afcon, This entire madness of going to a major competition without some of the best players in a present generation will explode in the face of its proponents and sadly, also in the face of 180million of us. Ivory Coast will be far too strong and far qualitative for us. They will off course be playing us at full strength and we will be facing them with a team half filled with cadets and players who we all know are not the country's best. Prediction - Three goals to Nil in favour of Cote d' Voire .