I am still fuming, and I hope no one tries to explain this early exit away on the ground of lack of money. Nigeria spend more money on world cup preparation than Ghana. We paid twice for hotel for crying out loud and one of the hotel we did not even get to spend one night in it.
The disgraceful performance of the present crop of players wearing Nigeria national colors is only matched in mediocrity by the maladministration of Nigeria football federation, which unfortunately since the demise of Ikhazobo continued to redefined "ineptedness".
Meanwhile, Ghana's Black Stars grit and determination continues to surprise all other African countries. Even though we had one of the easiest group pairings at this world cup Nigeria pathetic displays often defied any abysmal low standards we had set for ourselves since the glorious days of Super Eagles of Africa in circa 1994-98.
We are now at a point in our soccer life as a nation where we need to reevaluate our sports administrations. Given the immense investments we have put in sports in the last 2 decades, what with the hosting of age group competition: U 17, U 21, Chogm, All Africa games, Nations cup et al. Questions need to be asked if we are truly cheating ourselves when we used grown ups for age group competitions. We do not currently have a world class player in the current world cup, compare to the 1990s when you could count at least 7 Nigerian players with world class qualities.
The sadness of Nigeria early exit was further compounded for me by the sad exit of Team USA, my adopted country. I had pinned so much hope on this US team given their impressive display at the Confederation cup. The good thing about the team though is that US soccer is growing in leaps and bounds and sky is the limit for soccer in the US. I have confident in the next crop of players that will eventually take over from the likes of Landon Donovan and others.
I hope lessons of this world cup will be learnt by all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment