Forget FIFA rankings, forget the poor following the domestic game enjoys
at home or the sometimes, the man-made frailties on the part of administering
the game in
Nigeria, football definitely brought joy to the greatest number of
Nigerians in 2017 than any other aspect of our the polity.
Politically, the country experienced all noise no direction. Indeed, the
year ended in chaos as fuel scarcity dominated the Yuletide. Till now, there
are still long fuel queues at numerous filling stations across the country.
In the midst of hopelessness, Nigeria football rose beyond expectations
and saw the country qualifying for the 2018 World Cup with a match to spare;
the first such feat by a Nigerian national team.
Nigeria’s qualification for
2018 World Cup
On the back of missing out of two African Cup of Nations, the
Super Eagles were handed a tough World Cup qualifying draw with new manager
Gernot Rohr having to navigate past African champions Cameroon, Algeria and
Zambia.
When coach Gernot Rohr was employed by the Nigeria Football Federation,
after the unproductive Sunday Oliseh era, there were a lot of doubts by
football pundits who claimed the man’s early exploits in Burkina Faso were
nothing exceptional.
He was not given much chance to succeed even as NFF President,
Amaju Pinnick put his office on the line, saying Rohr was good enough to give
the country her sixth World Cup ticket. Rohr took over a team in crisis as
there was a lot of discontent among the players as the coach was at war with
some of his key players.
Vincent Enyeama announced what many considered as
premature retirement from the national team, Emmanuel Emenike retired. Many
others were either no longer enthusiastic to play again for the country or were
just there for patriotic reasons. When he settled for business Rohr reorganised
his dressing room, harped on youth, dexterity and physicality. His first
assignment was an away match against Zambia in Ndola. The Super Eagles silenced
the home crowd with a heart-warming 2-1 win away.
Algeria, then the most
dreaded team on the continent were next. They too fell 3-1 in Uyo. The
Indomitable Lions of Cameroon too fell 4-0, went to Yaounde and drew 1-1
against the Lions. When they came back to Uyo for the second leg against
Zambia, the East Africans were still hopeful of causing an upset against the
well-oiled Eagles squad. But they gave a good account of themselves as they
fought toe-to-toe with their Nigerian hosts. But Alex Iwobi rescued Nigeria
with a solitary strike that earned her the ticket to Russia 2018 World Cup.
The
victory over Zambia made the match against Algeria inconsequential Some players
who made the Eagles one of the best teams in the continent include Captin John
Mikel Obi, Victor Moses, Kelechi Iheanacho, Odion Ighalo, Leon Balogun, William
Troost Ekong, Simon Moses, Shehu Abdullahi, Elderson Echejile, Oghenekaro
Etebor, Ahmed Musa among others. This was the set of Eagles that restored
Nigeria’s pride on the continent.
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