Lagos – The African Nations Championship (CHAN) is a football tournament, which was first announced on September 11, 2007.
It is administered by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and is played between the best national teams of Africa, exclusively featuring players who are active in the national championships and qualified to play in the ongoing season. Expatriate players, regardless of where they play, even in Africa, are not qualified to take part in the CHAN.
The first tournament was held in 2009 in Cote d’Ivoire and won by The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The tournament was expanded to 16 teams for the second edition, held in Sudan in 2011. The tournament was won by Tunisia, in the wake of the Tunisian Revolution.
The third edition was held in South Africa in 2014 with Libya as champion and Nigeria finished third but were knocked out at the group stage of the fourth edition held in Rwanda in 2016.
The tournament is held every two years, alternating with the Africa Cup of Nations.
And all things that have a beginning must definitely have an end. And so, the 2018 edition that kicked off on January 13 ended on February 4 inside the Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, Morocco.
That the final match between Morocco and Nigeria ended in a dismay 4-0 humiliation of Nigeria is no longer news.
Rather what is news or should be news is the fallout of the championship as regards our league, players, coaches and as well as administrators.
A lot has been said about the final result and as expected, some in favour of the team and others against the team.
Football pundits had roundly criticised the team performance and most notably, coach Salisu Yusuf’s selections in the build up to the final.
But rather than passing blame or praising any quarter, we should see the final match cum result as a wake up call for the country’s football.
Right from the blast of the whistle of the Senegalese referee for the commencement of the match, it was glaring that the Moroccans were out for a victory but many never thought the score line would be so massive.
Watching the first 20 minutes of the match, many would have wondered how the Super Eagles managed to get to the final in the first instance.
Despite the loss, the Super Eagles will still be paid 30% of the prize money of $750,000 for the runners-up, which is about 90 million Naira.
Nigeria started the tournament unimpressively and struggled to progress at every match. Many did not believe in the team because this was the team that lost to Ghana 4 – 1 in Accra at the West African Football Union (WAFU) championship.
Their performance at the pre-season tournament in Kano raised some hope but soon after the tournament kicked off in Morocco fans started loosing confidence.
That brings to questioning the technical ability of coach Yusuf in his team’s selection for the final match.
Eyes brow were raised about his final selection for the tournament as well as the final match.
Despite his poor clinical ability, Anthony Okpotu brought bite to the team’s attack.
But it was a surprise when he was dropped to the bench by Yusuf for Peter Eneji whose only game was in that final against Morocco having missed the rest of the tournament with injury.
Okpotu was later brought on but the game had already been won and lost.
Perhaps another factor that worked against the team was the home crowd at the Mohamed V Stadium.
Before the final, most the Eagles’ games had been played in front of scanty crowds, except the group game against Libya.
But it was a different ball game when they faced the hosts in the final inside the 45,600 seater Mohamed V Stadium that was nearly filled to capacity.
Aside from finding ways to contain the rampaging Moroccans, the Eagles also had to deal with the noise coming from the fans.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster as they were roundly trounced.
At goalless in the first 40th minutes, the Eagles were clearly second best in the game and it was a matter of time before they conceded the first goal on the struck of half-time.
And when Eneji was shown his second yellow card, it would have taken a miracle for the Eagles to get anything from the game.
Following the red card to Eneji, the Eagles completely collapsed, lost organisation, focus and shape.
To worsen the situation, the team at that point lost concentration and things fell apart as the centre cannot hold.
Though the Eagles made it to the final, but it was obvious the team lacked proper cohesion. The players could not string two, three, four passes together. They relied mainly on their physicality, athleticism, ruggedness and power.
It was evident they bulldozed their way to final by overpowering their opponents but came unstuck against a sleek, well organized Moroccan side.
Finally, injuries were a major factor why the team lost scandalously to Morocco. Number one choice goalkeeper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, who had been outstanding since the commencement of the tournament, had to be stretchered off against Sudan in the semifinal.
Sunday Faleye, another player who was beginning to grow into the competition, injured his arm in the quarterfinal against Angola.
Also, the decision of the coach to go for a Peter Eneji who just recovered from injury could be blamed for their heavy loss in the final.
For a guide, the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should quickly as a matter of urgency, go back to the drawing board and x-ray the performance of the team ahead future assignments.
This definitely is a wake up call as it is right time the country takes its rightful position in the comity of football playing nations.
However, football pundits have been divided in their reaction to the final match result.
Technical Adviser of the national team, Gernot Rohr, said the team deserves the praises of all as they did not do ‘all that’ badly.
“You don’t define the overall performance based with the final result, they reached this stage against all odds and deserve nothing but our praise and support,” said Rohr.
“Honestly the boys were good. Both teams displayed good football and played like a real final of a tournament until a goal came in the dying minutes of the first half.
“On resumption, the first six minutes also carries some characteristics of the first half until the referee decided to hand over the match and the trophy to Morocco.
“The second yellow card was not necessary, because the first yellow card on the boy was given without a warning.
“That red card completely destabilized our team no doubt. Again these boys are home based who are used to playing in a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees and suddenly they found themselves playing under nine degrees and a rainy weather.
“The factors are enormous. Morocco playing at home in a weather they are used to and in front of their crowned prince.
“Really, the result of the game was indeed painful but the boys really tried under the circumstance”, said Gara Gombe Ahmed Shuaibu.
Olajide Harrison Arigbabu has this to say: “Simple as ABC Nigerian football still lack tactical approach on game situation and our players level of understanding situation is very poor.
“Good for our football to see our level of national development tonight. Great experience for is all.
For Chijiuba Godstime Ozioma, “ Consequences of corrupt officiating in NPFL. “This is what you get when you allow corruption to kill football development in the league.
“Players were never allowed to bring out their best. Try new workable tactical approaches rather what we see is money winning games for clubs instead of players. Look at our defenders.
“They all were put to test tonight and they all failed. No striker. What I saw tonight were bunch of lazy and unintelligent players.
“How on earth will a player with caution card went for such a rough tackle. Defenders with terrible errors.
“Goolkeeper’s continuous spilling of the ball. Our league needs to grow beyond winning matches before kick off. Allow the players to develop. Let them work hard.
Vincent Akinbami said: “The team was match rusty before the tournament started. The league body has been struggling to align our league to that of Europe and other African countries for over 10 years now.
“A team whose league had not started before CHAN started will definitely struggle”.
Media officer of the team, Toyin Ibitoye tweeted: “Not the result or performance we wanted but in spite of that I commend this CHAN @NGSuperEagles for getting this far.
“This is the most disciplined bunch of players I’ve ever worked with. We hope for better luck next time.
Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung urged Nigerians to take the positives away from the team’s second best performance in Casablanca Morocco.
Dalung said the Super Eagles had recorded another ‘first’ in football history.
According to him, the team recorded its best ever outing at the competition with their silver medal-winning feat.
“Coming for this tournament, many Nigerians never gave the team a chance because of the way they prepared and their pessimism about the players in the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL).
“But getting to the final against all odds, the players proved many critics wrong about the standard of the NPFL which can only get better.”
The Minister lamented the expulsion of Peter Eneji very early in the second half after his second yellow card, which played a major role in the final outcome of the game played in a gutsy windy and wet weather.
“It was obvious that our boys were struggling with the weather which was made worse when they were reduced to 10 men. Many of them have not been exposed to such harsh weather conditions before while playing in the NPFL. Experiencing such extreme cold weather really hampered their output during the competition.”
He however enjoined Nigerians to see the team as a work in progress if the vision driving the current League Management Company (LMC) running the Nigerian league can be sustained.
“The role of better preparation for a tournament cannot be over emphasized. Going by the way the Moroccans played against the Super Eagles, it was evident that they were ready for this and had prepared long enough.
“Our attention must now shift to better preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia,” he said.
The post CHAN Humiliation: A Wake Up Call appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
CHAN Humiliation: A Wake Up Call
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