Dracula Eagles with No Fangs!
Two Super Eagles alumni in Odegbami and Lawal have urged the Peseiro’s Boys to demonstrate caution, focus, disciplined and self-belief in bringing our neighbouring Lions of Cameroon to heel in the titanic Afcon second round derby this Saturday.
Whilst the words of wisdom of the two Nigerian football titans cannot be discounted, I think the elephant in the stadium had gone untouched in their statements.
The biggest obstacle facing the Super Eagles outfit is lack of bite.
We went to the tournament with arguably the sharpest attacking teeth and fangs in African football at the moment but our Draculas have thus far in 3 games failed to draw much blood from their victims.
Leading up to the tournament, the worry was how the Super Eagles will manage to sink their teeth into opponents in the way of creating chances. Fans bemoaned the lack and shallowness in midfield to feed preys of passes to our goals-thirsty strikers. Well, the passes were delievered but the strikers haven’t been thirty enough to convert preys into victims.
And this is a problem.
The not-so-Indomitable Lions of Cameroon already have 4 goals scorer in this tournament in open play compared to Nigeria’s 1, yet we Nigeria are meant to be the unstoppable force with predatory tendencies in attack.
We are barking but Cameroon are biting and it is the animal with the sharpest claws and most penetrative bite between the Eagle and the Lion that will walk away victorious on Saturday.
When asked about Super Eagles’ lack of goals-thirtness thus far in the tournament, apparently Calvin Bassey said:”Go and ask the midfielders and attackers because, me, I am defending. I try my own.” That seems to me like Calvin throwing his colleagues under the bus, aftereall in modern football, even goalkeepers have been known to provide assists, let alone defenders.
Smah George, Secretary, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Nasarawa state chapter said” If we continue like this, being goal shy, not being creative enough and converting our chances even when we have, then I don’t see us going far.”
And one has to agree with George. The Super Eagles have enough in their arsenal to suck Cameroon dry. So much has been written and said to death about formation but now it’s about putting the ball in the back of the net.
If this chances-created to chances-converted ratio can be addressed by the vampires we put in front, then Cameroon will fall like the prey they have often been to the Super Eagles at this stage of the competition.