Argentina against Nigeria has become a modern classic. Two Olympic football finals have been contested between the best young players of Africa’s most populous nation and those from one of South America’s most fertile talent nurseries.
World Cups have an uncanny habit of bringing them together, too.
At stake in Wednesday’s collision in Porto Alegre, the fourth time in six tournaments Nigeria and Argentina have met in the group phase, is progress to the knockout stages for the African champions, which a single point would give them, and the security of top spot in Group F for Argentina, who would lose that only with defeat to the Super Eagles.
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But any idea Argentina might ease up with the cushion of qualification confirmed was dismissed yesterday by coach Stephen Keshi.
“Argentina are world-class, with great individuals,” he said, “and the only way to combat that is by strong teamwork.”
That, Keshi insisted, had been the key to gaining Nigeria their four points so far and the reason they hold the best defensive record of any team at Brazil 2014.
They are the only side who have yet to concede a goal, which was partly why Keshi asked his goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama to accompany him to the pre-match news conference.
Enyeama is not a man who seeks red-carpet treatment or much attention, but over the course of more than a decade, he has gradually become appreciated as a consistent claimant to the term “world-class” himself.
At 31, Enyeama may be at the peak of his powers, although several Argentinians would challenge that with the observation that he could scarcely perform better than he did one afternoon in Johannesburg four years ago.
That day, Enyeama’s athleticism and sharp reflexes denied Lionel Messi three or four goals; his characteristic boldness off his line and courage in remaining upright in one-on-one duels also kept Gonzalo Higuain at bay.
Argentina won that group stage meeting 1-0, but the players involved still look back on it as Enyeama’s match.
In France’s Ligue 1, he is generally reckoned as one of the top trio of goalkeepers in the division – the Mexican Guillermo Ochoa, formerly of Ajaccio, a headline-maker in Brazil would be in that bracket as well – and his safe hands moulded several impressive statistical records last season for his club, Lille.
He kept 21 clean sheets in his 37 league appearances. At one point, he was unbeaten for 1,062 minutes – nearly 18 hours of football.
His three hours unbeaten in Brazil has featured some notable saves and a small stroke of luck, when an Edin Dzeko strike was incorrectly ruled offside early in Nigeria’s 1-0 win over Bosnia, during which there were signs that Keshi’s tried and trusted formulas were beginning to function fluently.
Nigeria became continental champions last year on the back of Enyeama’s work behind a solid defence and Emmanuel Emenike providing pace and power up front. Emenike set up Peter Odemwingie for the only goal versus Bosnia.
Generally, Nigeria’s clashes with Argentina are tight affairs. None of the previous three World Cup games have yet yielded so much as a point for the Africans, but they have been hard-fought.
Keshi, then a Nigeria player, watched from the bench when a celebrated Nigeria side, who would top the group, lost 2-1 at USA 1994, having taken the lead.
In Japan in 2002, with Enyeama, then 19, among the substitutes, Argentina won 1-0. A Gabriel Heinze header from a corner was the only effort to beat Enyeama in Johannesburg.
More-prized Nigerian memories come from the Olympics, most of all from the final of the Atlanta Games in 1996. A dramatic, see-saw of a contest in Athens, Georgia, was won by Nigeria 3-2, from 1-0 and then 2-1 down.
“That game gave us a great momentum as a team and as a country,” said Sunday Oliseh, a member of the 1994 and 1996 teams.
Nigeria made it through to the knockout stage of the subsequent World Cup, in 1998, but have not reached the knockouts in their past two appearances.
The country’s finest hour at the global level since then was the Beijing Olympics final in 2008, when their conquerors by a 1-0 score were Argentina. That Argentina team included Messi, Angel di Maria and Sergio Aguero, among other players who will be involved on Wednesday.
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