LUBANGO// If Egypt win this Cup of Nations, their captain, Ahmed Hassan, will have won the tournament four times, twice as often as Nigeria have in their history, a fact that probably should not be repeated anywhere near the Super Eagles' hotel. Roughly one in six Africans is Nigerian, they have a profound passion for the game, they have produced as many top-class players as any other African nation, and their infrastructure is as good as anywhere else on the continent, and yet still they under perform.
And as each competition goes by, so the mountain Nigeria have to climb gets bigger. They will progress to the quarter-final should they draw with Mozambique today, but Nigeria have been anything but impressive, following up a 3-1 defeat to Egypt with a fortuitous 1-0 win over Benin. "Having lost the first game to Egypt, there had to be a little bit of a crisis of confidence," said the Nigeria coach Shaibu Amodu.
"Any slip could have been a disaster. We needed the three points. Nothing was more important." They only just made it, though, the game's solitary goal coming from a dubious penalty, while Benin twice hit the bar. As against Egypt, having begun well, Nig-eria seemed overwhelmed by self-doubt, defended deeper and deeper and became increasingly nervous. This is a squad palpably under pressure, as the generally truculent mood among the players demonstrates.
Making the situation more unsettling is the fact that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is operating alongside a Presidential Task Force (PTF), set up as their World Cup qualifying campaign started stuttering, and nobody is quite sure which body has the greater authority. The PTF, of which the former England international John Fashanu is a member, is understood to favour the appointment of a foreign coach, while the NFF would prefer, as their president Alhaji Sanu Lulu Abdullahi put it, to "sink or swim" with Amodu.
Their theory is that Europe-based players supposedly struggle to respect a domestic coach, while a foreigner would have the further advantage of being seen to be free of tribal bias. Amodu is understood to have been told that he must reach at least the semi-finals if he is to stay on for the World Cup, but at least two European coaches with significant African experience have already been sounded out by the NFF, while Herve Renard, the coach of Mozambique, has also been linked with the job; victory for the Mambas today, of course, would be the best possible way for the Frenchman to advertise his qualities.
For Amodu, the situation must feel horribly familiar. In 2002, he led Nigeria to qualification for the World Cup, only to be replaced by Adegboye Onigbinde after taking his side to the semi-final of the Cup of Nations in Mali. After Berti Vogts failed to get Nigeria to the 2006 World Cup, Amodu returned, achieved his primary objective with a squad far inferior to that of eight years ago, and yet finds himself likely to be denied his place on the biggest stage once again.
So far, Amodu has preferred a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Yakubu as a lone striker, but it seems probably that, with Wolfsburg's Obafemi Martins returned from a court appearance in London, he will switch to a 4-4-2, which should at least satisfy those sections of the Nigerian press who persist in seeing a lone striker as a defensive option in keeping with Amodu's dour reputation. The problem, though, is really the lack of a midfield creator, the search for which has become so desperate that there are even rumours that Jay-Jay Okocha could be tempted out of retirement at the age of 37.
Mikel John Obi was tried in the role against Egypt, but he seems more comfortable coming from deep, as he did against Benin, while Kalu Uche was no more convincing having been moved in field from the left wing in that second game. Nigeria will also be without their captain, Joseph Yobo, who has a hamstring injury that could keep him out of the tournament. For Amodu, the rest of the tournament looks like being the extent of his tenure as Nigeria coach. Historical underachievement is engulfing his side once again.
@Email:sports@thenational.ae Nigeria v Mozambique, KO 8pm, Aljazeera Sport + 9
