By Faith Kordoo
32 national teams will go head to head and trade tackles in FIFA’s 21st World Cup tournament, the biggest football competition taking place in Russia from 14 June – 15 July, 2018 and one team will emerge winner.
Five African national teams are among these 32 teams and Nigeria’s Super Eagles happen to be one of them. The Eagles were the first African side to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia having put up a very commendable performance in the qualifiers, finishing top of group B consisting of Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria with 13 points from 6 games.
This is the Eagles’ sixth world cup appearance and they’ll be donning a replica of the Jersey worn in 1994 when the Eagles first qualified for the world cup. In their last five appearances, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014 respectively, they have made it to the round of 16 thrice and have been eliminated at the group stage twice.
Their poor run during the friendly warm up games, losing 3 out of 5, drawing 1 and barely managing to win the other one has Nigerians worried about the possibility of the Eagles making it past the group stage this year. I mean, if they couldn’t withstand the friendlies, how will they fare during the ‘hostile’ games.
The Super Eagles who are at 48th position in the World according to the latest FIFA/COCACOLA world ranking of June 7, 2018 are in group ‘of’ D(eath) alongside 5th placed Argentina, 20th placed Croatia and World cup debutants Iceland who are sitting at 22nd in the FIFA world ranking.
All four teams in the group seem to have unsettled scores. This will be the 5th Eagles vs Argentine encounter in 6 World cups. The last 4 encounters didn’t bring so much as a point for the Eagles and they’ll be looking to put an end to this Argentinian hoodoo. Croatia on the other hand are the reason why the Islanders didn’t make it to 2014 World Cup in Brazil as they suffered a 2-0 defeat in their European qualifying play-off in Zagreb. The Islanders may have gotten a bit of their revenge as they finished top of their 2018 World cup qualifiers group ahead of Croatia, forcing the Croatians into the play-offs, something they’d want the Islanders to pay for.
The Argentine and Croatian side may have more experienced and renowned players from the top flight leagues in Europe including Barcelona’s 5 times Baloon D’or winner Lionel Messi(Argentina) and Real Madrid’s midfield maestro Luka Modric(croatia), the Islanders may be first timers and the Eagles team may be be the youngest side at the World cup but there is absolutely no underdog in this group as the Eagles side comprises of energetic, fast, furious, skillful and talented players who all have high tendencies of causing upsets.
We have a strong crop of dexterous attackers in the like of Victor Moses, Alex Iwobi, Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo, Kelechi Iheancho and Simeon Nwankwo. There is Mikel Obi, Oghenekaro Etebo, Wilfred Ndidi, Joel Obi, and Ogenyi Onazi who all have great ability to move and control the ball in the midfield. Kenneth Omeruo, leon Balogun, Elderson Echiejile, Chidozie Awaziem and William troost-Ekong will be behind doing their best to keep the goalie and the team as a whole out of trouble. We know these Eagles will fly, we just don’t know how high.
We will over look their poor friendly performance and take solace in the fact that the Eagles lost some friendlies in ’94 and ’98 and still made it to the round of 16 on both occasions. But, we want them to go beyond the round of 16 this time.
Like the presidency said, the Eagles are not just going to a tournament, they are carrying the emotions, passions and feelings of over 180 million people and we will be counting on them not to play with our feelings and leave us all heartbroken.
We are banking on their youthful thirst, hunger determination and zest for success and silver wares as well as their hardworking nature and strong team spirit to take them them out of the group stage. We are looking up to them to spread their wings and soar all the way to the peak like the Eagles that they are.
