17th July, 2013
The battle for the Home-Based Eagles that would make the final trip to Abidjan for the reverse fixture of the 27 July CHAN 2014 qualifier against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire is taking shape as invited players are currently playing out their hearts to convince the technical coaching crew.
Sources from the camp of the team in Abuja indicate that after the first Tuesday’s training session all the invited players tried in their bid to convince the coaches of their readiness to make the final coach.
Even Coach Stephen Keshi confirmed it but disclosed that his fear is the team’s midfield marshaled by AFCON hero and on loan Rangers of Enugu player, Sunday Mba.
Keshi says focus is on Super Eagles’ midfield ahead of Cote d’Ivoire return clash
According to Keshi “Although they (the players) did what I wanted in the first leg game in Kaduna, there is still room for improvement, “we need to work much harder, most especially on our midfield, even though the attack and our finishing can also be improved”.
The Super Eagles defeated the Elephants 4-1 in Kaduna State in the first leg match of the 2014 CHAN final qualifying round. Keshi said the team had had much more time to prepare for the return leg, compared to what obtained before the first leg match of 6 July. “This has been good for the team. We need to stay together more, to be more compact, because that match (the first leg game) was the first one the team was playing together then, “we didn’t have much time then. But now that we have about 10 days to prepare, we will work on those areas and hopefully, they will understand better what they are supposed to do,’’ said Keshi.
He assured that the Ivorian football authorities’ decision to host the match on a synthetic field would not affect the Super Eagles. “We don’t want to put it on our mind that it is a synthetic pitch. All we need to do is to bear in our minds that we will qualify for CHAN, “all we need to do is to play our game, no matter where they put us. Even if it is on a pitch made with cement, we have to play, “we also have that mental attitude that we are here in camp to do a job, and we want to play our game,’’ Keshi said. The Eagles got a deserved 4-1 victory over the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire in a CHAN qualifier on Saturday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.
The Chan qualifier started at a slow pace though the Eagles dominated possession in the early minutes of the game but was sparked into life in the 14th minute when Gambo Mohammed swiveled on the edge of the box and let fly a left-footer which beat the Elephants’ goalkeeper. That was Gambo’s first goal in only his second outing for the national team.
Baresi got the first yellow card of the match for a foul on Gomo Onduku in the 22nd minute. A solo run from Sunday Mba was cut short as Gambo ran into an offside position. Two minutes later, a long ball from Godfrey Oboabona found Ezekiel Mbah on the right wing and his first time cross was met by a half volley from Sunday Mba and that threw the crowd into delirium. The Super Eagles thought they had scored the third in the 38th minute when another swift counter between Sunday Mba and Ezekiel Mba from the right saw another cross perfectly headed in by Gambo but he was adjudged offside though the call had to be marginal at best.
A change in the 44th for CIV saw Topio Coulibaly go out for Jules Lakpa and the Elephants scored in the last minute of the first half as a defensive howler from Ezekiel Mba allowed in Tiecoura Coulibaly to pass beyond Chigozie Agbim.
The second half started with the Eagles making a change. Gomo Onduku was pulled off for Ifeanyi Edeh as Coach Stephen Keshi wanted to add more impetus in attack.
Two red cards within two minutes changed the game to the advantage of the Eagles. A CIV defender was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area off a corner kick and a penalty was awarded. Sunday Mba stepped forward and calmly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.
Too much protestation saw a red card issued. Another quickly followed as Baresi was shown a second yellow card for a violent foul on Sunday Mba. It wa all Super Eagles after that as they pressed their two-man advantage and were continually camped in the Elephants’ half of the pitch.
Ayo Saka was substituted by Emeka Eze in the 60th minute while Sunday Mba went on a good run but chipped over the goalkeeper and over the bar. It was more about damage limitations fom then on for the Elephants as they had only Kevin Zougoula upfront though he troubled the defence once in a while.
Finally the Eagles made their advantage pay in the 85th minute when a strong run down the right by Sunday Mba saw the Rangers man pull the ball back for Ifenyi Edeh to walk the ball in for the fourth goal.
—Adebobola Alawode