By Patrick Omorodion
It is three weeks to the crunchy Nations Cup tie between the Super Eagles and the Barea of Madagascar in Antananarivo and a concerned Nigerian who lives and plays professional soccer there has sent a Red Alert message to the Samson Siasia-tutored team.

First message from him to the Eagles through Saturday Vanguard Sports is that the Madagascar team named after a Zebu Bull have been preparing hard for the match with the on-going India Ocean Games.

In the competition however, they failed to go beyond the group stage, coming last in a group of three teams with just one point from the 1-1 draw with Mayotte who top the group with four points. Madagascar lost 1-2 to Reunion who battled host Seychelles in one of the semi finals on Thursday.

The second message from our source is that the Eagles must be ready to play on a bumpy pitch at the Stade Municipal Mahamasina in Antananarivo, a 22,000 capacity multi-purpose stadium mostly used for rugby matches.

According to a report, “In 2005, the stadium was the site of a stampede that killed two people during a match between South African side Kaizer Chiefs and Madagascar’s USJF Ravinala. It also hosted the 2007 Indian Ocean Games.”

He told Saturday Vanguard Sports that though the stadium is being refurbished with the planting of grass for the Nations Cup cracker, “but it will not be conducive for our players. My advice is that they should be ready to play against the pitch and the players, because this is were the Malagasy team train, and they have started training there since two weeks now before they went for the India Ocean Games.”

Continuing, he said that “the pitch they are going to use is no different from the Onikan pitch in Lagos. Secondly the weather here is very cold in the mornings but from 10 am the weather will be very sunny and I am very sure the match will be fixed for 2 pm Malagasy time (in Nigeria it will be 12 noon).

By then the weather will be very very sunny; so the Eagles should be prepared to play on a bad pitch and under a very hot weather. I will give you details about some of their players as time goes on.”

One good news emanating out of Antananarivo from our Nigerian friend is the commotion in the camp of the Barea Of Madagascar over poor welfare which he is praying should “not be solved before our beloved Super Eagles arrive.”

“Right now there is commotion in the camp of the Barea, the players and coaches are complaining that the (sports) ministry is not taking care of them, that the ministry has not released the money meant for them. They claim the government gave the ministry 20 million Arriary (Malagasy currency), about N1.7 million but that the ministry has not released it to the players.

As it is right now, the players said they will not return to camp after the Indian Ocean Games if their allowances are not paid. I wish this problem will not be solved before our beloved Super Eagles arrive,”he prayed.

He wanted to know how Siasia is preparing the Eagles however, warned that the Madagascar team who have never qualified for the Africa Nations Cup might act as spoilers for the Eagles if they are underrated because even though they lost to Iran in a recent friendly, “the Malagasy team have improved a lot. I watched the match, even though it was a friendly match, they played it as if it is a World Cup final. They played it with total seriousness. I wonder how they will approach the match against our Super Eagles on their own soil.

This concerned Nigerian prays that the Barea should not be a barrier to the Eagles’ Nations Cup qualification but added that “the Eagles should prepare very well. One thing about them (Madagascar) is that they hate contact football, our Eagles must be aggressive if they want to get result.”

Among the Barea’s biggest wins was a 1–0 home victory over Egypt in the qualification rounds of the 2004 African Cup of Nations. Though they failed to reach the knockout stage of the 2011 Indian Ocean Games football event, they were champions of the same competition twice in 1990 and 1993.