By BEN EFE
Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi had his first competitive game against Rwanda on Wednesday, during a Nations Cup qualifier. Though the Eagles, survived the antics of the hosts and avoided a defeat, there are fears by Nigerian fans that the team are back to their struggling best in continental soccer.

Nigerians expected much more than a draw from Keshi, after the team did well in international friendlies against Zambia, Botswana and  most recently Liberia, whom a  home-based Eagles thrashed 2-0 in Monrovia in Monrovia.

However, two prominent Nigerian coaches are of the view that it was too early to start raising dust as coach Keshi knows what he is doing and he is capable of achieving the desire results in Nigeria Football Federation’s quest to return the team to winning ways.

Keshi

Coach Festus Adegboye Onigbinde who led the Eagles to the finals of the 1984 Nations Cup in Cote’d Ivoire noted that the result in Kigali was fair, considering the fact that there are no minors in African football anymore.

“It was a fair result when you take into cognisance that there are no weak teams in Africa anymore. But as Nigerians we expected more results, however,  I do believe that Keshi must have seen the lapses and as a good coach I expect  him to take corrective measures in subsequent games,”said the CAF and FIFA Instructor.

Former Eagles defender and African Champions League winning coach, Khadiri Ikhana stated that competitive games are a different ball game from friendly matches. He argued that posting a draw away was a good result in these hard days of African football.

“It is a good result, I didn’t expect Keshi was going to win there,” said Ikhana who was part of the Eagles that won the Nations in 1980.

He submitted that coach Keshi was in the right track and should be accorded all the support he needs to make the Eagles a feared side in Africa.

“Keshi knows what he is doing. He is not the kind of person that we should be telling to do this or that he is capable of building a good team and it is necessary that he gets all the sport he can find.”

However coach Onigbinde counseled Keshi to build the nucleus of his team on the home-based. “I’ve always maintained that the centre of the team should be home based. When I was coach I  maintained a strong believe in the home-based. Osaze Odemwingie and Vincent Eneama are some of the players that policy produced in my last outing as coach of the team.”