By Uche Onyebadi

I WATCHED the Super Eagles take a 2-1 beating in the hands of Jurgen Klinsman’s U.S.A. team,in the company of some Kenyans and a young Nigerian friend on a visit from Columbus, Ohio. Watching the Super Eagles with Kenyans is almost as good as watching the match in Lagos or Abuja. Kenyans always amaze me with their knowledge of Nigerian star footballers, from the golden days of Rashid Yekini down to the modern era. Should you travel to Kenya where I was a resident for a number of years, don’t be surprised to find some public transport vehicles bearing the names of former Nigerian soccer idols. I have seen some of them with the names “Jay Jay Okocha” and “Taribo West” boldly written on their side frame.

When the Super Eagles players stepped onto the field in Jacksonville, Florida, to take on their U.S. hosts in the pre-world cup friendly, my group was full of  optimism that the U.S. team was in  for a few tutorials on the intricacies of modern soccer. But, barely ten minutes into the game, our pre-match optimism evaporated. 

It wasn’t because we thought the U.S. was the superior team. Neither did we conclude that the Eagles were intimidated and could not control the soccer ball. Rather, our deflated expectation arose from their lackadaisical approach to the game.

Lackadaisical approach

It was as if the players were being forced to play and they demonstrated their indignation by taking those decidedly confident, but slow and cavalier kick-the-ball-to-me-I-kick-it-back-to-you attitude. In the end, the U.S. team won not so much because they were the better team, but because they were more business like and hungry to get the goals.

Nonetheless, I believe it would be a miscalculation and error to judge the preparedness of the Eagles for Brazil 2014 on the basis of their loss to the U.S. Yes, lessons should be learned from the team’s match against the U.S., but it is imperative to allow Coach Stephen Keshi to remain firmly on the driver’s seat. There is the ever-present temptation for everyone to be a pseudo coach of the Super Eagles. The fact, however, remains that the Super Eagles have only one coach, Keshi, and he should be given the leeway to do his job.

Even as the World Cup is barely hours away, the avalanche of criticisms over Keshi’s choice of players will not abate. At this late hour, me thinks that there are still people who religiously believe thatKeshi ought to have been ditched for a foreign coach! Those distractions are not needed at this point. The coach should be left alone to tackle the huge task ahead.

Here, the example of the same U.S. team that beat the Eagles should be instructive. Last week, Jurgen Klinsmann stirred the hornet in U.S. soccer circle. Against popular expectations, he dropped Landon Donovan from the team to Brazil. Donovan is the undisputed face of American soccer. But to Klinsmann Donovan did not fit into his strategy for Brazil.

Sports analysts and writers could not imagine such audacity, the rough equivalent of dropping Sunday Oliseh from the Super Eagles in the old days of soccer glory in Nigeria.
Klinsmann did not budge. It has since emerged that he practically acted alone in his decision to drop Donovan and make Clint Dempsey his captain, yet another surprise. He later explained that his idea of a soccer team’s captain was someone to hold the team together in good and bad times, not necessarily the person with the skills of Pele. For now, Klinsmann has been left alone to do the job. But, I suspect there will be a harsh post mortem after Brazil 2014.

Our soccer bosses, fans and the like should accord Keshi the same dignity and respect as the U.S. soccer managers have accorded Klinsmann. Everyone agrees that now is not the time to expect the U.S. to win the soccer world cup. The expectation is that Klinsmann should take the U.S. soccer team to a new level that demonstrates some great stride from where the team was prior to his arrival in 2011. To his credit, Klinsmann has since revamped the team, bringing in talented players with U.S. parentage from wherever he could find them. The best example perhaps is teenager Julian Green who was snatched away by Klinsmann from the German national team that has already earmarked him for a future call-up to play for Germany.

What expectation does Nigeria have for Keshi and the Super Eagles team? I’m pretty sure that I’ll spoil some people’s football appetite on the eve of the world’s greatest football fiesta by saying that Nigeria is not about to win the 2014 soccer world cup. So, we cannot judge Keshi on that score as it would be unrealistic to do so. The question is, now that his team will be tested against the very best the world has to offer, what grade will the team earn at the end of the day?

If Keshi takes the Super Eagles to the quarter final stage, something Nigeria is yet to achieve in its soccer history, I’ll give him an ‘A’ grade because that will objectively inform everyone that Keshi has taken the team to a new level. If not, I’ll still shake his hands and let the managers of Nigeria’s football take it from there.