1980 AFCON winner,  Sylvanus Okpala, in this interview with SOLOMON NWOKE.  charts the path through which the Eagles can be super again.

Our next AFCON qualifying match is against Egypt who are equally desperate to come back to the continental fiesta, which raises the stakes of the game that holds next year. What can you say on how we should approach the game?

Sylvanus Okpala

I don’t think we are doing badly as of now. It’s just that the Pharaohs of Egypt are ahead of us with two points and on goals margin too. If we want to qualify for the African Nations Cup we have to be winning our matches. It means when we play Egypt we have beat them. That is the most important thing.

So far the Eagles have played two games under coach Sunday Oliseh, what do you see of the team? 

Well, it’s a young team, young team in the sense of the number of matches played for the national team by the players, a young team in the sense that Sunday Oliseh is a new coach. All the training sessions they had before the    Tanzania tie and the friendly match against   Niger were not more than one week. So Coach Oliseh is still new to the boys, but you know that coaches are born and not made.

Another thing is the kind of formation one wants to play. Sometimes, classroom formation looks very perfect but in practice you need time   say, a month or two to perfect those trainings and not three days. I must say that I watched the match against. Tanzania and I am talking from the point of view that I watched on television and you know that when you watch a match live you are in a better position to see more.

But let me take it from what I saw on television. Our first half was better than the second half. In the first half we were more positive with the ball. But in the second half we were not attacking as we should have, the midfield was choked and our defence was falling and the Tanzanians were on top of their game for the last forty-something minutes. From what I saw we played well in the first 55 minutes after which our game collapsed.

I don’t know whether it was because of weather because most of the boys that played came from Europe, so I don’t know whether they were affected by the weather. But, the second half was not good because those boys ( Tanzanians) were controlling the midfield, at every ball drop they were there and had better chances of scoring. It was good they couldn’t. Now we have to improve.

With these new players being brought into the team, do you think the older ones should be discarded?

No, no we have some old ones there. Maybe, in the next game, Ogenyi Onaze will be there and we have other players I don’t want to mention names. But I don’t think Oliseh is discarding the old players.

Many Nigerians are of the opinion that Oliseh should stop experimenting and start consolidating with the players on ground. Where do you stand on this?

Sunday Oliseh

I don’t think he is experimenting and why would anyone say that he’s experimenting. He is not experimenting, he is working with what we have. Like I said, I don’t want to mention names, so it is left for him to know those that he would like to invite and add to the team, those that are important to him.

I’m not the one to say that. It’s left for him to know those that he has watched who can fit into whatever system or formation that he wants to play. Then the   other one I want to say is that he needs time. He needs time and people should not put too much pressure on him.

And as a young man there’s a way you put too much pressure on him he loses confidence or becomes nervous   and performance drops. So I think we need to support him and let’s see where he will take us to. He needs everybody’s support.

But there is the fear that our AFCON 2017 qualification is taking the shape of the one that saw us miss out of the 2015 edition.

What is happening now is different from what happened in 2015 edition. I have no fears until we play Egypt and until we play Egypt. No doubt people are saying we played Chad 2 – 0 here and Egypt went to Chad and beat them 5-1 and are drawing conclusions. But football is not always that way. In football   two plus one may not be three.

If you remember in 1968 World Cup, Hungary and Germany were in the same group then, Hungary was a tough team, so during there group stage matches, Hungary defeated Germany 8 -2 and at the end both of them got to the final and Germany defeated   Hungary 3-0 . So in football it goes beyond. Until Egypt plays Nigeria,   I’ll know if Egypt will take the ticket or not.

We should not panic?

Why? Why? There’s no need for panicking. They have all played only two games. More games are coming. We have to keep calm till we play Egypt. This is football and anything can happen.

So in which department of the team do you think we need fortification?

All the departments need to be fortified. I am not talking about inviting new players now. So all the department need to be fortified, especially the midfield because when you are playing football, the midfielder cannot continue to play the same, somebody must come up and take charge of the game if the game is not going well as expected.

The midfield has more problems than other areas, but every department is important to be beefed up. Again and again, the midfield is a very important aspect of the team and Coach Oliseh really needs to beef it up before our next matches.

What Is your feeling about Carl Ikeme’s emergence?

He keeps very well, he was good during the match. He was very fantastic, he played well. Another good attribute of him is that he’s very calm as a goalkeeper and he comes out to take the ball. Overall, he was very good.

Is it right to set 1994 benchmark for the current Eagles?

Super Eagles 1994 Nations Cup squad was built over five years and Oliseh is just one month plus as a coach, so there’s a long way to go. We can only start thinking along that line after two years, but for now it is not necessary.

So since   our next AFCON qualifier is against Egypt, what’s advice do you have for the team?

My advice is that we should play to win whether we play defensive football or whatever formation, we must play to win. the point is that we must play to win. It’s an important game that we must play and win if we must think of qualifying for the Nations Cup.

Generally, which are the  other things you want to tell Nigerians regarding the country’s football?

The only thing I want to say is that we have to keep supporting the team coach, Sunday Oliseh and the boys. It is too early to start criticizing him now after playing just one match. Another thing I would like our coaches and football officials to be careful in making statements that could affect the team. When something transpires between a coach and a player it should not necessarily be made public.

On the side of officials I would like to cite the case of Ogenyi Onazi during our match against Chad in Kaduna. A Chadian player was angry when a penalty was awarded to Eagles and he charged on Onazi. Onazi retaliated but was caught by the referee who didn’t see the first offender. Onazi was shown a red card but before the disciplinary committee of CAF could take a decision on that, the officials of the Nigeria Football Federation had already condemned him and it was in the news everywhere and they ( CAF) read it.

That would aid them in taking disciplinary action. Action of our people could make announce a two match ban if originally they thought of a one match ban. You know that it all depends on the gravity of the offence. Let’s keep quiet when we are supposed to and work hard always.

Another thing is that I would not go on my knees as  a coach to beg a player to play for Nigeria. I can always educate the player and tell him that he would have a good future with Nigeria but I will not beg. You can ask a player to come and join you and you give reasons why it will be good for the player but not to beg. The person must show interest. If you beg or compel somebody to play for you he may not give 100 per cent.

And if anything arises the player may be grumbling, saying if he had known he would not have agreed. Any player that makes up his mind on his own would not have such mind. There’s psychological aspect of the game too.

Begging a player to come and play would that have any effect on the team or the pattern of play of the team? 

No, when you start begging a player to come and play for his national team it is not good. The person must make up his mind, the important thing is that I, as a coach, will ask him if he would like to play for Nigeria and that I would like him to play for Nigeria and that his future lies in Nigeria as far as the national team is concerned.

But I will not go on my knees begging him and making him so much important because a player must make up his mind first to come and play. If you ask him to come and play and he says he’s interested then he will give you 100%. But if you mount pressure on a player to come and play where he does not want to play he will not want to give his best. In fact, he will not give anything and if any slightest thing happens in the team he will quickly remember that he never wanted to be part of the team in the first place.