Keshi’s search for marksmen continues

The moment he was appointed coach of the Eagles following the failure of his predecessor, Samson Siasia to qualify the team for the 2012 AFCON in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the former Togo and Mali manager did not hide his intention to rebuild the national team in order to bring back Nigeria’s lost glory.True to […]

The moment he was appointed coach of the Eagles following the failure of his predecessor, Samson Siasia to qualify the team for the 2012 AFCON in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the former Togo and Mali manager did not hide his intention to rebuild the national team in order to bring back Nigeria’s lost glory.
True to his words, Keshi has given opportunity to almost every known Nigerian player, both home and abroad to stake claim for a shirt in the Eagles. At the last count, at least 300 players have been invited to the Eagles camp since 2011 when Keshi took over the team.
It was even in the process of re-building that the Eagles attended the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa and emerged champions. Even when they landed in South Africa, Keshi did not hide the fact that his team was not there to lift the trophy. All he wanted was to test the strength of the team he was building against the best players on the continent.
However, the moment the Eagles defeated the Elephants of Cote d’voire 2-1 in the quarter final, such modesty was replaced with the ‘yes we can’ belief. The Eagles went all the way to the finals where they beat the Stallions of Burkina Faso 1-0 for their third AFCON title.
The Eagles triumphed but their critics were not convinced. Such critics said it was an accidental discharge which should not mislead the coach and his wards into believing that they have arrived.
Thus, even as his team won, Keshi did not shy away from the fact that he is yet to raise a formidable team. Consequently, he continued to invite more players especially those who are playing abroad to come and fight for shirts.
Before the FIFA Confederation Cup in Brazil, Eagles lost some of their key players to injuries. Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike who emerged the most potent striker in South Africa, and Onaze Ogenyi who assisted John Mikel Obi to hold the midfield for the Eagles were all out of the Confederation Cup due to injuries.
The absence of these stars created room for additional strikers to come into the squad. Keshi therefore used the World Cup rehearsal to have a more detailed look at some of the strikers he used in the friendly against Mexico and the World Cup qualifier against Namibia.
Unfortunately, except for Nnamdi Odumandi, the Confederations Cup stage proved to be too big for most of the strikers. After beating Tahiti, the whipping team of the group 6-1, the Eagles lost 1-2 to Uruguay and 0-3 to Europe and World Champions, Spain. Eagles ouster has since been blamed on the strikers who failed to convert begging chances.
The lethargic performance of the team in Brazil indeed raised the blood pressure of most Nigerians. The team clearly emerged as the most profligate of all the teams that attended the championship.
The woeful showing of the Eagles has further fuelled calls for a total over-hauling of the team, if it is to qualify and also do well at the 2014 mundial. Eagles have their last qualifying game against Malawi at home.
If the words of Keshi are anything to go by, instead of moving forward, the champions of Africa are back to the drawing board. According to the Media Officer of the team, Mr. Ben Alaiya, coach Keshi while appealing to Nigerians to forgive the team for the less than average performance at the tournament said he knows exactly what to do.
He promised that the team will come good in the World Cup qualifiers. “We want to come back here next year and make an impact. This is a dress rehearsal and I can assure that the Super Eagles will be among the top nations when the Brazil 2014 World Cup starts”, he said.
Keshi also revealed that he has fresh options for the national team when the team resumes for the final World Cup qualifier match against Malawi in September.
Going by Keshi’s pronouncement, Nigerians are already reeling out names of strikers who should be recalled to come and salvage the deplorable situation.
If the news making the rounds is anything to go by, out of favour striker for club and country, Osaze Odemwingie will lead his compatriots like Victor Anichebe, Obinna Nsofor, Martins Obafemi, Kalu Uche, Michael Eneramo, Chinedu Ogbuke and Lukeman Haruna back to the team on a ‘rescue’ mission.
However, the question on the lips of most Nigerian football fans is can these aforementioned players provide solutions to Eagles goal scoring problems?. For most fans, the major problem with the Eagles is the failure of strikers like Ahmed Musa, Brown Ideye, Joseph Akpala, Michael Babatunde, and Anthony Ujah to rise to the occasion in the absence Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emenike.
So when the Eagles resume camping for the must win match against Malawi in September, Keshi will be giving maximum attention to getting strikers who would not shy away from hitting the opponents net as many times as possible.