Charismatic Eagles to light up South Africa 2010

"Letter from South Africa" is Omoseye Bolaji's regular weekly column published in the Nigerian newspaper, True National News. The column comes out every Monday. True National News is circulated all over Nigeria.

November 29 2009 edition

LETTER FROM SOUTH AFRICA

(Column by OMOSEYE BOLAJI)

Charismatic Eagles to light up South Africa 2010

It was not only the fervent, proliferating hordes of Nigerian football lovers who celebrated after the Super Eagles finally clinched qualification for World Cup 2010 after a tortuous campaign. Even here in South Africa large numbers of South African football enthusiasts lustily celebrated too.

This included sports anchormen, presenters and pundits in the South African media here who were all united that “an African World Cup without the presence of Nigeria would be unthinkable” – as well known South African football expert and analyst Pule Lechesa said on air. Of course the many Nigerians in South Africa celebrated lustily too; the hope was still there though many felt qualification had been blown.

Many South Africans winced with horror when Nigeria allowed Tunisia to score a very late last gasp goal in Abuja to evince a 2-2 scoreline that gave Tunisia the advantage to advance to the finals. In fact many local South African reporters were so distraught about this draw that they sympathised with me as if I had lost someone dear!

But as the aphorism goes, hope springs eternal in the human heart. The match against Mozambique provided another chance for Nigeria to put things right at least a tad better; but once again it was something of a horror show as the Eagles laboured embarrassingly in Abuja before clinching all three points with a late goal. But the fact was that Mozambique had a tidy, tactically astute squad. If only they could show their prowess against Tuinisia in the last game and do Nigeria a big favour!

It has now gone into history that this is indeed what happened. Mozambique put Tunisia to the sword and following Nigeria’s win in Kenya, qualification was assured! Nigeria had been largely lucky admittedly but then Nigerian football history shows that Tunisia have never been push-overs. In fact they have consistently given Nigerians grief over the decades. Who can still forget the Godwin Odiye own goal in 1977 that prodded Tunisia to Argentina 78? Or the way they eliminated Nigeria from the 1986 finals?

But South African healthy respect for Nigerian football is rather deep-rooted (in fairly recent times) No sooner were South Africa let back into the international fraternity of football than Nigeria thrashed them 4-0 in Lagos (1992). Over the next few years at the time Nigerian football became respected greatly in South Africa as the Eagles not only qualified for World Cup 1994; but also won the Nations Cup finals in 1994 – a tournament shown live to the millions of soccer lovers in South Africa.

Hence Rashidi Yekini, Emannuel Amunike, Austin Okocha, Daniel Amokachi, Sunday Oliseh, Stephen Keshi etc soon became household names here in South Africa. It was a superb team – which made it very tragic indeed when Nigeria did not participate at the Nations Cup finals in 1996 hosted by South Africa. The latter went on to win the tournament but many still wonder what would have happened if the Super Eagles had participated.

The irresistible allure surrounding the Nigerian squad was accentuated again when they won the 1996 Olympics gold medal! It was a team containing most of the already well known giants of the Eagles (and included the great Kanu Nwankwo at his best) Nigeria brilliantly defeated Brazil and Argentina in the final stages to win the Cup and another legend was born.

Step forward two more years and the Eagles were the darling of South Africans and the world as they did reasonably well at the 1998 World Cup finals. Austin Okocha’s superb dribbling skills lit up the tournament and Sunday Oliseh’s fantastic winning goal - and fulsome celebrations - against Spain made him a superstar here.

South Africa continued their respect and fear for the Super Eagles over the years, especially when Bafana Bafana were beaten again in 2000 and in 2004 during the Nations Cup finals. The 2004 defeat was particularly disheartening for South Africans – a 4-0 win, with young Odemwingie scoring two superb goals.

The question in South Africa was thus: will Bafana Bafana (their national soccer squad) ever manage to beat the Eagles? Till date this has not happened in competitive matches, though in 2004 in what was little more than a friendly South Africa managed at last to win by two goals to one – their first win ever over Nigeria. We might as well point out that even the South African national female team (Banyana Banyana) received batterings from their Nigerian counterparts over the years.

In the last competitive round of matches between the Eagles and South Africa (the Nations Cup/World Cup qualifiers) last year Nigeria won again both home and away – a major reason why South Africa will not be among those participating in the next Nations Cup finals early next year.

And what about at club football level? Suffice it to say that a coterie of Nigerians have made their mark in the local South African league over the years. Perhaps the two most outstanding were William Okpara (Goalkeeper) who led Orlando Pirates to great glory over ten years ago; and Raphael Chukwu, the bustling powerful striker who did wonders for Mamelodi Sundowns. This current season (2009/2010) Prince Olomu of Nigeria has been banging in the goals devastatingly for premiership side, Bloemfontein Celtic in South Africa.

With this healthy respect for Nigerian football on South African shores, it was no surprise that even the progress of the Golden Eaglets was watched with interest as they proceeded to the final of the Under 17 World Cup recently. The eventual loss to Switzerland garnered some shock and sadness among many South Africans.

The Super Eagles are guaranteed mammoth support when they play in the World Cup here in South Africa next year…