It was a World Cup qualifier but the defeat made it look like losing a World Cup final. Super Eagles must have waken up this morning thinking that the game is for today. They may even have forgotten that they lost yesterday after keeping vigil with thoughts of the game, only to sleep in the wee hours of today.
Each time, it sinks in that it was Central Africa Republic that inflicted this massive defeat, the pain increases as one is forced to ask himself, how did our football get to this sorry state?
One big lesson the Wild Beasts of Central Africa Republic taught the Super Eagles is that, there are no minnows in football any more.
Football is no longer about stars but about commitment. We saw how Young Boys of Switzerland decisioned Manchester United in a UCL fixture. What about a certain Moldovan club called Sheriff FC shocking Real Madrid? And Benfica taking FC Barcelona to the cleaners?
From England, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, Holland and Turkey to mention a few, we gathered Super Eagles "stars" against a predominantly home based team of CAR yet fell like a pack of cards right in front of ourselves and before our watching eyes.
We were dazed...even Super Eagles surprised themselves. They would be feeling by now that it was a nightmare and they would be praying to jump off their beds, lace their boots and return to the pitch to decision CAR.
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Critics are of the opinion that if home based or NPFL selected players particularly the ones who played the international friendly against Mexico in the United States months ago, were the ones assembled against CAR, the result won't have been the same.
Well there is equally a counter opinion suggesting that the home based team won't have done any better looking at the recent performances of our clubs in the continent.
This clearly is a pointer that all is not well with our football. If our foreign based players can't excel with the national team yet our domestic league players can't give them a run for their money by battling to upstage them competitively for shirts then, our football truly is in a deep mess.
However, the issue at hand at the moment is how to wriggle out of this messy situation of Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Definitely Eagles have box themselves into a tight corner by falling to CAR.
Now they have to win and win and win to pick a ticket to Qatar. That is not negotiable. They have to role up their sleeves to do the needful. It is no longer going to be an easy group like we initially thought. It's going to be a battle till the ticket is grabbed.
CAR has exposed Super Eagles and announced to other teams that Eagles are beatable. So the remaining fixtures won't come easy.
CREDIT: DESMOND EKWUEME
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