Come Friday, June 22, the Super Eagles of Nigeria will have the opportunity to make a bold statement at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Russia when they confront ‘giant killer’ Iceland.
Regrettably, the Eagles lost 0-2 to hard-fighting Croatia in their opening match, and must have learned one or two lessons from that defeat.
The host cities in Russia are already agog as the 2018 FIFA World Cup heats up, beginning with a 5-0 whitewash of Saudi Arabia by the hosts. As expected, Nigeria and other top football-playing nations that qualified for the Mundial have the opportunity to make bold statements with their skills, frills and thrills of the round-leather game.
Mikel’s promise that the Super Eagles will make Nigeria proud, should continue to ring in his ears of the players in the battle field, even as they battle Iceland and later Argentina in Group D
Against Iceland, it is expected that all the errors made by Super Eagles against resilient Croatia should be corrected effectively by the coaching crew, led by Gernot Rohr, to guarantee a successful outing.
Already, the Super Eagles are putting finishing touches to things in their build-up against newly crowned ‘giant killer’ Iceland, as Nigerian fans have continued to pray for the victory of the team before their last Group D cracker against mighty Argentina.
Soccer pundits have come to realise that the Super Eagles will need great luck and determining fighting spirit to break even against Iceland and also survive the fire-works in Russia.
The hopes of Nigerian soccer fans is high because a team which has for so long given Nigerians a dose of hypertensive football are on the prowl again, maybe to correct the errors of the past which made it impossible for them to go past the second round at the FIFA World Cup after their USA’94 debut.
To set the tone, Gernot Rohr has pulled some rather astounding selections for the cracker and many stakeholders are out to see what magic the coaching crew may offer generally in Russia.
Already captain Mikel Obi, fondly called ‘General Mikel’ by the Nigerian senior team playing body and backroom staff for his brilliant hold-up play, vision and authority on the field is optimistic of a good show in Russia.
Russia 2018 is Obi’s second FIFA World Cup as the midfield enforcer has played at every big stage of the game possible and is no longer awed by any occasion.
He started as a starry-eyed Eaglet with the Nigeria U17 in Finland in 2003, before dazzling at the U20 finals in The Netherlands two years later (where Nigeria came second behind Lionel Messi’s Argentina), and then led the Under-23 team to unexpected bronze medal at the Olympics in Brazil, two years ago.
With Chelsea FC of England, Obi played in and won the UEFA Champions League and the Europa Cup; won League and Cup titles in England and played at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Calm, collected and sure-footed as the three-time African champions look good to go with Mikel’s quality leadership against Iceland!
For the interest of our readers, the assuring words of Mikel should not be taken with a pinch of salt.
He revealed that the attitude that saw them through a tough African qualifying group is still there, and looking at the boys, he has the confidence that Eagles will deliver in Russia!
Finally for the team to achieve its objective, Obi is fully aware that he certainly has to provide more than the steel and great passes from the middle; in fact he needs to ‘carry’ the entire team on his back!
He did it before at the Olympic Games and Russia 2018 is another opportunity for Mikel to prove that all hopes are not lost for ambitious
Eagles!
In London, prior to the Mundial, Mikel presented gifts of headsets to his team mates, telling them the squad had no reason to play below expectation at the finals with the NFF having provided everything it needed, including the team’s share of the FIFA World Cup money, even before the ball was kicked in Russia.
HARD TACKLE expects that Mikel’s promise that the Super Eagles will make Nigeria proud, should continue to ring in his ears of the players in the battle field, even as they battle Iceland and later, Argentina in
Group D.
