The crash-landing of Super Eagles

Super Eagles . Photo/twitter/NGSuperEagles

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the ‘plane’ taking the Super Eagles to Qatar 2022 crash-landed on the tarmac of the Moshood Abiola International Stadium, Abuja. It was both fatal and catastrophic in the wake of some tragic events following the crash.

It will take a long, torturous and painful forensic investigation to unearth the full extent and implications of the events of that night.

So, permit me to take a short-cut, cut out all the fine details, and look at a basic and most straightforward cause of this monumental catastrophe, for that’s what the encounter with the Black Stars of Ghana, last Tuesday, would turn out to be when the full costs to Nigeria are counted.

To start with, and ironically too, the Super Eagles did not actually lose the match. They did not lose the first match in Kumasi either. In both matches, they did not play as if their lives depended on it, so they did not win. They were not psychologically primed enough. Except Osimhen, of course, this last Tuesday night in Abuja.

These Black Stars were the worst I have seen of the Ghana national team since I have been watching or playing against them from the early 1970s to date.

In Abuja, last Tuesday, they were simply lucky. The only single shot they took at the Nigerian goal throughout the 90 minutes duration of the match, a half-chance from outside the box that should have been easily dealt with by any average goalkeeper slipped through his hands. That single shot produced their only goal. It must now rank among the luckiest goal in Ghana’s entire football history.

After that, the match could have gone on for the next year and the Ghanaians would not have scored a second goal.

On the other hand, the Nigerian team