Third Time Charm?

Shaibu Amodu was appointed the national team coach last month with the express mandate of qualifying for SA2010. Our qualifying group includes Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone and South Africa, who are already guaranteed a spot in the Cup as host country. Amodu has previously coached the Super Eagles in 1996 and 2002 when he led the team to qualify for the World Cup and the African Cup of Nations. Can he lead us out of the trophyless wilderness of the past 12 years and into the Promised Land of World Cup greatness?

Amodu is assisted in this gargantuan task by Daniel Amokachi, Alloy Agu and Fatai Amoo, all of whom have donned the national jersey at some point. Whether that will help their mission any remains to be seen.

Goalkeepers: Dele Aiyenugba, Austin Ejide, Vincent Enyeama
Defenders: Onyekachi Apam, Elderson Echiejile, Yusuf Mohamed, Obinna Nwaneri, Chidi Odiah, Danny Shittu, Taye Taiwo, Joseph Yobo
Midfielders: Yusuf Ayila, Uche Kalu, Haruna Lukman, John Obi Mikel, Seyi Olofinjana, Ike Uche
Forwards: Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Victor Anichebe, Nwankwo Kanu, Obafemi Martins, Obinna Nsofor, Peter Odemwingie, Kayode Odejayi, Emmanuel Okoduwa, John Utaka

For now, they have announced their team for the qualifiers as listed above. Right off the bat, it seems overly dependent on strikers, which creates a number of issues, some of which Emmanuel touched on previously. This lineup is woefully deficient in the midfield, and not much better in the defense. Since it is almost impossible to win any tournament without a coherent defense, Amodu’s task becomes an uphill journey. This team does not include any players from the Nigerian Leagues, which indicates to me a lack of vision in discovering new talent. Amodu is notorious for that, having gone on the record in the past as not recruiting from the local teams.

This group also bears a strong resemblance to Berti Vogts’ Nation’s Cup cohort, and we all witnessed how well that worked out. I hope I’m just being overly pessimistic and that the team will execute each qualifying match with flawless precision. Amodu has done some good work in the past and with any luck he will be able to do even better.