By Chris Onokpegu, just back from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

I know many people would be wondering why this is coming up two weeks after they have gone over the trauma of losing the trophy in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Well, the reason is because some of us who witnessed what happened are just recovering from it.

Meanwhile, one of the reasons why the writer is putting up this piece is to let the public know what transpired, learn a lesson and probably find solutions to some of the anomalies that made Nigeria lose to the host nation on Sunday, February 11, 2024.

There is no doubt that the Super Eagles gave it all it takes to get to the final of the tournament against all odds. No one believed that they would get to the second round let alone get to the final because of the kinds of oppositions they met – Cameroon, Angola and South Africa couple with their performances at the last AFCON in Cameroon 2022 where they crashed out in the second round.

Despite their good performances, many were still not happy with the way they played in the final, while some put the blame on some players who they claimed did not lift their games, others put the blame on the doorsteps of the coach who they believed is tactically deficient and got exposed in the final.

However, from an eyewitness account, many things contributed to why the Super Eagles lost and some things also happened behind the scenes, they are as follows:

Injuries to key players
Firstly, most of the Super Eagles players played with injuries because of patriotism. For instance, Stanley Nwabili had injuries on his two fingers and when Nigerians saw what happened to Francis Uzoho’s confidence when he replaced Nwabili in the match against Cameroon, some Journalists and few supporters club members that were present at the Eagles training were praying and begging him to be fit on time for the quarter final match against Angola. Nwabili has to play with injury in the semi final and final match against Cote d’ivoire.

Williams Troost Ekong also played with leg injury all through the tournament. He was absent in training before the quarter and semi final matches. He played with bandages throughout the tournament because of patriotism and still gave his best.

Victor Osimhen also got injured in the match against Cameroon but continued to play till the end of the tournament because of patriotism. The coach couldn’t risk him for another striker hence overstretching, overstressing and overworking him. The workload on Osimhen, Onyekachi, others were just too much. The players on the bench were not as good as the first 11 players that played the matches all through.

Zaidu Sanusi was also seen training alone on the Monday before the final because of injury. Even though we didn’t know the state of his injury, he struggled throughout the tournament and it was evidenced in some of the matches.

Wrong selection and tactics adopted
The Super Eagles also lost the final because of selection problems on the part of the coach. Research has shown that Samuel Chukwueze is an intelligent player who can study a match and get in as a substitute to change things but starting a match, he would be a shadow of himself even though he understands Osimhen very well, having played together in the junior team.

It is said in the local parlance that, “You don’t change the winning team.” If the selection from the beginning of the tournament worked till the final, why bring in Chukwueze in the place of Simon Moses who has always been the third player terrorizing the opponents apart from Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman.

Even if the opponents have understood the way the Eagles play, he can as well adopt another tactic or swap Lookman for Simon or use one of them as a force striker while Osimhen deceives the defenders. Football is all about creativity, there is no one way of playing it. We saw what the coach of Cote d’Ivoire did to ensure that the Super Eagles don’t play their normal game. If your opponent doesn’t allow you to play, you also look for a way to do the same or force them to play your style.

Another thing that was lacking was the ability to switch tactics. If there was a good match reader on the bench, the coach would have quickly switched instead of seating back and going on a counter that he adopted all through. Even former Super Eagles midfielder, Seyi Olofinjana faulted Jose Peseiro’s approach and claimed that such tactics cannot take them far and should not be adopted during the world cup qualifiers and world cup proper.

Also, playing an offensive player like Alex Iwobi as a defensive player was also a wrong tactic on the part of the coach, that is why some fans were not happy with Iwobi’s performances because they know what he is capable of doing and what he does for his club, Fulham. Iwobi was instrumental to Manchester United’s defeat at Old Trafford last Saturday, scoring one of the goals.

Peseiro also did not help the team with his wrong tactics. Once they score a goal, they will start defending till the end, that is not Super Eagles or Nigerian style of play. It overworks the players and makes them play with fear and have an inferiority complex against their opponents even the smaller countries.

Substitution problem
Just like the coach got it wrong in the selection, some of his substitutions were not on point. Bringing in Aribo for an energetic game that requires strength and removing Onyeka was a blunder. African football requires physicality and players like Aribo are too fragile, he will do better when playing against a European team or North Africans not teams like Cameroon, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, etc.

Exclusion of NPFL players
Excluding the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL players from the AFCON was another blunder committed by the coach. No matter how bad the NPFL players are, they are still being sorted after by foreign clubs. Investigation has shown that many of them leave the shores of the country almost on a monthly basis. Even if they are not good enough, one or two of them can be on the team to understudy their foreign counterparts, afterall four players didn’t play throughout the AFCON – Ahmed Musa, Chigozie Awaziem, Bruno Onyemaechi and Raphael Onyedika.

If late Stephen Keshi had jettisoned the idea of not including the home based players, I doubt if any of the foreign based players, most of them bench warmers in their clubs, would have taken the risk Sunday Mba took to score in the final against Burkina Faso in South Africa 2013.

African football is all about physicality hence there is a need to put one or two local league players in the team. They are good fighters and not scared of taking risks. Apart from Ekong, Onyeka, Osimhen, Lookman, Moses and Bassey, others are not that strong to fight. Even when some top shots in the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF suggested to Peseiro, he refused, claiming the players are not good enough.

Low distractions
There were very low distractions in the Eagles camp compared to what it used to be in the past. Although there were ladies of easy virtues who pretend to come visit different guests but the Eagles were disciplined. The hotel the team stayed at is actually a four-star hotel that also accommodated other teams and guests.

Intimidation/Support from the crowd
If what was noticed on the last day was anything to go by, then Cote d’Ivoire deserves to win the AFCON. The support was massive, the fans won the match for the team. The country did a good job off the pitch. A day before the match, Yours Sincerely was at Adjame Market and saw crowds rushing to purchase jerseys of their national team. The traders on their parts also reduced the cost by half the price. A jersey that was sold for 6,000 cefa on Friday was reduced to 3,000 cefas on Saturday, same quality while on the other hand, Nigerian jerseys were skyrocketing, people capitalising on the rush for it while some people were also busy doing tickets racketeering hence the few numbers of Nigerians in the stadium.

And while the match was on, the fans of the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire were alive, busy chatting and gingering their team up even when they were a goal down, it would have been the opposite if it were the Super Eagles playing at home and losing.

The fans were resilient until their team came back, equalised and eventually won the match. The gates of the stadium were also thrown open even though it was against CAF rule. Some of us couldn’t watch the second half in the stadium because of the intimidation from their fans even the Vice President, Kashim Shettima who was very passionate that night couldn’t watch the second half because of pressure from the crowd. If spectators like us could be uncomfortable, what is expected of the players who were being booed by the Ivorians to frustrate them.

Low support – no sponsors, ambush marketing
Talking about support, the Super Eagles did not enjoy enough support. They might have enjoyed financial support from the NFF through the federal government, media support from media houses but they had limited support from fans. Only a few supporters club members were on ground and were not felt on the final day because they were overwhelmed.

It was reported in the news that some corporate bodies were promising the team so many packages if they win, that is what is called Ambush Marketing. Where were they when the team was preparing and crying for money. To worsen the matter, none of them could channel their money into bringing Nigerians from Nigeria, neighbouring countries to Cote D’Ivoire (Ghana, Mali, Togo, Benin Republic, some of them have supporters clubs branches). What was noticed was dignitaries, who will not be able to shout or ginger the team to victory.