The super Eagles of Nigeria were drawn in the Group C of the African Cup of Nations 2010 in the Angolan city of Benguela with group rivals Egypt, Benin and Mozambique. The first game with Egypt on January 12 proved to be the most difficult of all. This is because of the quality of opposition. The Egyptians though largely reported in the press and broadcast media to be depleted due to absence of key players such as Mohammed Aboutreeka, Mido, Zaki, etc due to injuries, proved to be as strong as ever. Honestly, technical and tactically speaking, against the Eagles, and the two other subsequent group rivals, the Egyptians didn’t look any bit depleted. Their tactical discipline and technical quality remained as efficient as ever. The pharaohs don’t seem to be fading out at all as is being touted by some sections of the sporting press.
With star players such as Mohammed Zidan, Meteeb, Gomaa, Capt. Hassan, the goalkeeper El-Hadari who is great at launching some very dangerous counter attacks (such as the one that caught Nigeria’s midfield, defense and goalkeeper helplessly napping in the 40th minute and resulted in the Egyptian equalizer), honestly, the pharaohs remain a great side. I sincerely believe it may be unfortunate and a big disservice to this continent Africa, that such a great side will not be at Africa’s first indigenous hosted World Cup in South Africa 2010.
This is the kind of opposition Nigeria found itself with in its first game at Angola 2010. where the eagles prepared enough for such a tough opposition. The rest is history now, our darling Super Eagles were convincingly beaten by the more prepared, more tactically and technically sound Egyptians pharaohs.
Why were our Super Eagles so convincingly beaten by the Egyptians? Where the Eagles really bad on that day? Was the Eagles starting line-up good enough? Was the formation of Coach Amodu proper? Then why that embarrassing defeat? This are our pertinent questions?
Actually on that day the Eagles weren’t totally bad (I would say). In fact they started the game better than the Egyptians, only if they had kept the momentum through out the game. First of all, let’s talk about the starting line-up, and the formation.
Goal: Vincent Enyeama
Defense: Yusuf Mohammed, Joseph Yobo, Obinna Nwaneri, Taye Taiwo
Midfield: Mikel Obi, Dickson Etuhu, Yusuf Ayila
Attack: Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Chinedu Obasi, Kalu Uche
This was Coach Amodu’s starting line-up in his very first game at the Angola 2010 Nations Cup. Clearly, this is a 4:3:3 formation, capable of transforming into 4:4:2 or 4:5:1 depending on the flow of the game. Honestly, this line-up and formation was a very strong one (except perhaps for one factor—Yakubu—which I’ll talk about later) if nothing, at least, with the start of the match. That was why the Super Eagles matched the Pharaohs in the first half of the match. Some have crucified Amodu for starting with two defensive midfielders (Etuhu and Ayila). That criticism is absolutely wrong. That is not the point fro which to criticize a coach, the biggest coaches and teams also do that. It’s not wrong, and it brings them results since they know what their match plan is. So why is it wrong when Amodu does it. So that is not the point for us to criticize Amodu. We’ll criticize him later. So the Eagles starting line-up and formation against Egypt’s Pharaohs we must agree was a strong one.
Another thing is this, the Eagles under Amodu have proved to very susceptible to counter attacks (as clearly shown in the World cup qualifying series against Tunisia and Mozambique in Abuja), and even in this game against Egypt. Fielding a formation of two defensive midfielders is a way of curtailing such vulnerability, so there is no error in that, rather, it is supposed to be a paying and profitable decision—with a good match plan that is. Besides, the two defensive midfielders fielded (Ayila and Etuhu) are each known to be strong on the offensive too (Ayila is known to have scored goals before in the Super Eagles).
However, there was a major weakpoint and loophole in that team on that day, it showed itself as the game progressed, and in two subsequent group matches against Benin and Mozambique, and further in the championship. This loophole was no other than Yakubu Aiyegbeni, we’ll talk more about him later.
So in the first half, the Eagles played a balanced game, even getting the Egyptians to struggle on some occasions, and making chances of their own.
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