Lack of cohesion may cost Eaglets title

October 25, 2009

By Ifeanyi Ibeh

Former Green Eagles player and coach, Paul Hamilton, believes the Golden Eaglets’ apparent lack of cohesion and teamwork may prevent them from staging a successful defence of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The Golden Eaglets on Saturday came back from the brink of defeat to force Germany to a 3-3 draw at the National Stadium, Abuja. The Golden Eaglets, the tournament’s defending champions, were 2-0 down at the break and, two minutes after the commencement of the second half, conceded yet another goal against the European champions.

The 53rd minute sending off of German defender, Robert Labus, after he hauled down Omoh Ojabu in the area, and Stanley Okoro’s subsequent conversion of the resultant penalty kick, however, sparked a heroic fight-back for the Golden Eaglets, who then went ahead to score two more goals in quick succession through Kenneth Omeruo, in the 59th minute, and Edafe Egbedi, in the 61st minute.

But Hamilton feels the team’s lack of cohesion may stop it from a successful title defence adding that the core of a junior team in a competition is its ability to “fit in and play as one”.

Hamilton, while citing examples, said: “This is a cadet competition, the boys playing in this competition are home-grown; they ought to play with a certain level of understanding which, unfortunately, is lacking among our boys. The teamwork isn’t there; we did not see that cohesion that should characterise a cadet team.

“Look at Brazil and even Switzerland, we saw fantastic players playing beautiful football. The cohesion was there. The team that played against Germany lacks that.”

Role of MRI

Hamilton, who manages a weekend soccer academy also blamed the Eaglets’ performance on the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test failure, which resulted in the dropping of as many as 15 players, and the frequent changes of coaches.

“We are harvesting what we have sown. Do you remember how many coaches the team had within two years,” asked Hamilton before retorting: “none of the coaches spent a year. “The MRI failure too contributed; weeks into the tournament we still did not have a team.

“In Japan 93, [Nwankwo] Kanu and the boys spent more than two years together under Fanny Amun and we saw the result. The boys played beautiful football, the cohesion was there and we got the cup. The same in Atlanta 96, our boys won the cup because there was understanding in the team.

“For the senior team it is a little different, most play internationally and may not have enough time to prepare for a competition, relying more often on their experience and the direction of the coach to team up. But the cadets shouldn’t have that problem,” added Hamilton who, however gave credit to the team for pulling a draw against the Germans, just as he “expects them to improve with subsequent matches.”

Hamilton isn’t alone with regards to his expectations as a former Super Eagles defender and captain of the victorious China ‘85 Golden Eaglets side, Nduka Ugbade is also of the opinion that the performance of the Nigerian team at the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup will only get better as the tournament progresses.

Ugbade, who had praises for the players, along with the technical crew, for coming back from three goals down against the Germans, said: “It was an incredible match and a wonderful advertisement for football.

“The boys and their coaches deserve a pat on the back for getting a draw. They did well to have come from three goals down and I feel they will get better now that the opening match is behind them.

Damman miracle repeated

“It was like watching the Damman miracle all over again,” added Ugbade with reference to the thrilling encounter between Nigeria and th e former USSR in the Saudi Arabian city of Damman at the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup which saw the Flying Eagles coming back from four-nil down to draw level with the Soviets before going on to win on penalties.

It wasn’t all plaudits though from Ugbade for the Golden Eaglets, as he feels that they could have won the game had they been more com posed from the outset.

“They appeared nervous, especially at the beginning,” continued Ugbade. “They weren’t confiden t of what they could do with the ball and gave too much room to the Germans to operate.”