Nigeria may look to young guns for World Cup
FOLLOWING his side’s 3-1 demolition of Bafana Bafana in their final Group A fixture of the African Nations Championship in Cape Town on Sunday, Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi says a number of his young players have put themselves in contention for a spot in his squad for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil later this year.
“That’s what I’m really looking for. Giving these kids the opportunity to play in a tournament like this and if I can pick one, two, three players from this tournament, already they have a little bit of experience,” Keshi said.
“This is the reason why I’m here. Yes, I’m looking forward to that; hopefully we gain two or three players that will make the home-based players proud.”
Christantus Ejike was one of Keshi’s troops who made a real impact, opening the scoring in the 22nd minute against South Africa, before Ifeanyi Ede scored the second from the penalty spot.
The visitors held a comfortable half-time lead before Ejike completed his brace on 64 minutes. Bafana managed to reduce the deficit as Bernard Parker scored from the spot.
The win was enough to see Nigeria safely through to the quarter-finals, having needed nothing short of three points to guarantee a spot in the knockout rounds of the tournament reserved exclusively for players plying their trade locally and not abroad.
The Super Eagles finished the group on six points, leap-frogging the South Africans and one point short of Mali, who advanced as the top side with seven points.
Keshi admitted Nigeria were under pressure to get the victory in their last group outing, following a defeat to Mali in their opening game.
“It’s all about identifying the mistakes we made in the previous match and trying to correct them in the training sessions,” Keshi said.
“Most importantly, it’s for the boys to relax and play their game. Most of us are new, we don’t know each other. We’re just beginning to know each other a little bit.”
The host nation needed only a draw to secure their place in the final eight of the tournament, but Ejike’s early strike sent Nigeria clear and they never looked back, despite both teams ending the game with 10 men. Red cards were dished out to Nigeria’s Solomon Kwambe and Bafana’s Vuyo Mere who received his marching orders a minute later.
Keshi denied being under pressure to replace his goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim, who had been heavily criticised ahead of the game for making a host of elementary mistakes in their two previous fixtures.
He complimented his shot-stopper for making several crucial saves to deny the likes of Katlego Mashego, Bernard Parker and Siphiwe Tshabalala.
“There is something we need to realise in this world – nobody’s perfect,” Keshi said.
“We’re bound to make mistakes and we need to carry on and give him that confidence. Mostly when something like that happens you have to say ‘that’s okay, he’s made his mistake’.
“Why do you have to punish a person again? He knows he has done it; it happens. If there was pressure, I didn’t see it. Nobody talked to me about pressure. I believe in my goalkeeper, I believe in my players and I make mistakes, but I have to keep going. I can’t stop. There was no pressure and he had a wonderful game today and I hope he keeps going.” – Sapa ORMER Bafana Bafana captain Lucas Radebe feels national team coach Gordon Igesund should have gambled and used more youngsters in the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN).
In a tournament that should be used to give up-and-coming youngsters a chance to prove themselves, Igesund, to no surprise, relied heavily on his tried and tested players who have failed the nation on countless occasions.
And, yet again, they disappointed, getting knocked out in the group stage following an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Nigeria at Cape Town Stadium on Sunday.
“To be very honest, I have a different view because I think the tournament is great for development. This is when we should have
Fthe future of the country playing, preparing ourselves for 2018 and onwards. “We know most of the boys who are in the (current) squad, guys like (Siphiwe) Tshabalala and (Bernard) Parker. They are good, but I don’t think these players have played to the best of their abilities yet,” Radebe said last week before the hammering by the Super Eagles.
In 2011, South Africa took a squad filled with unknown players from lower divisions to CHAN in Sudan but they gave a good account of themselves with hardly any support, reaching the quarterfinals where they were knocked out by Algeria.
The team was known as the South African development side – what it in fact should still be called – and Free State Stars’ Katlego Mashego was part of the squad.
The winger was one of the team’s best players in the competition as South Africa finished top of Group B ahead of Niger, Zimbabwe and Ghana with “unknown” players such as Sandile Luping and Thato Mogakabe.
At the time, Mashego was still a Baroka FC player in the third tier, but a year later was called up to the senior national team by Igesund after signing for Stars.
Another player who was in that squad coached by Simon Ngomane three years ago is Tiyani Mabunda. He was at Black Leopards and this season signed with big guns Mamelodi Sundowns.
At the Cosafa Cup in Zambia last year, Bafana were without many of their so-called best players, but they still managed to reach the final where they lost to the hosts.
Rudzaigh Gumede and Buhle Mkhwanazi all proved their worth at the competition.
Radebe, however, says he does not blame Igesund for doing everything to try to win the competition.
After all, Igesund had failed to win the last Africa Cup of Nations on home soil and to qualify for this year’s World Cup in Brazil, so he may have been desperate to win this competition, thinking some of his tried-and-tested would help him achieve that.
But losing with a group of youngsters while you build for the future is better than bowing out of the competition with players who are often referred to as stars but hardly ever deliver.
“You know what, every coach wants to win, you can’t blame him. As a coach, you are judged by your results, so he (Igesund) showed it from the word go that he wants to win it, but it’s a big risk.
“Once he falters, everybody will be hunting for his head, but I feel the youngsters should play. Let the youngsters get experience and prepare them for the World Cup in 2018,” said Radebe.
Igesund has faltered, but he did give Platinum Stars’ Lindokuhle Mbatha and Thato Mokeke of Ajax Cape Town a chance during CHAN and they did well, probably the only positive for him.
Next for Bafana is to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Having qualified for four tournaments as hosts in the last five years, Bafana now have the mammoth task of trying to qualify for the continent’s biggest tournament without the luxury of automatic qualification.
The future looks bleak. Today: Ghana Ethiopia 7pm, Libya v Congo Brazzaville, Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane 7pm
P W D L F APts Libya...........2 1 1 0 3 1 4 Ghana ........2 1 1 0 2 1 4 Congo ........2 1 0 1 1 1 3 Ethiopia......2 0 0 2 0 3 0 Group D ( Seeding: 1 Democratic Republic of Congo, 2 Gabon, 3 Burundi, 4 Mauritania). Matches at Peter Mokaba Stadium unless stated DR Congo 1, Mauritania 0, Gabon 0, Burundi 0 DR Congo 0, Gabon 1, Burundi 3, Mauritania 2 Tomorrow: DR Congo v Burundi 7pm, Gabon v Mauritania, Bloemfontein 7pm
P W D Burundi.......2 1 1 Gabon.........2 1 1 Congo DR...2 1 0 Mauritania .2 0 0 Group A ( Seeding: 1 South Africa, 2 Mali, 3 Nigeria, 4 Mozambique). Matches at Cape Town Stadium unless stated South Africa 3, Mozambique 1; Mali 2, Nigeria 1 South Africa 1, Mali 1; Nigeria 4, Mozambique 2 Sunday: South Africa 1, Nigeria 3; Mali 2, Mozambique 1
P W D L Mali..........3 2 1 0 Nigeria.....3 2 0 1 S Africa... 3 1 1 2 Moz .........3 0 0 3 Group B ( Seeding: 1 Zimbabwe, 2 Uganda, 3; Burkina Faso, 4 Morocco. Matches at Athlone Stadium unless stated Zimbabwe 0, Morocco 0; Uganda 2, Burkina Faso 1 Zimbabwe 0, Uganda 0; Burkina Faso 1, Morocco 1 Zimbabwe 1, Burkina Faso 0; Uganda 1, Morocco 3
P W D Morocco.....3 1 2 Zimbabwe..3 1 2 Uganda......3 1 1 Burkina F....3 0 1 Group C ( Seeding: 1 Ghana, 2 Libya, 3 Ethiopia, 4 Congo Brazzaville). Matches in Bloemfontein unless stated Ghana 1, Congo Brazzaville 0, Libya 2, Ethiopia 0 Ghana 1, Libya 1; Ethiopia 0, Congo Quarter-finals Jan 25: (1) Morocco v Nigeria 5pm, (2) Mali v Zimbabwe 8.30pm. Both Cape Town Stadium Jan 26: (3) Group D winners v Group C runners-up, Polokwane 5pm, (4) Group C winners v Group D runners-up, Bloemfontein 8.30pm Semi-finals Jan 29: Winners 2 v winners 3 5pm, winners 1 v winners 4 8.30pm. Both Bloemfontein Third place Feb 1: Losing semi-finalists, Cape Town Stadium 5pm Final, Feb 1: Winning semi-finalists, Cape Town Stadium 8pm L 0 0 1 2 F 3 8 5 3 F 3 1 1 2 APts 2 7 3 6 5 4 9 0 APts 2 5 0 5 4 4 4 1 APts 2 4 0 4 1 3 4 0 L 0 0 1 2 F 4 1 3 2