Football | Super Eagles
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The Seychellois ref Bernard Camille was scratching his head
in confusion and so frankly speaking were we. And by 'we' I mean the
actual 35,000 fans sitting in Mbombela
Stadium, Nelspruit watching the
game live, and the other hundreds of thousands watching it unfold in the
Diaspora by other various means. He had just sent off the Burkinabe GK
Abdoulaye Soulama for a reckless tackle against Ethiopia and rather than
been shell shocked and being trampled the 10 man Stallions were now
doing the trampling.
It is the 2013 Afcon in South Africa and Ethiopia had just come off a
1-1 draw with the then African champion Zambia. Normally that should
have been enough for celebration in Addis but it was not and the
Ethiopians were also grinding their teeth in frustration because they
totally out played the Chipolopolo , and should have won by at least two
goals except for poor finishing.
Facing them were the Stallions who had just held their own against the other group favourite Nigeria, and clawed their way back in to the game with an Al. Traoré strike during added time to seal a 1-1 draw. So the expectations were understandably high on either side.
One only has to watch the Ethiopians celebrate a mere corner kick to see that they are, just as their fans, are a very emotional team. And frankly speaking who can blame them? After all the last time they won anything of true continental substance TV was still in black and white. This infusion of stimuli is fantastic when it works as we saw in their WC Knockout qualification game against Central Africa, where they came from behind riding such a wave to bang in two goals past the Wild Beast’s GK in a 15 minute span.
Once in awhile though it can backfire and today would be such a day. As we know 10 man Burkina Faso would go on to win 4-0 by simply deflating the Ethiopian state of mind despite being a man up. They did this by playing more physical with Bance and friends repeatedly inviting the one on one duel up front. They were relentless.
And to me this is why I think for Nigeria to win in Addis in October, in addition to Moses’ incursions deep into enemy Real Estate, Emenike has to be more domineering right from the start. He must play like his hair cut and be the tip of the spear by running at the Antelope defenders till we are either up 4-0 or he is close to fainting in exhaustion.
In the last game against Ethiopia he gave 75 minutes of so so work. In Addis just 45 minutes of brute force excellence will do. Meanwhile in the back I want Oboabona to be married with their slippery poacher Said for the full 90 minutes. Sahladin can only be left alone during the singing of the national anthems.
If Nigeria can carry out this trilogy of assignments Ethiopia will surely not just fall but crumble as she did against our West African cousins.
Facing them were the Stallions who had just held their own against the other group favourite Nigeria, and clawed their way back in to the game with an Al. Traoré strike during added time to seal a 1-1 draw. So the expectations were understandably high on either side.
One only has to watch the Ethiopians celebrate a mere corner kick to see that they are, just as their fans, are a very emotional team. And frankly speaking who can blame them? After all the last time they won anything of true continental substance TV was still in black and white. This infusion of stimuli is fantastic when it works as we saw in their WC Knockout qualification game against Central Africa, where they came from behind riding such a wave to bang in two goals past the Wild Beast’s GK in a 15 minute span.
Once in awhile though it can backfire and today would be such a day. As we know 10 man Burkina Faso would go on to win 4-0 by simply deflating the Ethiopian state of mind despite being a man up. They did this by playing more physical with Bance and friends repeatedly inviting the one on one duel up front. They were relentless.
And to me this is why I think for Nigeria to win in Addis in October, in addition to Moses’ incursions deep into enemy Real Estate, Emenike has to be more domineering right from the start. He must play like his hair cut and be the tip of the spear by running at the Antelope defenders till we are either up 4-0 or he is close to fainting in exhaustion.
In the last game against Ethiopia he gave 75 minutes of so so work. In Addis just 45 minutes of brute force excellence will do. Meanwhile in the back I want Oboabona to be married with their slippery poacher Said for the full 90 minutes. Sahladin can only be left alone during the singing of the national anthems.
If Nigeria can carry out this trilogy of assignments Ethiopia will surely not just fall but crumble as she did against our West African cousins.
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