NIGERIA WORLD CUP WOES AGAIN
The aftermath of the world cup draws held in Zürich on the 6th of December saw Nigeria's super eagles drawn in group F with South American giant Argentina, Asian super weight iran and Bosnia Herzegovina. Nigeria who is the first country to qualify for the 2014 world cup to be held in Brazil are coincidentally the Reigning champion after defying all odds and expectations by emerging victorious at 2013 edition of the African cup of nation held in South Africa earlier this year.
The success of the super eagles can attributed to the immense dedication of this crop of players who are both home and foreign based and also the assertion of authority by the head coach Stephen okechukwu keshi, the same man who captained Nigeria to her first ever appearance at the world in 1994 in USA, this was after he had lifted Nigeria's second nation cup trophy the same year in Tunis, Tunisia.
The 1994 world cup is the country's most successful outing since her debut that same year where the super eagles qualified for the second round but lost to eventual runner-up italy after normal time courtesy of two Roberto baggio goals, one before ninety minutes and the other during extra time.
The mould of players in this present super eagles is quite similar to that of the USA 94 boys, they consist of highly determined players who want to make a name for themselves and also they also recently won the afcon just like the 94 set did before going for the world cup.
I have no doubt in my heart that Nigeria's outing will be successful but the fact remains that every time we are drawn together with Argentina we always end up on the losing side always by a one nil margin, in 94 they won 2-1 in 2002 they won 1-0 in 2010 they won 1-0 also apart from 94 in USA we didn't qualify from our group.
Presently Argentina possesses the most dangerous strike force on earth consisting of perpetual goal scorers including four times FIFA world player of the year Lionel Messi, sergio aguero and Gonzalo Higiuan in the ranks. They have the most chance to progress from the group.
Iran on the other hand no doubt will end their world cup campaign bottom of group F, while bosnia who is participating in the world cup for the first time could pose a threat to Nigeria's chances.
With all said i still think and hope that Nigeria performs incredibly by progressing to the quarter final and beyond so as to rubbish the FIFA rankings which sets us at 46th in the world and fourth in Africa even after winning the Nations cup and the
FIFA under 17 world cup.
Abimbola beejaycomb is a columnist who loves writing on different issues be it sport, entertainment, religion etc. Follow on twitter @iam_beejaycomb or call 08169474391