by Segun Ake

Stephen Keshi also seem like a boss, a man that knows what he wants and has achieved some feat at Togo (qualifying them for their first world cup but he did not take them to the world cup as he fell out with the Togolese FA).

The Super Eagles of Nigeria are 90 minutes away from qualifying for their 5th world cup finals after a 2-1 away win in Addis Ababa against Ethiopia 2 weeks ago.

On Saturday, November 16th in UJ Esuene stadium in Calabar the African Champions will look to secure their qualification by playing a draw or winning out rightly. Ermmm, a win would be better… right? A comprehensive win will send Nigerian fans into wild celebration.

I have a feeling this current crop of players peradventure Keshi and NFF are still in good terms next year, will better our 2nd round achievements in 1994 and 1998.

Stop thinking we may fail to qualify, this is football bla bla bla but that’s not possible. I am all but positive today. – No more negativity!

Since the 2010 world cup, we have suffered negativity in our football not until this year.

A year that seems like it may all go wrong at the beginning of 2013 with the media writing off the Super Eagles before the AFCON tournament when the team was in turmoil, Stephen Keshi was been criticized for dropping some of the top players and sticking with the younger players  and home based players.

I was optimistic though, I liked the look of the team and I felt as underdogs we seem to do better. Stephen Keshi also seem like a boss, a man that knows what he wants and has achieved some feat at Togo (qualifying them for their first world cup but he did not take them to the world cup as he fell out with the Togolese FA).

Against all odds, the Super eagles were crowned African Champions for the third time and we went on a winning streak not until we lost against Uruguay and Spain back to back in the FIFA confederations cup,  we looked like a fantastic team despite losing with literally no experienced striker .

Last weekend, our U-17 team was crowned world champions in UAE after thrashing Mexico 3-0 in the finals making Nigeria the most successful team in the FIFA U-17 World cup. Ermmm, England will be jealous with this our success o, lol.

So, ask yourself why you are not optimistic about tomorrow’s game? Ehn? Just go and book your trip to Brazil jare, as the Super Eagles are just 90 minutes away from flying into Brazil.

Securing qualification tomorrow in Calabar will increase the chances of Mikel Obi to win the African footballer of the year awards, as he has been the main man for the team.

The players know what is at stake; most of them will be playing at their first world cup if they make it through.

Mikel missed out of South Africa 2010 due to injury and the Chelsea man is looking forward to Brazil 2014 as that will be his first world cup finals.

“For me it’s going to be special because I missed out on the last one with a knee injury,” Mikel said.

“But it will be the same for everyone in the team as well, that’s why we are working very hard towards this goal.

“A lot of the guys haven’t been there before either so we are all working very hard and hopefully we get the result we are hoping for.”

Stephen Keshi is not putting pressure on his lads; he believes they know they have to finish the job tomorrow.

“I don’t have to tell them how important this game is to their careers and the country. So there is no pressure on them as we want them to finish the good job they started,” Keshi said.

If Ethiopia fails to get a goal in the first 10 minutes, I believe the Super Eagles will thrash them.
Ethiopia will chase the game tomorrow which will give Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa joy to exploit the spaces behind their defence.

I look forward to a comprehensive win for the Super Eagles, something like the Semi-final match at the last AFCON 2013 against Mali.

Then, we can commence full preparations for the world cup as from the match against Italy in England on November 18th.

All credit must go to the people behind the success in our football, from NFF to the Sports minister.
Kudos, they did a great job with the National teams this year.

Brazil 2014, here we come! Go Super Eagles!

 

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This post is published with permission from Segun Ake

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.