Mikel’s goal

I woke up from sleep Thursday morning with this sneaky feeling that John Mikel Obi may score a goal for Nigeria against Ethiopia on Sunday.

I looked at my watch and noticed it was 4.30am. I waved the thought aside and slept. Still the feeling of seeing Mikel’s goal to silence his critics loomed large.

We must guide Mikel’s career path lest he goes astray. His recent bench roles spell doom for him at Chelsea especially with the way Michael Essien and the dark skinned Brazilian Luiz Ramires are playing and scoring goals.

Mikel’s goal-scoring records are as far and wide apart as the dentition of the 90-year-olds.

Mikel’s voyage to Europe came with a price because he went there a raw talent eager to be taught how to play football properly.

As a naïve boy, he imbibed what he was taught and soon became the pivot of Chelsea’s tactics.

He has stuck religiously to the script but needs to be more adventurous in his game.

Besides, he needs another tactician to teach him. This task falls on Samson Siasia and I hope he can look at Mikel in the face and say ‘get me goals against Ethiopia and see what I will do for you.’

Mikel can only improve on his game, if told what to do. He wouldn’t be the player that we crave to see, if he is allowed to play the Chelsea way for the Super Eagles.

Ethiopia is not a formidable opponent; so, if Siasia is worth his onions, he should give him more responsibilities that would tempt him to take shots at goal.

Playing centrally in the midfield for Chelsea restricts Mikel. He stays on one spot, wins tackles and either plays backwards or sideways. This style cannot make him a great player. He needs to look at Lionel Messi and say to himself, ‘I can do better because I feel strongly that no coach teaches Messi what he does on the pitch.’

What Mikel lacks is the knack to take the ball forward towards the goal and, possibly, hit it beyond the goalkeeper’s reach.

This pattern comes with practice and showing Mikel clips of soccer greats who possessed such skills for him to learn.

Siasia should give Mikel a free role against Ethiopia. Intermittently, he should use the Chelsea star to change his match tactics since he is easily our most experienced midfielder.

The temptation to tilt towards Joel Obi will be strong for Siasia. But Mikel looks hungry for action. He knows what he needs to do. I see him scoring on Sunday against Ethiopia. I can’t wait to read the fallouts from this goal which has taken quite awhile. Good luck Mikel; bravo Siasia; and Eureka Super Eagles!

Yobo’s decade

I’m a sad man today. My pain stems from the fact that we don’t know how to celebrate landmarks perhaps because we don’t keep records.

Joseph Yobo has been humiliated by Samson Siasia in the week leading to his decade appearance in the Super Eagles.

Elsewhere, players and coaches would have wrapped a surprise package for Yobo, not the derisive sharing of room saga.

Ten unbroken playing years for the Eagles ought to bring joy to the achiever but I know that Yobo is a sad man.

I can bet that Siasia doesn’t know this fact.

If he did, he would have chosen another time to effect the change. But, having lost out when the Sierra-Leoneans came to Lagos, he couldn’t wait to get his pound of flesh on his captain.

Yobo cut his teeth as a Super Eagle on March 24 against Zambia in Gingola, 10 years ago. Yet his reward is the needless change that Siasia has effected by insisting that the captain shares a room with a colleague.

No one calls Siasia to order; what he says is law. Soon, he would wake up some day and ask the players to wear skin cuts or take some incredible decisions and we’ll be watching in awe, grumbling behind him.

I really don’t care what is done elsewhere. The fact is that room sharing is not part of Siasia’s brief. Siasia may delude himself that he has won the battle but he has unwittingly opened his exit path when results go awry. A war with his captain means he has lost the dressing room.

I also don’t think that Nigeria’s football is wobbling because our captain stays alone during camping.

What manner of camaraderie can be achieved when players are forced to stay against their will?

The best way to break a cabal in a football team is to make the fight for shirts very competitive. This can be achieved when only our best stars come to the camp.

I would have doffed my hat for Siasia, if he had canvassed for a room per player instead of this clumsy arrangement of pairing adults like kids in kindergarten schools.

The argument that what Siasia did conforms to what obtains in European clubs is laughable.

Can we not emulate countries, such as England, Spain, Brazil etc that assign the tasks of accommodating their senior team to experts of the hospitality business at costs borne by both parties in cash and kind?

Nigeria is richer than any European club. So, their standards should never be our benchmark.

NFF didn’t tell Siasia that they won’t pay for an extra room for the team’s captain.

Why don’t we ask the boys to pay for their rooms since we are always broke and we must play against Ethiopia on Sunday?

The boys won’t complain because they can afford it. After all, doesn’t the government always ask us to make sacrifices?

Since we have a sports minister who cherishes turning decrepit houses into five-star hotels, this needless feud would cease, if the Eagles are housed in one of the refurbished hotels. It is a cost effective venture.

Can someone please remind ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo about the folly of selling off the Games Village at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that housed athletes and officials at the 2003 All Africa Games held in Abuja?

Australia where we copied the Games Village structure in 2000 still have theirs and their athletes stay there for before major competitions without such issues as we have had with Siasia and sharing rooms for the Super Eagles.