Eagles in operation 'DO IT',W/Cup fever hits all

Sunday, September 4, 2006 was a few months back, like enternity; but here we are, the Day has come and not just come, but has come, accompanied by awesome and nightmarish dreams and demonic mental arithmetics. In Oran, Algeria, Nigeria's fate for her 4th consecutive World Cup appearance, hangs dangling on the pendulum. From the left to the right, it has begun its swaying rituals...wither Nigeria; where lies mother lucks' vote...for us or for the Angolans?

The answer to this question, whether in Arithmetics, Algebria Geometry Trignometry, or Modern Mathematics, is a tough equation to which a correct answer could be figured out until the referees' whistles shrill off both the Algerian/Nigerian and Angolan/Gaboneses cliff hangers.

Mother luck, is but a figment of human reasoning; an abstract configuration of the result of any doubts shrouded occurence. Here Nigeria lies today, in more than a frantic search for an object it had in her hands, but flushed away through ineptitude administrative and technical manouvres.

The Super Eagles have undertaken quite some heart-sickening flights in search of the Germany 2006 Mundial ticket. Some, they made bold enough to imprint enviable statements on the sands of time (such as the bashing of Zimbabwe in Harare, which led to the sack of that country's national coach),others, they filed into the pitch with unthinkable Dutch courage... like their 1-1 scoreline regulation time result against their present daggers-drawn enemies, Angola in Kano.

That one slip gave birth to the present corner into which they have dribbled themselves. It was a-one-slip-too-many for the giant soccer birds, christened Super Eagles.From our pulse-feeling polls, nigeriasports.com can authoritatively report that, a handsome number of Nigerians (both fans, followers and those, we could describe as 'fence sitters') are having their hearts beating at wind-aided speed.

Only a very insignificant few were able to speak with expressive confindence that, the Eagles will be Super in Algeria on Sunday.Of the few, only the Chief Executive of O'jez Entertainment Ltd., operators of the National Stadium, Lagos O'jez Restaurant and Bar, Joe Odobeatu could fist his chest to say categorically, that the Eagles will carry the day against the Algerians in Sunday's crunchy soccer galaxy in Oran.

Thumbing his chest in the characteristic Igbo tribesman's manner, Odobeatu had declared: "I expect nothing short of a win for the country on Sunday and nothing more. If the Algerians think that, they are capable of stopping us, then, they should think of something else.

"If Gabon could beat them on their home soil, and they could not beat both Angola and Zimbabwe when the two teams played against them at home, then they should not be decieved by the slighted imagination that, they can mend their shattered pride with a victory over an 'enranged' and doubly-motivated Super Eagles. I tell you that, I have no iota of doubt that, we will win on Sunday...with or, without Okocha."

For the Chief Executive of O & I Contact Ltd, Mr. Isaac Osaikwiwu, it's a matter of resigning to fate. "Well, I have been in the business of sports promotions and marketing for quite some years, that I should be able to speak on such an issue as the Super Eagles/Algerian Desert Warriors' Sunday clash. But this time around, I find it difficult to predict the outcome of the encounter.

"I'm not being chicken-hearted, but the fact remains that, having handled our previous matches with what the French describe as "laissez-faire," I feel terribly constraint to boldly say that, we would beat the Algerians in Algeria. Do not forget that, even if the Algerians have nothing at stake in the game, they have one very strong and powerful innate drive going for them.

"That is what the Sports Psychologist tag; "Intrinsic Motivation." That in my pedestrain understanding, translates to a natural urge to succeed in a given project - and that is borne from self and now, national pride. It is said that, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. This could be applied to both teams in Sunday's encounter."

Osakwiwu, whose Organization marketed the maiden edition of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Games in Lagos recently, continued to expantiate further in a bid to flesh-up his reason for going into apathy over the crunchy showdown on Sunday: "In the past, I would have outrightly told you that, we will win.

But now, the tension would be on both sides. Besides, I have not noticed any appreciable difference in the characters we are fielding...no refreshed elements from what I have been seeing in the recent past.

"What I have decided to do, is go to sleep ... I'm too young to slump over the loss of a match. Whatever, I sincerely pray for the Eagles to have a successful flight in Algeria on Sunday." Mr. Friday Eremosele, is the Group Sports Editor of the Nigerian Observer, Benin-City, who told us that, if anybody is thinking that the Eagles will find it easy against the Algerians on Sunday, "they should go back to sleep for another dream.

"It's not going to be an easy thing at all. The Algerians, having lost to our Basketball team in another World Cup tussle only recently, will be in no mood to give the Eagles a chance of bringing their soccer World Cup finals ambition to fruition; even when they know that, a victory over Nigeria on Sunday, is fetching them nothing in terms of the World Cup business.

"If the Eagles succeed against their embittered foes on Sunday in Oman, it won't be on a platter of gold. I can safely tell you that, it is going to be real tough. We have had our chances to make Sunday,s encounter, a mere formality, but we blew all.

"The most painful cut of them all was that, we blew one of the chances first in Luanda in the away game against Angola and came home again, still sleeping, when we hosted the same Angolans. What a shame, what a precarious situation we now find ourselves...well, what I'm going to do, is to wait and see," an aggrieved Eremosele concluded.

Nigeria is not alone in this dilemma - South Africa, Cameroun, Togo amongst others are in the same boat and boots. Sunday, yes Sunday September 4, 2005 will go into the annals of the continent's soccer books as, "One Day Too Many" for Historians.