LIFELESS, USELESS, CARELESS, HOPELESS, TOOTHLESS

Robson Sharuko

Metros Editor

PATHETIC!

It’s probably the only word fit enough to describe the Warriors’ disjointed showing in the Unity Cup semi-final tie against a lightweight Super Eagles side.

Forget about the 0-2 scoreline.

It tells just a small part of the horror story which unfolded at The Valley in London on Tuesday night as the lifeless and shapeless Warriors slumped to a sorry defeat. Kaitano Tembo’s alibi for such a poor performance would probably have been the fact that he threw in five debutantes into the battle.

But, Eric Chelle, the Super Eagles coach, threw in six debutantes in his first XI and, as a team, they were quicker, sharper, sleeker and more clinical.

Wrexham ‘keeper Arthur Okonkwo was never tested. Millwall forward Femi Azeez, the hero of the night with his two goals, was playing for the Super Eagles for the first time.

The Super Eagles first XI included two players from local side, Enugu Rangers, Chibueze Oputa and Obinna Igboke. There are a dozen players, in the Nigerian squad at the Unity Cup, who are making their debut at senior national team level.

Therefore, we can’t hide behind the excuse that we gave a number of new faces their break into international football. What undid us on Tuesday night wasn’t the presence of the new faces.

It was the lack of cohesion, a shape that would have been out of place in a Sunday league game and a disjointed outfit which would have struggled to even beat Agama.

This was a throwback to the worst days of the Warriors – those defeats at the hands of Lesotho, those experiments with the likes of Loga and those days and nights when we just couldn’t score.

For all his failings, poor judgment and the toxicity which split the Warriors camp, Mario turned our team into one which scored on a regular basis.

On Tuesday, we could have played all night and still we would have struggled to score a goal.

Junior Zindoga was thrown in as the spearhead of an attack in a team which appeared to have been set out not to do just that.

The 27-year-old is an honest and hardworking professional and deserves credit for fighting his way to play in the South African Premiership. But, Zindoga is not a natural goal-scorer and the statistics tell that story – 42 games for TS Galaxy, Marumo Gallants, Maritzburg United and Nsingizini Hotspur, and four goals scored.

Thirty one games in Supa Diski and two goals scored. A midfield made up of captain Marvelous Nakamba, the returning Marshall Munetsi and the hardworking Jonah Fabisch is unlikely to be a very productive unit.

Its strength, clearly, is in its defensive prowess and it became very clear, early in the game, that we were missing something in terms of our creativity from midfield.

Pitted against younger and mobile Nigerian midfielders, who were eager to grab their chance and impress, we struggled and the opponents had a field day in that key area of the battle.

By the time we tried to shake things up a bit, and bring in a creative player like Mongameli Tshuma, in the second half, the damage had already been done.

The main concern, though, was that we didn’t seem to be playing according to any plan.

Somehow, our players did not appear to be comfortable on the ball. And, once we gained possession, we quickly wasted it by blasting aimless balls into the opponents’ half.

At times, it was an eyesore.

The fans who came to the Valley, and the millions who watched the game live on television, deserved better than what we saw on Tuesday night.

Yes, we didn’t have a number of our regular players but that was also the case with the Super Eagles. The Nigerians had not beaten us in 20 years, their last win coming in a 2-0 win at the AFCON finals in Egypt in 2006.

In the recent World Cup qualifiers, we drew both matches and, crucially, scored in the two games, against the Super Eagles.

On Tuesday, we took ten giant steps backwards.