African Sports Monthly February 2013 Issue | Page 20

dispatched convincingly in the quarter final. The anchor man John Mikel Obi was also
pivotal to the team as he used his experience and his passing was excellent. The
pick of his passes was one to Ahmed Musa against Mali in the semi final for the fourth
goal. Sunday Mba who is also a local boy distinguished himself in tis tournament with
his all round display and the goals he scored against Ivory Coast in the quarter final
and the one against Burkina Faso, which was befitting to win any final. It is felt that it
will not be long before a club in Europe signs him up.
The central defensive partnership of Godfrey Oboabona and Kenneth Omeruo was a
revelation. In years to come they could be the cornerstones of Nigeria’s defence. Efe
Ambrose showed why Celtic invested in him with his assured defending and his overlapping up front to support the attack.
Keshi thus made history as the only other player to captain and coach a side to victory
at the Cup of Nations thus cementing his position in the history of Nigerian football. He
also became the first Nigerian coach to win the tournament. Although he threatened to
resign, all he wanted to do was to shake up the NFF and give him the respect he is
due. Keshi will now try to cement his legacy by taking this team to the World Cup next
year in Brazil, but first in a forerunner, he will lead them there in the Confederations
Cup this summer. This tournament will allow Keshi to see how Nigeria can fare on the
world stage and what will be required for a re-entry into the elite group in the world.
The big prize for Keshi though must be his aim to become the first coach to lead an
African team to the semi final a World Cup. Now that will be awesome!

CAF’S SHORTCOMINGS
Once again unfortunately quite a few things left a lot to be desired regarding the African Cup of Nations. The empty stadium was an embarrassment to African Football as
a whole and it was felt that the tickets were over prices. CAF should have given the
tickets to school children to fill the stadiums or deduced the ticket prices. The state of
the pitches has still not improved. Some of them looked like potato pitches and I feel
even if you put cows on one of the pitches they would refuse to eat the grass due to
lack of any nourishments!
The standard of refereeing was shocking. Players mistakenly booked for simulation
when a penalty should have been awarded, a Togolese player booked in a case of
mistaken identity, which led him to miss the quarter final and not to talk of the fact that
Burkina Faso should have bea [