By Jacob Ajom
JONATHAN Akpoborie was one of the members of Nigeria’s legendary U-17 football team that won the first JVC-FIFA U-17 Youth tournament in China in 1985. He rose through the ranks and plied his club career in Germany and also played for the Super Eagles.
Akpoborie has since retired from active football but has remained close to the game as players’ manager. He follows the national team closely and was in Calabar when the Super Eagles
Eagles Coach, Keshi
picked their 2013 Afcon ticket after beating the Lone Star of Liberia 6-1. The former international spoke to Sunday Vanguard sports in Calabar. Excerpts:
Nigeria just qualified for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations holding in South Africa, how do you feel now?
Very happy; Nigerians are very happy. We played, let me say, an average game. But the goals were scored. We won the game and we qualified for the Nations Cup which was our objective. So everybody is happy we would be at the South Africa 2013 tournament.
With this victory, the Nations Cup proper has come. Definitely, we are bound to be in South Africa. Do you think we have a team good enough for the trophy?
Originally, I kept trying to let the coach understand that we need more presence from our players in Europe and, in this game against Liberia today(Saturday Oct.13), we could see the quality of the players we have though, they have not actually played to their full potentials which will encourage us Nigerians that we have something to look forward to. There is still a lot of work to be done and I am praying that we would be able to do it, the coach I mean.
Let’s go into specific now. The team as you saw it this evening. Which department of the team worries you most.
We had a lot of problems with the defence; there were so many elementary mistakes in the match. It is not everybody that would be able to say but the coach definitely, should be able to do that. It is very unfortunate that the two players that played in the central defence ply their trade in Nigeria. They are not as exposed as Yobo and the rest. So, it was kind of expected so we would just say that the power of the goals that we scored actually held our team together today.
There was a lot of talk that the Liberians were coming to beat the Super Eagles in Calabar, were you disappointed by their performance?
That actually comes from the quality of our journalism. I have to say, because they actually talked about the Liberians as if they were better than England. With what they played here today, I could not see them beating our Super Eagles even if we played the game for two days. We were superior and even at a stage in the first half, they had the lion share of the ball possession but they could not use it because their attack was not really vibrant.
However, even an attack that did not perform very well, we still made some avoidable mistakes. That is why I said our defence was not really compact. You could see from the goal they scored. That is where the coach really has to work hard on.
Would you say we missed Yobo today?
Yes. his experience, we did miss him. If he was there, maybe he would have been able to organize the defence better. When you watch the game live today you could see Mikel trying to direct the players on the field and that was what he was supposed to do and he did it very well. Defenders behind are suppose to be the one doing the job, directing everybody but they could not do it. I believe in experience. That is why I said that we need the presence of the European based players.
Mikel lived up to expectations?
Yes he did. With him we could turn things around; we struggled when the game started but eventually we could hold the ball. I think one of the goals we scored, you could see the passes he made before the ball was now passed, I think, the goal Ahmed Musa scored; before he gave the pass he was marvellous, the double passes he played. With or without the ball, he command respect among the boys. This is something you need in the field and it is visible here today.
