African Comment: Did Sacking Shaibu Amodu And Vahid Halilhodzic Make Sense?

With the World Cup on the horizon and quickly closing in, it is truly unfortunate that all is not well with two African giants that are expected to fly the flag for the continent at the world’s premier sporting event. Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire can boast some of the deepest talent pools in Africa and perhaps on the entire planet, but unfortunately their FAs have hampered their respective squads by either displaying a frightening lack of vision or not following through on their initial convictions.

Nigeria belongs in the former category. The football administrators in the west African nation are very much to blame for the current situation that the Super Eagles find themselves in, and I believe that this primarily stems from their stubborn refusal to sack the tactically inept Shaibu Amodu immediately after they had qualified for the World Cup.

You might call that a harsh assessment but it’s far from it. As a Tunisian, I followed Nigeria’s World Cup qualifying campaign very closely given that the Carthage Eagles were pitted against them, Kenya and Mozambique in the same group. From the first game it was abundantly clear that the side was not cohesive defensively, put hardly any effort into recovering the ball once they lost it, and had no clear strategy going forward. For a proud nation with their vast array of players plying their trade in top leagues across the European continent, it was inexcusable to see them play so poorly.

Their match against Tunisia in Abuja was even more shocking. In what was essentially a must win game at the time, the Nigerians left spaces in midfield and at the back that their visitors could never have dreamed of finding in such a high stakes away match. Then having taken the lead twice, the score was levelled almost instantly both times by the north Africans.

The schoolboy mistakes bore the hallmark of a team that wasn’t well drilled and desperately lacking any sort of discipline. Some might argue otherwise but the fact remains that, on the final day, Nigeria needed a favor from the Black Mambas to book their ticket to South Africa and that was a clear sign that things needed to change.

It was an incredibly close call that the football administrators should never have been content with. After their passage was fortunately secured, the wise decision would have been to cut their losses right there and then. Instead, Angola 2010 saw the Super Eagles take third place, but save for some spells in the first half of their opening match against Egypt, they were unimpressive to say the least.

Sacking Amodu immediately after the qualifiers had come to a close would have afforded his eventual successor the opportunity to benefit from having a precious month with all his players together during the Africa Cup of Nations. Such an extended period would have allowed him to potentially instill his vision but the Nigerian Football Federation decided against this option and now Lars Lagerback is in a difficult position and faces a race against time. My aim isn’t to assess whether or not the target that’s been set for him, a semi-final finish in South Africa, is realistic but only to say this situation could have easily been averted had the NFF acted swiftly.

Meanwhile, on Monday it was announced that Cote d’Ivoire had sacked Vahid Halilhodzic because he had not attained his mandate of winning the Africa Cup of Nations. The Bosnian reacted furiously, claiming that he was a sacrificial lamb and that the decision was more political than anything else. I’m not the biggest fan of how he views the game but I’d be inclined to agree.

Halilhodzic may not have accomplished the goal of winning the AFCON but the Ivorians have consistently underachieved at the tournament long before his arrival, and I actually thought that some of some of their main issues, such as transition defence and tactical awareness, had slightly improved with him in charge. The fact that the Elephants have some of the most technically skilled players was never a secret but whether they could defend effectively for a full game was always a big question mark. It seemed that the logic behind hiring Halilhodzic was for him to remedy just that and considering his background it was a logical choice.

Up until they reverted to their old habits of poor marking in their thrilling match against Algeria, Didier Drogba and company had been paying much more attention to the nitty gritty details that help sides win football matches. Their run through qualifying and their first two matches in Angola attest to that. Halilhodzic was understandably disgusted with his players for letting down their guard after Kader Keita scored what should have been a stunning left footed winner. I don’t think the coach is to blame for their lapse in concentration. From the looks of it, they subconsciously thought that they had stuck the dagger in and that Algeria were going to lay down and die but that was very naïve on their part.

Their coach mentioned this in post-match interviews and the lesson was a painful yet useful one for the Elephants. But now they’re coachless and seemingly dipping in form if their 2-0 loss to South Korea yesterday is anything to go by. Hiring Guus Hiddink would certainly go a long way to alleviating some of these ills, but it’s awfully late in the day to be changing direction.

If the Dutchman is in fact hired, at least African football fans can take solace in the fact that if anyone can maximize a team’s strengths and minimise their weaknesses in record time, then it’s him. Nevertheless, in my opinion, Halilhodzic had accomplished more than some people would like to believe and I also think that the long break between Cote d’Ivoire’s matches against Ghana and Algeria had something to do with their premature exit.

In any case, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire must move on in order to quickly get their situations sorted prior to the World Cup because it would be unfortunate for two of Africa’s best teams to stumble at this summer’s tournament, not because their players can’t compete with the world’s best, but due to their football federations miscalculating gravely and putting them at a disadvantage before the games even got underway…