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Netherlands 2005: Eagles Total Football Reincarnation By Opeyemi Ajala opeyemiajala@yahoo.com It was some three decades ago that the Dutch epitomized by one Johann Cryuff evolved the ‘total football’ concept both with the indomitable Ajax Amsterdam and the Dutch National Team at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. And it was this total football philosophy that emerged Champions in the heart of aficionados, while the Germans inspired by the duo of mercurial ‘Kaizer’ Beckenbauer and the prolific Gerd Muller (who incidentally had the Brazilian 1994 World Cup winner named after him) emerged worthy FIFA Champions. Till date the Dutch total football doctrine is still being the sized. Ironically, it was not the Dutch but the flying Eagles that exhumed the ghost of the Dutch total football creation in no other place than the fabled orange land of Total Football itself. This is where the Samson Siasia tutored lads (yes lads! In the true sense of the word, no semantics- some of them were Ball Boys during Nigeria 99 WYC) deserved all credits for the total football revival. The all action Eagles may have lost the championship to factors other than football, but the brand of football has already won many friends and converts alike across the globe. Or who will forget the first ever point cum clean sheet against the samba U-20 boys after the 3-2-4 of Mexico 83,Moscow 85 and Saudi 89 respectively, the four minutes blemish against the tireless Koreans, ‘catch me if you can’ Swiss tale, the Ukrainians scare, Dutch tango, Kekrade’s African night entertainment (apologies to Cyprian Ekwensi) marred by the Moroccans’ indiscipline and the disruptive influence of the Norwegian Kill Joy in Utrecht, men who erred in vision and stumble in Judgment. Netherlands 2005 Eagles outing in the orange land has again raised some recurring fundamental questions about the kinetic or potentials state of our football, and as it is typical of every Nigerian team, the road to major championship is often decked with hiccups and disappointments and obviously Siasia Eagles’ were not an exception. In the just concluded 2004/05 English Premiership season, Arsenal ‘s grounds man emerged the groundsman of the year, while in the case of the Flying Eagles, the players were conscripted as grounds men involved in every form of manual labour to keep their camp and training ground in ship shape. Or is it the Euro camp puzzle, which was attributed to budget or lack of it! Prior to the Benin AYC Conquest, the fleets’ Admiral, Siasia was engaged in many unnecessary battles with factors of distractions who felt he was too ill equipped and inexperience to be saddled with the ‘huge’ responsibility of marshalling the troop to battle as if Hagi, Klinsmann, Rijkaard, Matheaeus, Voeller et la all Siasia’s contemporaries were not entrusted with the destinies of their respective National sides ditto for other nationals. Thank Goodness, Siaisa has shut up the destructive critics with his performance and not with the controversial shut up gesture of the ‘Special One’ Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho that fetched the Portuguese a marching order in the Cardiff’s Carling Cup final with Euro- Kingpins-Liverpool. Siasia’s pre championship boast of a final slot could have been surpassed, had it not been for the unfair and reckless violation of FIFA’s fairplay slogan by the Norwegian arbitrators, or was it a form of reprisal a la good riddance to bad Mikel for the negative publicity bestowed on Norwegian football in recent times. One can only wish Siasia better fortune in his new career and pray he surpasses his achievements as a player. Needless to mention that the sermon of private
corporate sponsorship in sports protagonists was
vindicated in Netherlands, as this amounts to a plus
for the militants of Government’s divorce from the
romance with the game that has always subjected the
growth of the game to the whims and caprices of
political vampires, which has kept viable corporate participation in
sports at abeyance. It’s on record that 36 percent of the Netherlands
Eagles were products or by-products of the Iain Nelson’s envisioned Pepsi
Soccer Academy which only started in 1992, and the joy remains that these
eagles are youths indeed, so thnk of what the nation stands to reap in
years to come from this venture with more in the pipeline courtesy of
Segun Odegbami’s Wasimi project,and Kojo Williams School of Excellence
pioneered by the legendary Dutchgerian, Clemens Westerhof in Ilorin, all
these will make Pele’s unfulfilled prediction of an African World Cup
triumph before the turn of last century, a reality in the first half of
this century, only if maladminstration let it be! Definitely, the
corporate drive train has left the terminus in the Cameroons courtesy with
Barcelona’s initiative at the instance of Samuel Eto, Ajax involvement in
South Africa and Egypt, hence Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind in
the current youth development tidal wave blowing across the continent.
This where the Pepsi Initiative comes handy which makes government
interference or interruption only limited to creating the enabling
conducive atmosphere that provides the catalyst for corporate sponsorship
to vegetate and not government creating bottlenecks in its typical fashion
to stifle viable corporate participation. OPEYEMI AJALA Oshodi,Lagos |