By: Adebowale Akinjide
It is crystal clear that most of the Super Eagles wins this year’s AFCON have not been outrightly convincing, but few would care less, since what matters most is getting the job done on the big stage. However, in previous matches before the showdown against the Bafana Bafana boys, the Super Eagles have been able to get the job done easily. The answer to last night’s peculiarity is also the one thing that been constant in Peseiro’s tactical setup: sacrificing free-flowing football for defensive solidity.
Defensive Solidity
Barely would anybody contend with the fact that a solid defense is what has taken Eagles thus far at AFCON. In fact, apart from Nwabali’s heroics last night, there have been shouts that Troost-Ekong should win the AFCON golden ball. The Akwa-Ibom-born has been immense at the heart of the defense. His trio with Ajayi and Bassey at the heart of Nigeria’s 3-4-3 setup has been massive. Indeed, Sir Alex Ferguson was right when he said “attack win you games, defense win you titles.”
However, a solid defense comes have with a price for the Eagles: letting go of midfield domination; and this again boils down to two things: profile and priority. The arsenal in Nigeria’s midfield are just not cutout for domination, and apart from that, the team’s body language shows that they prioritize defensive solidity over anything else.
There were a lot of critical voices against Peseiro’s tiny midfield when he first announced his AFCON squad list; well, only the man himself can answer that question. But one thing is now vivid, he foresaw the kind of football he wants his side to play.
Iwobi, Onyeka, Osayi-Samuel, Yusf Alhassan, Aribo are not comfortable at holding possession under pressure. In fact, on most occasions, each of them would rather give a back-pass under pressure than trust risk taking a half-turn to the opponent’s goal. However, all of them excel as a unit in locking up the midfield and applying pressure in a mid-block. In fact, this is the best explanation for Peseiro’s mid-block over a high-press.
Bafana Bafana’s Peculiarity
The difference between South Africa and the previous Eagle’s encounter at AFCON was because the Bafana boys were ready to mask Eagle’s game against them. Like Nigeria in their previous matches, South Africa were comfortable settling for a mid-block, soaking up the pressure, and finding runners in-behind with long passes. In fact, this approached worked so well that there has been no encounter this AFCON where an opponents would get so many chances against Eagle’s defense, but yet again, the backline of Ekong, Ajayi and Bassey were good once again, and also Nwabali’s proper reading of the game, rushing out constantly to sweep behind his defense, and also his safe hands the few times the opponents found a breakthrough.
South Africa being comfortable with soaking up the pressure means at least one thing: that Nigeria would have more possession, something that barely happened in the Eagle’s previous outings. This then necessitated Nigeria’s midfield having more of the ball, something which they did, but would be clueless on what to do with it. Super Eagle’s midfield were most comfortable with having less possessions and running round their opponents in counter-attacks rather than having to build up from the midfield. This made the match drably for every Nigerian who saw the game.
Ola Aina’s Change of Position
Zaidu Sanusi out with a shoulder injury means Peseiro had to react, and that reaction was switching Ola Aina from his most comfortable rightwing back position to replace Zaidu at leftwing back, while Osayi-Samuel replaces Aina at the rightwing back position. Although, Aina is ambi-pedal, but it was obvious yesterday that he was not outrightly comfortable playing on the left. While Aina was still as solid defensively, he struggled running the flank like he mostly did at rightwing back. This also limited Nigeria’s ability to attack properly from the wings.
What Next?
Super Eagles now face host Ivory Coast in the final after the latter toppled DR Congo in a 1-0 semifinal clash. Nigeria will be playing another final on Sunday, 11th of February after over a decade of their last final where they took the prize over Burkina Faso.
The Eagle’s defense will now be facing the challenge of quieting the likes of the Dortmund forward, Sebastian Haller in a second encounter after the two sides last met in the group stages where Nigeria beat the host 1-0, forcing them to take the best-loser qualification route.
