Africa Cup of Nations trophy to be earned, not handed over

On Friday morning, in a video message shared by the Nigerian men’s national team’s social media channels, former captain Segun Odegbami exhorted his compatriots to win the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

“They should play without fear; they should play like champions,” he said.

Of course, they’re not champions — not yet — and to lift the trophy for the first time in 13 years they’ll have to win three times between now and next Sunday’s final, starting with Saturday’s match against 2019 champion Algeria (10 a.m., beIN Sports).

For the most part, Odegbami’s rallying cry was hardly exceptional. He encouraged the players to perform with confidence and to entertain their fans. Then he added a line that could also be heard as unremarkable, but was one that surely irritated Algeria and every other team on the continent, whether at the Cup of Nations or not.

“With the quality that we have, with our history and the numbers that we have, no country in Africa should be struggling with us,” he said, adding, “Just go out there and dominate and win.”

“No country in Africa,” “…go out there and dominate…”

It’s the sort of language that opposing managers print out and pin to the bulletin board. And, again, it wouldn’t typically come across as anything more than a motivational speech. The matter here is where it comes from, and what it speaks to.

Few football teams enter tournaments with as much entitlement as Nigeria. It’s not that the Super Eagles believe they will win, which many countries do. It’s that they expect their rivals to make way and applaud while they do it.

When they don’t — which is most of the time — it’s a national emergency.

The national fanbase should be admired in this regard. It loves its team with a rare intensity.

One might think it’s uniquely devastating when Italy, for example, fails to qualify for a World Cup. Well, one would be mistaken. Where another team’s fans and pundit class might rage over the failure, in Nigeria it’s met with a sort of stunned disbelief. They didn’t merely anticipate certain success; they deserved it.

Take the current Nigeria side.

Having failed to gain automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup, it had to compete in a play-in tournament held, coincidentally, in Morocco. It played DR Congo to a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes in the decisive match, after which it lost on penalties.

Unable to come to terms with the defeat, the Nigeria Football Federation sought DR Congo’s disqualification due to the Leopards’ alleged use of ineligible players. Its appeal was officially rejected last week.

At no point did it consider that taking one of a possible six points from games against Rwanda, or a home draw with Zimbabwe, might have had something to do with the shortcoming.

All that said, it’s likely because of the qualification debacle that Nigeria has been playing this Africa Cup of Nations as if it has something to prove.

First there was the Group C opener against Tanzania — won 2-1 thanks to an Ademola Lookman goal, his first of three so far in Morocco. Then came a 3-2 victory over Tunisia, courtesy of another Lookman winner. Finally, and no doubt smarting from the DR Congo court failure two days prior, Nigeria closed out its bracket by beating Uganda 3-1.

Nested inland in Fez, the Super Eagles played their entire group stage in the same stadium, where they also faced Mozambique in Monday’s round of 16 encounter.

It wasn’t even close.

Atalanta playmaker Lookman, inevitably, got on the scoresheet again, as did towering Sevilla forward Akor Adams, who only debuted for his country in October. He also picked up two assists. Crucially, Galatasaray’s Victor Osimhen — who had 37 goals last season — really got going and scored on either side of the break.

That front three represents the most imposing attack of the tournament, and by some distance. An impressively versatile trio on paper, it has been expertly molded and deployed by head coach Éric Chelle, who has dynamic partnerships in the midfield and defensive segments as well.

It all makes for a fascinating head-to-head with Algeria, which struggled to find the back of the net against Burkina Faso and DR Congo, laboured to beat Sudan, but eased past Equatorial Guinea.

Preventing goals is the Fennec Foxes’ strength, and goalkeeper Luca Zidane (yes, Zinedine’s son) has yet to concede at the competition.

Even so, Nigeria can absolutely break Algeria down. They can win this quarterfinal, and perhaps a semifinal, and even the final. But “can” is different than “should.”

“Good enough” is different than “deserve to.”

No one is handing the Super Eagles the trophy. They have to take it.

Contrary to social media messages, World Cup court cases and an underlying sense of entitlement, Nigeria is not the best footballing country in Africa. But, at least at this Cup of Nations, it can be.

winnipegfreepress.com/jerradpeters