Let people enjoy things, Solace…

Often, a win of this magnitude is the enemy of analysis. Beating Cameroon will always elicit euphoria; pounding them into submission in this manner though? Orgasmic. A good chance we see a baby explosion in exactly nine months…

I’m no gynaecologist though. What I am, very much so, is a hypochondriac. So, bear with me as you read what will follow.

My senior colleague Bode Oguntuyi has written this, and I agree with it in many ways. One might say last night was a collection of brilliant skits that, put together, lent to one wholly exhilarating experience. As an analogy, it felt like a series of sharp snake bites, each delivering doses of venom, than a suffocating constriction.

My point is that while dominance did not organically lead to goals, the goals naturally led to dominance. A good comparison would be last weekend’s game between Liverpool and Arsenal, in which the Reds’ goals were a natural extension of their overwhelming superiority.

Not to belittle the victory in any way, of course. Merely to point out that while the end justifies the means, the means can be a lot more instructive in terms of drawing lasting conclusions. If there is one thing last night’s game emphasized, it is not the cohesiveness of the team, but the importance within it of key individuals.

The system as a whole still doesn’t play well enough, especially with an Ogenyi Onazi-Wilfred Ndidi pivot, and while any team would miss three starters, there is a difference between a drop in quality and a lack of conviction. What Nigeria lacked in the loss to South Africa was more the latter than the former, and it showed even last night.

In Leon Balogun, John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses, there is a combination of elan, leadership, experience, technical security and stardust. Any team would miss such crucial components. And yet, for the opening 15 minutes, the Super Eagles looked like they did when Bafana came calling, short of ideas and easily flustered. Cameroon looked dangerous, and pressed quite well. We can chalk up the jittery opening to the callowness of youth, but Elderson Echiejile and Onazi, two of the big culprits, do combine for over 80 caps though.

No, this is a team whose central mantra seems to be “hold it and try to be calm till Mikel comes and makes it alright”. He invariably does, and did, but is it a healthy way to build?

Well played, Ighalo.

I picked Moses as my man of the match, and Mikel has drawn praise (rightly so) for yet another virtuoso performance on the international stage, but Odion Ighalo produced a great performance last night. It was his best in the colours of Nigeria, and a fine example of turning aggression against the aggressor(s).

I have criticised the Changchun Yatai variously for a lack of movement (see thread). That, for me, has always been his bane with the Super Eagles: his static play makes him very predictable, and I still think there is not enough variety to him; given time to study, defenders will invariably suss him out.

Last night though, he was brilliant, and played the pair of Adolphe Teikeu and Michael Ngadeu like suckers. There is nothing worse for physical centre-backs than sudden bursts across their field of vision, and Ighalo frequently darted across them to come short toward the ball in the early stages. Both centre-backs were swiftly booked for tracking him into deep positions, getting too tight and fouling. In a way, one should also commend referee Ghead Grisha for affording him protection immediately.

As soon as that was done, Ighalo began to threaten the defence in the opposite direction, and broke the deadlock in this fashion.

It was a complete centre-forward display. It is instructive that he was the first foreign-based player to hit camp — hunger is the ultimate motivator.

P.S: Oh, and for the love of all things sacred, can we cut out the ‘Made in China’ jokes? They stopped being funny three years ago.