The Super Eagles of Nigeria face their Tanzanian counterparts, the Taifa Stars, this weekend in the second matchday of the 2017 Orange Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The all-important cracker will be Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh’s first outing as Super Eagles’ head coach since he took over from his former teammate, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, on July 15, after signing a three-year deal with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
After failing to secure a spot in the 2015 Orange AFCON finals, Nigeria started her 2017 Orange AFCON qualification campaign on the right foot, with a 2-0 win over Chad in the opening match at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, under Keshi’s guidance.
Their opponents, Tanzania, find themselves in a hard spot, after losing the opening game against Egypt and will be looking to use the home advantage against the Eagles, in order to get a positive result.
The tie will be a litmus test for Oliseh. Presently, he is not one man who is envied; not after what Keshi went through and, whether he likes it or not, Nigerians will, largely, judge him by this game.
It, therfore, behoves on him to make a good first impression with the match and warm yourself into the hearts of the team’s fans.
The Eagles, level on points with Egypt, neeed to win to put the Pharaohs on their toes, seeing as they have superior goal difference ahead of their West African rivals.
Oliseh might just have to do without his skipper, Vincent Enyeama, who had to withdraw from the game after the death of his mother.
“The late withdrawal has put me in a tight corner,” Oliseh told journalists at a media parley on Wednesday before the team departure to Dar es Salaam, possibly, due to the fact that the reason for Enyeama’s action had not then been explained.
With Enyeama out of the picture, Oliseh and his technical crew are most likely to hand Wolverhampton FC of England goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme, an opportunity to make his Eagles debut this weekend.
Ikeme, 29, is relishing the opportunity and has equally promised to give his best if given the chance to replace Enyeama in goal.
“I will just try and do what I do in my club. I will not be under pressure but I will give my best.
“I am not going to try and be Vincent, but I will just try and play my own game and give my best.”
Considering the importance of the tie – it is an away fixture, the pain of failing to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup still fresh – Oliseh must be conscious that Nigerians , passionate about the game as they are, will not wait before baying for his blood, should his side fail to give a good account of itslef in Dar es Salaam today.
“We are building [and] as you can see, it’s a real build-up and the boys are competing with each other and coming together. I’m very optimistic. The boys are getting to know each other [and] it will take time for us to get where we want to get to, but we shall get there.
“Whatever the result is (against Tanzania), we will take it like that. Our objective is to qualify. If we win on today [Saturday], it doesn’t mean we have qualified, we still have games to play and more matches to get better.
“It’s not because if we lose we are out. It’s not because we win and the job is done. The journey has just started,” added the former Juventus of Italy player.
The coach has six home-based stars in his team.
“I’m impressed with the home-based stars we invited. They have done a good job so far and there is this hunger in them to succeed.
“When we played our friendly last Wednesday, we saw a lot of improvements and I hope they can translate that to the national team level in matches.
“I wanted to take four of them to Tanzania, but then I was impressed and upgraded it to six. The only problem is time; we don’t have enough time,” he said.
While one cannot obviously predict the outcome of the match, Oliseh has done his homework well and is ready to make Nigeria and, indeed, his employers proud in this first outing. It is an acid test he must pass.
