Eagles beat Namibia 1-0 in Calabar

It was supposed to be a walk in the park for the Super Eagles but it took all of 80 minutes for the only goal of the match through a very profligate Ikechukwu Uche to nick the victory over the Brave Warriors of Namibia on Sunday at the U.L Esuene Stadium in Calabar.

The first match in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers proved a nerve wracking experience for the scores of fans in the stadium and the millions glued to their television sets all over the country. Eagles began the match like a house on fire and should have taken the lead in the third minute but Uche’s shot from the edge of the box was easily gathered by the Namibian goalkeeper.

But the trend had been set and over the course of the match, the Eagles had over 70% of the possession but it did not count as much as Stephen Keshi will have wanted. Another goal bound shot was cleared in the 15th minute off a Uche overhead kick. The pressure was mounting but the Eagles interplay and final pass in the danger zone of the Namibians was either hurried or misplaced.

The chances continued to fall the way of the Nigerians and particularly to Uche and he either blasted wide or straight at the goalkeeper. He missed glaring chances in the 26th, 31st, and in the 34th minute and the mood was slowly changing in the stadium as a pall descended with fans beginning to wonder when the Eagles would score the first goal.

The final chances of the first half fell to John Utaka, who was making a return to the national team. First he headed over on the goal line and then in the last seconds of the half a cut-back from Victor Moses was almost bundled in from Utaka but Namibian goalkeeper clawed the effort to safety. At the end of the half, one had to wonder how Namibia had been able to keep the score at 0-0.

The second half saw the Namibians showing more gusto and tried to put a largely untested Vincent Enyeama to the test. The Eagles’ play continued to be disjointed with Moses and Utaka surprisingly on different wavelengths. Keshi made all three changes with Ahmed Musa, Kalu Uche and Jerry Uche coming on for Utaka, Nwankwo Obiorah and Moses.

But IK Uche finally redeemed himself in the 80th minute after another lively foray do wn the left from Rangers’ diminutive winger, Ejike Uzoenyi – who was probably the Eagles’ best player on the day. Uche controlled wee and skipped a tackle before crashing in the shot and palpably, the tension lifted off the stadium.

The Eagles will be travel out to Blantyre, Malawi for the second match in the qualifiers. In Saturday’s other match in the group, Malawi held Kenya to a draw in Nairobi. So at the moment, Nigeria leads the group with three points and a goal scored.