The Lack of Imagination is the curse of the Damned!!

Donald Trump said it best "The lack of imagination is the curse of the damned"!!, I watched with very opened jaws at the display of the Super Falcons against the Germans.  My fellow TV viewers were happy at our elimination, which surprised me a lot.  I watched a German team that was ripe for the taking.  A German team that was without imagination and creativity and were lacking of anything that shows that they were champions.  I saw a German team devoid of the usual mechanical finesse that we have grown to love.  I saw a team that feared the physicality of the Nigerian side.
Our team was even worse!! Eurcharia's girls ran, chased, and suffered from a lack of tactical support from the bench. The dearth of knowledge was very evident. Eucharia was out of depth, not knowing when to change the game, make substitutions that would matter and she was limited in understanding what she could do to WIN. Yet, we thank God for a slim loss.  The celebration of mediocrity is indeed becoming a national habit.

Some positive notes though, I thank the German physical triainer/coach for keeping these girls in shape,  they ran for 90 minutes but we couldn't even do the business (maybe if we had someone who could work on the "heads" of the team, just maybe the story would be different).

One wonders what planning and tactical session the team would have been put through.  One wonders if there are any analysis of the opponents during these sessions. Do they utilize any scouting intelligence? Do they use video technology or the indices of stats and data to support any of their training programs.  or do we do the typical "training" of running around and talking shop??

Super Falcons elimination though painful, is an output of a system that is failed, tired and lacking of new and creative ideas and imagination.  And it is the damned that will continue with a failed system and complain about failures. I fear that Eucharia is heading for the gullotine!!.

My advice to the federation, is to expand the scouting and tactical scope of our female national teams.  We need to scout for new Nigerian blood, where the world goes shopping for female players, The NCAA league.  In the NCAA (American Collegiate League) female soccer league, I know for certain that we can find new players (ask Coach Sam Okpodu, of Newberry College, and a formerly of West Virginia Female Soccer program).  There are more than 15 players of Nigerian parentage and heritage, actively participating in collegiate soccer in universities across the USA.

We need to find the new "Alukos" of England and sign them up before they are snapped up by other countries.  We need to strengthen our female football department in the federation's secretariat, and focus its work on player development in primary and secondary schools nationwide (girls must be given an added incentive to play football in school).

As sad as I am, I must temper my annoyance with some optimism, that the future can only get better. We must continue our work in discovering new talents, who will challenge for shirts in the various female national teams.

On a comical note, I also watched the ministers senate confirmation exercise on TV today, and I echoed President Obasanjo's now famous statement "I dey laugh ooooo"!!!, "the curse of the damned" is upon us.
Lets hope I am wrong on this one.... The country needs a miracle.

And what is up with the curfew in Abuja!! we send in soldiers on our streets because our government lacks imagination, creativity and the will to deal decisively with this issue.  kai, the curse of the damned again............Shame!!!!