The
morning after his team lost the ticket to the 16th African Cup of
Nations to be jointly hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Coach
Samson Siasia is still lost in thought about what may have caused
Nigeria’s worst outing in the competition since 1986.“I still don’t know what to say is responsible for this calamity of not qualifying for the Nations Cup even when a 2-1 would have seen us through?” said the Eagles chief handler at the departure hall of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja Sunday morning.
Siasia who led the Super Eagles out of Abuja to honour a meaningless friendly with Ghana in London, told THISDAY that if not that the contract for the match must be honoured he didn’t feel like going as he is yet to recover from the shock of missing out of the Nations Cup.
“It is with heavy hearts we are leaving for London now. If not for the sake of honouring the contract, there would have been no need of us going to London for this game.
In short, we are going with pains in our hearts,” blurted the coach who majority of Nigerians are holding responsible for the Eagles failure to grab maximum points against Guinea last Saturday.
Although he was not ready to go into details of what transpired just yet, he, however, insisted that there was nothing he could have done given the too many begging chances his forwards failed to convert.
“You saw what happened. It is one thing for a coach to give out instruction and another for the players to follow that instruction to the letter. At least, nobody will expect me to join the team on the pitch to help the team put the ball into the net,” stressed Siasia in apparent reference to the many chances wasted by Osaze Odemwingie and Emmanuel Emenike.
But a former Director of Technical of the Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF), Kashimawo Laloko appears unimpressed by Siasia’s excuses, insisting that his failure to make the necessary changes at the appropriate time cost Nigeria the Nations Cup ticket.
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