Warri
Wolves striker Sunday Mba says the Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi’s
pep talk with the players before the kick-off the South Africa 2013
Africa Cup of Nations motivated the team to go the extra mile for the
trophy.
Many
dismissed the Eagles as no-hopers after Keshi named a 23-man squad
largely made up of domestic league and semi-professional players for
the championship.
And
Keshi admitted that he had taken a big risk with his decision to
exclude the likes of West Brom’s Osaze Odemwingie, on-loan Dynamo Kyiv’s
Taye Taiwo, Levante’s Obafemi Martins and Turkey-based Yussuf Ayila
from the squad.
He
said, “Football is a game of risks. At the 1990 Nations Cup when the
likes of (Daniel) Amokachi came in, about 80 per cent of the players
were from the domestic league. It’s a risk worth taking.”
Mba,
who scored the goal that helped Nigeria win their third continental
title in South Africa – against Burkina Faso in the final–praised Keshi
for believing in the team, despite facing criticism from some Nigerians.
“We
trusted the decisions of the Big Boss (Keshi) and since he had
confidence in the 23 of us selected, we knew that was the most important
thing,” the 24-year-old told SuperSport during the week.
“Keshi
always told us that the ball was in our court, and to go out there and
prove him right. I am sure we did that. He told us that if we got good
results at the tournament, no-one would criticise us, and he was
right.”
He
said the coach’s motivating talk instilled confidence in the team when
they engaged tournament favourites Ivory Coast in the quarterfinals.
“I
won’t use the word scared but we all knew it was not going to be an
easy game. We knew it would be tough,” Mba, who scored the winner in
the 2-1 defeat of the Elephants, said.
“We
knew that if we had scored two more goals against Ethiopia in our
previous game we would have avoided the Ivorians but we also told
ourselves that if we beat the Ivorians, the trophy would be ours.
“We
fought for each other and played as a team. We believed that Ivory
Coast were the strongest nation left in the competition and that if they
were eliminated, no other team could stop us.”
“Unity was the key in that match. If we had not played as a team, the result could have been different.”
Punch Nigeria
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