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“The Eagles lost their second group game 2-1 to Argentina on 25 June, 1994. Samson Siasia opened the scoring for Nigeria but Claudio Cannigia scored twice to turn the game around for the South Americans.The highlight of the encounter, however, was their skipper, the iconic Diego Armando Maradona, failing a post-match random drug test and getting thrown out of the tournament by FIFA.“
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By Mumuni Alao, author of a new book
‘I SAW MARADONA AT VERY CLOSE RANGE’
The moment the World Cup kicked off on 17 June, 1994, all conversation was about football. Nigeria was in Group ‘D’ with Bulgaria, Argentina and Greece in the first round.
I arrived in the United States on 18 June, 1994, three days to the Super Eagles opening match against Bulgaria on 21 June. The match was played at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas. After a shaky start during which goalkeeper Peter Rufai made several crucial saves to keep Nigeria in the game, the Eagles overcame their nerves and blew the Bulgarians out of the water with blistering attacking football. RashidiYekini opened the scoring, with Daniel Amokachi and Emmanuel Amuneke adding to the tally for a 3-0 scoreline. What a start for a World Cup debutant!
Nigeria’s three other games at USA ’94 were played at the Foxboro Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts. Kunle Raji, a friend of the publisher, was living in Boston and he hosted me for the duration of the rest of the World Cup. It was the beginning of a great friendship between Kunle and I that has endured till today.
The Eagles lost their second group game 2-1 to Argentina on 25 June, 1994. Samson Siasia opened the scoring for Nigeria but Claudio Cannigia scored twice to turn the game around for the South Americans. The highlight of the encounter, however, was their skipper, the iconic Diego Armando Maradona, failing a post-match random drug test and getting thrown out of the tournament by FIFA.
I had visited the Argentina camp before their game against Nigeria and saw Maradona at very close range. While the rest of the squad conducted physical exercises, he was juggling a tennis ball and relaxing in one corner of the field. All of us journalists from around the world focused only on Maradona rather than the rest of the Argentina squad. His ball skills were simply amazing and one could sense the air of authority that he exuded amongst the group. All of that was on show in their victory over Nigeria that he orchestrated before the failed drugs test humiliated him.
The Eagles final group march was against Greece on 30 July, 1994 and Nigeria won 2-0 to top their group on goal difference from Bulgaria and Argentina. Finidi George scored the first goal while Daniel Amokachi got the second with unstoppable shot into the top corner that left the Greek goalkeeper rooted on the spot. Had Nigeria beaten Greece by one goal, we would have finished third in the group and faced Romania in the second round in Los Angeles. The Nigerian press corps was already contemplating how we would make the long journey from Boston, Massachusetts in the American east coast to Los Angeles, California in the west coast when Amokachi’s late bullet hit the Greek net to send Nigeria top of the group table. We were all very relieved to be staying back in Boston as group winners. But that meant a second round confrontation with football powerhouse, Italy, triple World champions at the time.
PLAYERS CLASH WITH COACH WESTERHOF
There was drama in the Super Eagles camp before the match against Italy when Coach Clemens Westerhof directed the players to move to another hotel but they refused. Westerhof felt that there was too much distraction by visitors at their original hotel, but team captain Stephen Keshi told him that the players felt at home and they would not be moving. Westerhof was upset and he left the hotel in anger. He only returned on the match day to select the team after Chairman of the FA, Air Commodore EmekaOmeruah, appealed to him.
NIGERIA CLOSE TO BEATING ITALY
Despite their pre-match squabbles, the Eagles went very close to beating the Italians. Emmanuel Amuneke scored in the first half while Rashidi Yekini nearly got a second. Nigeria was further boosted when Gianfranco Zola was sent off for Italy in the second half, thus giving the Eagles a numerical advantage. But with just two minutes remaining on the clock, Roberto Baggio equalized for Italy and went on to score a penalty kick in extra time to win it for the Europeans.
I sat with Coach Tunde Disu, technical director of the FA at the Foxboro Stadium in Boston on that fateful Tuesday afternoon, 5 July, 1994. At the 88th minute with Nigeria still leading 1-0, I was beginning to say to Disu that ‘it looks like we are going to win this match,’ when Baggio struck the equaliser to shatter our dreams. I started mouthing that sentence, but I never had a chance to complete it. In the end, it was a most painful defeat for the Super Eagles.
Many of the players blamed Westerhof for their World Cup exit, claiming that he made wrong substitutions when Daniel Amokachi and Emmanuel Amuneke were injured and had to be replaced. Westerhof subbed in two midfielders, MutiuAdepoju and Thompson Oliha, ostensibly to protect and secure Nigeria’s 1-0 lead, but his critics felt that he should have introduced other strikers like Victor Ikpeba and Efan Ekoku to keep the pressure on the obviously tiring Italians.
Despite our personal falling-out before the World Cup, Westerhof spared me a word when I approached him for his views on the loss to Italy. He said to me, “we already lost it before the match was played,” referring to the mutiny against him when the players refused to change hotels.
I was less critical of Westerhof in my post-World Cup reports in all our publications. Although I agreed with the general view that he probably got his substitutions wrong against Italy, I highlighted the bigger picture that showed that Westerhof’s, five-year reign as coach of the Super Eagles was a huge success. He won gold (plus the trophy), silver and bronze in three AFCONs and took Nigeria to the FIFA World Cup for the first time. Clearly, he was Nigeria’s most successful coach up until then and deserved full credit for that.
