Nigeria at the 2010 World Cup: A decade of regret?

The squad that Nigeria took to the 2010 World Cup is quickly dismissed by supporters, and understandably so, considering the tournament was one of the Super Eagles’ worst moments on the grandest stage of all.

They’d fallen at the first hurdle in 2002—albeit in a much tougher group—and missed out on the 2006 event, but the 2010 failure casts a much larger shadow.

It was a campaign marred by controversy, not least the decision to axe Shuaibu Amodu ahead of the tournament and appoint Lars Lagerback, who is perhaps harshly maligned, but ultimately didn’t get the best out of the squad.

Considering the tournament was the first on African soil, it was supposed to have been a chance for the continent’s sides to show what they could do.

Nigeria had the talent—and the draw—to reach the knockouts, but lacking organisation, seemingly missing some structure, with discipline lamentably lacking, they crashed out, taking just one point from their three group games.

John Obi Mikel’s injury clearly didn’t help, but instead, what should have been a glorious return to the World Cup is best remembered by Sani Kaita’s needless red card—for lashing out in the Greece game—and, of course, that close-range miss by Yakubu with the goal gaping against South Korea.

It didn’t matter that The Yak later netted a penalty to rescue the point, he was ridiculed, the Super Eagles were maligned, then-President Goodluck Jonathan had seen enough, and duly suspended the national side for two years.

Mercifully, that decision was repealed, and two and a half years later, the Eagles’ post-World Cup renaissance was completed by the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations success, and Stephen Keshi’s exciting new generation.

Ultimately, Keshi’s Eagles followed up that 2013 success by reaching the knockouts of the 2014 World Cup, finally laying to rest the spectre of the 2010 failure, but a case could also be made that even this talented crop didn’t realise their potential—and they missed out on both the 2015 and 2017 Afcon tournaments.

However, what they did do, definitively, was help Nigeria forget about the failure of 2010.

Remarkably, only four of Lagerback’s squad were present when the Eagles won the 2013 Afcon, and of those, Ideye Brown didn’t even get on the pitch at the World Cup in South Africa.

Of Lagerback’s team, only Vincent Enyeama, Elderson Echiejile and Joseph Yobo were present at the Nations Cup.

Echiejile had been promoted from back-up to first choice at the expense of Taye Taiwo, while Yobo was ‘demoted’ during the Afcon from starting centre-back to an option from the bench.

Of course, Keshi’s side achieved greater success in Africa and globally, but man for man, were they really as good as the forgotten generation of 2010?

At full-back, Echiejile replaced Taiwo, but he could never manage the former AC Milan man’s exploits at club level, and didn’t offer his explosiveness nor his powerful shooting.

On the right, Chidi Odiah was an excellent talent before injury undermined his progress, and won an eye-catching six European league titles after leaving Julius Berger.

The 36-year-old never gets the credit his talent deserves, and was a far more natural option at right-back than his successor, Efe Ambrose, whose versatility nonetheless made him useful for Keshi.

In defence, Yobo and Danny Shittu were superseded by Kenneth Omeruo and Godfrey Oboaboa, whose understanding and even quality in possession was better than what we saw from the previous pairing, even if ex-Everton defender Yobo remains the outstanding player of the quartet.

Of course, Mikel’s return to the side immediately improved the midfield, and he grew into becoming an Eagles legend while Dickson Etuhu—a powerful if limited player—was overlooked by Keshi, even if he continued to play in the top two divisions of English football until 2014.

Ogenyi Onazi stepped into the side at the expense of Lukman Haruna, and represented an ideal foil for Mikel, even if his ceiling wasn’t as high as his predecessor’s.

Haruna, old before his time, is still in his 20s, but has represented Nigeria just once since the defeat by Greece in 2010, with injuries and a loss of form completely undermining his potential.

What could the Eagles have achieved with Mikel and Haruna in the heart of the midfield together over the last decade?

Further forward, Keshi never truly got his striking options right with the Eagles; the likes of Sunday Mba, Nnamdi Oduamadi, Michael Uchebo, Joseph Akpala and Anthony Ujah were all given gametime without truly establishing themselves in the side for a long period.

Peter Odemwingie returned to the side to impress at the 2014 World Cup, although Nigeria rarely saw the best of a player who netted 30 goals for West Bromwich Albion across three seasons, while Ideye Brown and Emmanuel Emenike were both influential in the 2013 Afcon success without truly suggesting that they were the lethal finisher Nigeria craved.

It’s particularly up front that a whole swathe of Nigerian frontmen were discarded soon after the World Cup.

Nwankwo Kanu was already 33, and entering the final days of his storied career, but all of the other forwards could reasonably have hoped to have still been in the squad for the 2014 World Cup.

Chinedu Obasi and Victor Obinna were 24 and 23 respectively, but the former hasn’t featured for the national side since 2011, while the latter has started just two Nigeria games since 2011, despite being given a handful of opportunities to impress under Keshi.

Obviously, injuries affected their progress, but Obasi was proving to be a consistent threat in the Bundesliga with Hoffenheim before the 2010 World Cup, and Obinna was once described by Jose Mourinho as one of Internazionale’s brightest prospects.

These two talents should have achieved so much more with the national side.

Similarly, Yakubu only played once more for Nigeria after that miss against South Korea, despite remaining a prolific scorer in England and China.

What of Obafemi Martins, only 25 at the World Cup?

Despite playing four times for Nigeria in the years after 2010, he’d never score for the national side again, and was rarely given a look-in by Keshi.

Some may argue that the successes of 2013 and 2014 fully justify the Big Boss’s decision to do away with the class of 2010.

However, there’s still a niggling sense that the Eagles could have made so much more of the talents who flopped in South Africa, a talented generation who were—almost to the man—largely resigned to the international scrapheap a decade ago this week.