AFCON Qualifying: Nigeria beaten at home by Congo.

The Super Eagles began the defence of their continental crown under a cloud, both literally and figuratively. As the game wore on, the rain showered down on Calabar but failed to extinguish the smouldering train-wreck that played out at the UJ Esuene Stadium

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The fracas at the head of the Nigeria Football Federation and the threat of a FIFA ban hung inexorably over the team and the contest, like a buzzard perched on the floodlights. Off-field distractions may well be a refuge, but for professionals who are paid match bonuses, there really should be no place to hide. On the pitch, the champions played like the heart had been ripped out of them, on a surface that looked like a fallow potato field. 

It was no vintage carpet, but to blame the turf ignores two salient facts. 

First off, every football game is contested by two teams; Congo had to play on the same surface as well. Secondly, the venue was not chosen by the opposition. If you find that the majority of your players play on excellent surfaces across Europe, then a better ground is a no-brainer. That is, after all, the point of the home-and-away format: to give both teams an opportunity to maximize their comparative advantages. 

Stephen Keshi’s personnel choices from the start seemed to further handicap the home side: the trio of Nnamdi Oduamadi, Ahmed Musa and Uche Nwofor had never before featured together in the same starting eleven for the Super Eagles and it showed.

 Ramon Azeez was selected at the tip of the midfield triangle again, in spite of his struggles in the same role at the World Cup against Iran. From the bench, Nosa Igiebor watched on. His belated arrival came immediately preceding the fatal blow.