Sunday Mba, the Pride of Nigeria

Local hero restores his country’s honor by winning the Africa Cup of Nations. He is Sunday Mba, the Pride of Nigeria.

South Africa played host to the Africa Cup of Nations from January 19 to February 10, 2013. The finals match was between Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The average crowd in attendance during the 32-game championships was around 72,000. On the final day, February 10, a mass of spectators and supporters of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, wearing green and white shirts were in attendance. Most were carrying hens painted in the national team’s colors. Others were even wearing loaves of bread on their head, complete with “Eat them like bread” slogans.

Nineteen-year title drought brought to an end
It was a long journey for Nigeria. They have been in that position before. They first won the cup in 1980, beating Lagos 3-0 in the finals. They repeated it once again in 1994, with a come-from-behind win against Zambia, with a 2-1 score. They were unable to defend their title in 1996 as Nigeria had a political cold war with South Africa and the country decided to withdraw from the tournament. It is also only the third time that Nigeria and Burkina Faso would be meeting in the Africa Cup in the 56 years that it has been in existence.

Vindication
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvMyvbG9sb8
This time, their third time in the finals of the Africa Cup, proved to be lucky. It also vindicated the firm decision of coach and player, 52-year old Stephen Keshi to select six domestic players, despite numerous criticisms. It is a firm statement that a player does not have to be playing with a European club or in the European league to be truly valuable to the national team.

The finals
The Super Eagles were aggressive at the initial stages of the game, but were unable to create many chances to score. Burkina Faso’s Charles Kaboré, Aristide Bancé and Jonathan Pitroipa were showing off their subtle skills and their teamwork in the field.

It did seem that Burkina Faso will gain the upper hand early since Nigeria had a late pre-match change. Emmanuel Emenike, their striker, who had scored four goals in earlier matches had hamstring injury in the semi-final round and was ruled out. Ikewchukwu Uche, another experience player, replaced him.

Ten minutes into the match and Nigeria had a chance to score, courtesy of a spilled cross from the Burkinabé goalkeeper Diakite and intercepted by Brown Ideye. It was unfortunate that his shot at goal was a tad too high. And the goal was unguarded at that time. Forty minutes in and it was Sunday Mba, one of the domestic players in the team who had the chance. From a flick from the penalty box that went over the head of Burkinabé player Mohamed Koffi, he kicked the ball with his left foot towards the far corner, away from the grasp of Daouda Diakite.

It was the only goal scored in the final match. Nigeria lifted the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations trophy with a score of 1-0, a sweet victory for the Nigerians, for the Man of the Match, Sunday Mba and the decisive coach-player, Stephen Keshi, who became only the second man to win the Africa Cup of Nations as coach and player after Mahmoud El Gohary of Egypt.