Amadu commends ‘One Match At A Time’ approach

General Secretary of Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Musa Amadu, has applauded the resolve of the Super Eagles to approach it one game at a time at the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, saying the approach has been working and will work well to take Nigeria far in the tournament.
Getting ahead of themselves has worked against Nigeria previously, when players naively thought they already reached the quarter finals and
became quite casual, allowing Italy to equalize and eventually trump a Round of 16 game in USA 20 years ago.

The attitude was also at play in France four years later, with players haggling over money for a potentially –explosive quarter final clash with Brazil before the Round of 16 meeting with Denmark in Paris.

“The approach of taking it one match at a time is excellent. That has worked well for us in the first two matches. It will also work for us against Argentina and take us very far in the competition,” Amadu said on Monday.

Working hard and playing for one another, the African champions brought to an end their nine match winless streak at the FIFA World Cup by pipping Bosnia-Herzegovina in Cuiaba on Saturday.

Apart from the bringing the dubious record to an end, Nigeria is also the only African team to earn four points from its first two matches in Brazil.

Also, as at Monday morning, only Nigeria and Mexico had not conceded a goal in the 32 –nation finals that started on June 12.

Before their victory on Saturday, Nigeria had not won a match at the FIFA World Cup since beating Bulgaria 1-0 at the Parc des Prince in Paris on June 19, 1998.

“I have confidence that we will go ahead and create several other records in this competition, going by the fact that the Super Eagles have picked up in form. When the Eagles are in form, no one can stop them,” Amadu maintained.

Before the match with the Bosnians, NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari had expressed optimism that the African champions would pick up the three points, as the unyielding Nigeria spirit comes to the fore when much is expected.

It would be recalled that the Super Eagles also started slowly at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, drawing with Burkina Faso and Zambia, before going ahead to defeat Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso to claim the title.