Good morning/afternoon Everyone,
Today’s post is coming quite late, much later than we are used to. Apologies.
It’s Monday morning and I am sitting in a airplane, flying from one part of the East Coast to another. Clearly I am not in Aba or in Rivers State and I did not witness our 2-0 defeat to Rivers United. But the task fell at my desk to write the blog for today.
As you may have observed, the blog has featured alot of different names/writers since our very recent attempt at resurrecting things. Traditional readers of “ThatEnyimbaFan” know we took an unauthorized absence without leave. The reason, we might get into another day. However, about 7 weeks ago, we decided to get things restarted again. Trouble was, I wasn’t anywhere near the team again (one reason why we shut down in the first place). But we have been able to find willing helpers who would take turns to get on the blog and share their thoughts. I on the other hand, would get in and share my views occasionally; with that, the blog comes back to life and everyone is happy again.
So I can’t pretend like I saw Enyimba play yesterday but I did see highlights. For starts, we lost 2-0 at a very empty Adokiye Stadium. Both goals were the kind of goals you’ll bank on a home team to score in such circumstances. A couple of headers from midfield into the decisive area and a defender slipping at a crucial moment, letting the opposition cash in.
The second was another very cheap goal to concede. Alot more like something I’ve seen more times than I can remember. A poorly taken cornerkick lands at the feet of a player who has all the green grass to run toward. Should the player in pursuit have made a tackle? Maybe. But for some reason, he decided against it. Was he on a yellow and probably felt risking a red in the dying moments of a game you are odds on to lose isn’t worth it. Maybe.
In hindsight, you may argue he should have made the tackle or pulled down the opponent but there was no way to know that with the number of defenders hackling back into position, we were about to concede a second. But we did. And we lost the game and the whole Finidi vs Yema conversation that trended all week provided us no pleasant surprises.
The team did play well and there were chances on both ends according to the gaffer. Even the match report stated that their first goal was against the run of play. It doesn’t matter. All goals count. What does matter is that, we must learn to be braver and more clinical infront of goal. Goal scoring has been the bane of most Enyimba teams of the past – and it appears like Coach Yema has inherited the problem as well.
A few other teams have started pretty decently in the League – Remo Stars (that failed to shine in the Continent) leads the pack, having nudged up a couple of away joys. What this means is that if we plan to win the League this season, we cannot be on the losing side of every away battle. Yes, this is Rivers United and we never beat them at their place but again we cannot have an “L” for every away game.
We have a young team with a rookie head coach handling the biggest club of his career so far and all we can do is to support them. For its worth, the Enyimba Management has so far failed to impress. It is early days but if you sat in Kadiri Ikhana’s Ted Talks, you’d learn that player welfare and player performance are linked. Ex-footballers are supposed to know that right?
As my plane begins to make it’s descent – we’ve gulped 2 hours of fly time, this result has to be buried in the annals of “Disappointing results that shouldn’t derail our season”. Lessons should be learned of this and sights should be firmly fixed on Akwa United in midweek.
We back tomorrow –
‘EnyimbaEnyi
