“We must find a way to score goals,” those were the exact words of Enyimba head coach Yemi Olanrewaju, popularly called Yema, after his team failed to defeat Burkina Faso’s Étoile Filante de Ouagadougou in open play in the CAF Confederation Cup playoff. The two-time CAF Champions League winners have now failed to score in their last five matches in Africa including playing goalless in both legs against Étoile Filante before needing penalties to go through into the group stage.
By calendar calculation, the day after Enyimba triumphed via penalties over Étoile Filante makes it 400 days since they last scored a goal in any CAF organized competition. The People’s Elephant suffered a 4-3 defeat against Al Ahly Benghazi at Martyrs of Benina Stadium in the CAF Champions League playoff on August 20, 2023. It was Murphy Ndukwu who scored Enyimba’s last goal in Africa with five minutes left to play. So that calculation tallies to a 455-minute goalscoring drought for the People’s Elephant on the continent.
So how will Enyimba solve this goalscoring drought before the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup gets underway with the draw billed for October 7? Yema has already identified the problem, pointing to the departure of their top scorer last season, Chijioke Mbaoma. For now, he has not got an outright replacement but is stuck with attack-minded players in Joseph Atule and Muyiwa Alade Balogun as well as new signings Clinton Jephtha, Bernard Ovoke, Ismail Sarki and Ifeanyi Ihemekwele.
Yema was quick to point out that not scoring over two legs against Étoile Filante does not represent failure for his team since they made sure to keep things tidy defensively. “What we are suffering now is just about Enyimba, it is a general issue,” Yema explained. “For the past two seasons we produced the highest goalscorers (in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) and none is with us now. Every season you start all over again (looking for a striker to solve goalscoring problems). Somehow we must find a way to score goals because the chances we missed (against Étoile Filante) were criminal.”
The last time Enyimba suffered such a lengthy run without scoring on the continent was in 2008 when they failed to score in three straight matches in the Champions League against Coton Sport Garoua (0-3) in the group stage and then Al Ahly over two legs in the semi-finals which the Egyptian club won 1-0 on aggregate.
I think the solution of goalscoring for Enyimba ahead of the Confederation Cup matches can be resolved to some extent in their next five league matches before their first group stage match on the continent. Yema will have to drill his forwards on decision-making and may be shooting drills in the final third. Yes I know Yema was a box-to-box midfielder during his days but one thing he had in abundance was packed shots from long range and this could also work for his midfielders and make his team difficult to play against if anyone can pop with goals.
However this burden of goalscoring drought on the continent is something the People’s Elephant must shake off if they must make it out of the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup as we await who faces who by the time the draw is made on October 7 in Cairo, Egypt.
