NIGERIA PROFILE: Lacking firepower and not playing like a team, Nigeria need to reverse a downward trend, writes Paul Doyle

The ‘Super Eagles" flew into France ’98 with dreams of becoming the first African side to lift the World Cup and after a thrilling opening victory over Spain their hopes looked well-founded. But in the second round against Denmark, they were suddenly overcome by complacency, and were ruthlessly deplumed by Denmark. Since then, Nigeria have been going downward.

Having enraged their fans by losing the final of the 1999 African Nations Cup on home-soil, they struggled through a qualifying group which for a long time looked like it would be won, incredibly, by George Weah’s Liberia.

For the most recent African Nations Cup, in Mali last Janaury, the national team were coached by a Nigerian for the first time ever. Alas, their display in that tournament fell so far beneath fans expectations (they lost in the semi-final) that Amodo Shaibu was shunted aside immediately afterwards.

Encouragingly, the Nigerian FA decided to replace Shaibu with another local tactician, Festus Onigbende. His main task is to form a band of players fragmented all over Europe into a functional team. That’s a daunting challenge when you consider two of his most gifted players, Paris Saint-Germain’s Jay Jay Okocha (right) and Arsenal's Nwankwo Kanu (below), are also incorrigible individualists.

Despite rumours that he would be ditched even before the World Cup, Onigbende launched himself into his job with courage and gusto - no sooner had he taken the reins than he announced his intention to radically revamp the national team, ousting seasoned Europe-based international like Sunday Oliseh (Borussia Dortmund), Tijani Babangida (Ajax) and Finidi George (Ipswich) in favour of younger players. Many of thise new generation are based locally, a fact which has delighted many Nigerian fans.

Nevertheless, the teams principal stars are based abroad. Okocha is one of the best midfielders in the world when the mood catches him, spinning through defences like a cyclone and shooting like a supernova.

Kanu is, as we all know, lavishly-gifted, but for an attacker he finds the net depressingly infrequently, largely because he tends not to realise that that is the target, instead he receives the ball and treats it like a hoola-hoop, an accessory for pointless self-indulgence.

And then comes perhaps the superest Super Eagles, 20 year-old Julius Aghahowa. The wonderkid scorched onto the scene at the 1999 African Nations Cup, but afterwards reveled so much in his new-found fame that he quickly gained several kilos in weight, rendering him both bloated and blunt.

Aghahowa, however, has trimmed back down and, as he proved in Mali, has refined his lethal predatory instinct. If he remains in top shape, the young Shaktar Donetsk star, whose speed and finishing skills make him very much an African Michael Owen, has every chance of igniting the world stage.

It reamins to be seen whether Onigbende has found a rising star in defence. Taribo West, recently sacked by Kaiserslautern, still finds time to lead the defence in between his missionary endeavours, but who will partner him, now that the coach has lost faith with Godwin Okpara, is not yet clear. on the left, Marseille’s Joseph Yobo ensures Celestine Babayaro has to endure a rotation policy at international level as well as with Chelsea. In goal, Ike Shorunmu inspires no more confidence than any of his predecessors, the men who gave Nigerian goalies the reputation for being less reliable than a schizophrenic's self-opinion.

Squad :

Goalkeepers
1-Ike Shorunmu (Lausanne/Swi), 12-Austin Ejide (Gabros), 22-Vincent Enyeama (Enyimba)

Defenders
16-Efe Sodje (Crewe/Eng), 13-Rabiu Afolabi (Standard Liege/Bel), 14-Ifeanyi Udeze (PAOK Salonika/Gre), 6-Taribo West (unattached), 3-Celestine Babayaro (Chelsea/Eng), 19-Eric Ejiofor (Maccabi Haifa/Isr), 5-Isaac Okoronkwo (Shakhtar Donetsk/Ukr)

Midfielders
2-Joseph Yobo (Marseille/Fra), 8-Mutiu Adepoju (Salamanca/Spa), 10-Jay Jay Okocha (Paris Saint Germain/Fra), 20-James Obiorah (Lokomotiv Moscow/Rus), 18-Benedict Akwuegbu (Shenyeng Gendi/Chn), 11-Garba Lawal (JC Roda/Ned), 15-Christopher Justice (Antwerp/Bel)

Forwards
7-Pius Ikedia (Ajax/Ngr), 17-Julius Aghahowa (Shakhtar Donetsk/Ukr), 9-Bartholomew Ogbeche (Paris Saint Germain/Fra), 21-John Utaka (Al-Saad/Qat), 4-Nwankwo Kanu (Arsenal/Ngr), 23-Femi Opabunmi (Grasshopper Zurich/Swi)