Former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr’s time with Nigeria finally came to an end this week, after months if not years of speculation, with poor form in World Cup qualifying proving the final straw.
The recent WCQ results included a shock 1-0 loss to Central African Republic, ranked 124 in the world and who never previously won a World Cup qualifier away from home, and drawing 1-1 in a nerve-grating final qualifying game at home to Cape Verde.
“The last two games were very tough games for us,” NFF president Amaju Pinnick told ESPN. “That game against Cape Verde was particularly bad.
“Based on what we saw, even about five minutes to the end of the game, they could have scored and Nigeria would not have made it to the last round of the World Cup qualifiers.”
Those two games might have been the last straw but it was clear that his goose was slow-cooking long before then, going all the way back to the 2018 World Cup.
Four minutes to the end of Nigeria’s final group game against Argentina in Russia, the scores were locked at 1-1. As it stood, it was all the Super Eagles needed to advance to the round of 16.
Sitting high up in the stands, it was possible to hear Nigeria fans baying for the tired Victor Moses to be substituted for fresh legs to close what was looking like the Grand Canyon on that side of the pitch.
Nothing of the sort happened… Except for a cross that flew in from the left channel. Moses arrived too late to stop Marcos Rojo from sweeping in the gut-wrenching goal that knocked Nigeria out of the World Cup.
Take a poll of Nigerian football fans and the majority will tell you that was the moment their tide of support shifted from under Rohr’s feet.
The NFF, under Pinnick, had handed the German a new contract just weeks before the team left for the World Cup, and found themselves compelled to rally behind the coach.
The primary complaint over the course of his five-year tenure was the seeming lack of regard for domestic league players. Sources told ESPN that Shehu Dikko, the head of Nigeria’s League Management Company, who also doubles as the NFF’s second vice president, was particularly irked by that.
But it was hard to justify firing the coach at the time, not only because of his new contract, but also the results he was churning out.
Hired in August 2016 to replace Sunday Oliseh, who had departed in somewhat acrimonious circumstances, Rohr proceeded to worm his way into the hearts of Nigerians, who had been burned by failing to qualify for consecutive Nations Cup tournaments.
Rohr masterminded World Cup qualification with relative ease from a group including Algeria and Cameroon, and did so with a game to spare. He then proceeded to qualify for the AFCON, again with a game to spare.
Nigerians, used to nail biting last minute permutations to decide qualification, believed they had found The One. Until his World Cup stumble.
And when his team lost to Madagascar in Egypt in 2019, the knives were out again. But a win over arch rivals Cameroon, and then South Africa went some way towards appeasement, stifling the pockets of protest that threatened to break out after a semifinal loss to Algeria.
And so the NFF stuck by him.
Rohr responded by opening the AFCON 2021 [now 2022] qualifiers with two straight wins, against Lesotho and Benin Republic, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt.
One year later when the qualifiers resumed, things took a different turn. What started as a routine rout of Sierra Leone at home turned into a nightmare, and the catalyst that restarted Rohr’s travails.
Leading 4-0 within the opening half hour, the Super Eagles then proceeded to suffer the most inexplicable collapse, giving up four goals to tie the game 4-4. The entire nation was left shell-shocked.
“We were leading 4-0 and they came from behind to draw. If the game had lasted another 5 minutes, perhaps we would have lost that match,” Pinnick said.
This constant struggle to best middling opposition, and the notoriously laboured performances, also riled Nigerians, among them a slew of former internationals, including former striker Jonathan Akpoborie.
“When we were playing and we play countries like Burundi, Burkina Faso and the likes, we always beat them with wide margins,” he said. “But now we cannot beat them anymore like that.
“Maybe we will beat them 1-0 or struggle to play 1-1 with them. Are they improving? Yes! Are we improving? No! We are stagnant and we have been stagnant for a very long time and that is the problem.”
That stagnancy was a real issue. After over five years and becoming the longest-serving coach in Nigerian football history, the team was expected to be progressing. Instead, the general perception was on one of regression in relation to the continent’s other teams.
In his defence, Rohr has constantly pointed to his work in intentionally bringing young players through, laying the foundations for a team that would serve Nigeria for many years to come.
In addition, there was the qualifying record that has seen him play 24 games, with 16 wins, six draws and two losses and meeting his targets by qualifying Nigeria for each of the tournaments he has entered.
Overall, he finished his tenure with 35 wins, 16 losses and 13 draws from 65 games. While it is a record he is proud to stand behind, Rohr points to the foundations he has laid as being more important.
“We leave a team with young players and very good chances for the future,” he told ESPN. “I will miss the players and the staff but it’s perhaps better like that.”
Qualifying for a tournament and performing well at them are two different things. Unfortunately for him, these accomplishments were considered middling compared to Keshi’s AFCON win of 2013 and Round of 16 finish at the World Cup in 2014.
They did not stack up well against Clemens Westerhof, either. The Dutchman, legendary in Nigeria for his work in building up Nigeria’s golden generation, reached the AFCON Final on his first try, won bronze on his second, and claimed gold on his third. All in less time than Rohr spent with Nigeria.
It also did not help that the German showed too much respect to even the smaller African nations, when the fans expected a bit of swagger, even arrogance. Struggling against such opposition appeared to fuel that perception, and in the end, it cost him.
“We have kept faith with him for the last five years,” Pinnick added. “We gave him all the support and all the confidence. Yes, we were winning our games, but we were struggling.
“And he had lost the dressing room. Discipline in the team was at its lowest ebb.
“All of this was just too much and we didn’t want to wait for a disaster to happen before parting ways.”
That “disaster” would be failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. NFF sources say they had no confidence Rohr could beat any of the top teams despite his previous record of qualifying, and that prompted the final decision.
They had no confidence he could win the AFCON next January either. So there was little point in continuing and the NFF elected to bite the bullet and pay Rohr off. The coach is now expected to be paid his outstanding wages and bonuses, as well as his wages for the remainder of his contract, which was due to run for another 12 months.
Although Technical Director Augustine Eguavoen has been placed in temporary charge, a new coach is now expected to be hired before the trip to Cameroon next month.
A high-ranking NFF official admitted to ESPN that their expectations for the tournament was not so much for the title but for the new man to use it as preparation time to infuse his own ideas into the team ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.
It is a big gamble, but one the NFF are betting all of their marbles on in a high stakes game of go big or go home.
Source: espn.com
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