Before sharing my own assessment of the game and
what the lessons learned for team Ethiopia should be, let me get one thing out
of my head. It might not be at a professional level but I have worked as a
referee, coached an organized soccer team, played soccer & still play from
time to time, and of course I have watched many great games like most Soccer
fans. Just incase any reader feel the urge to burst, who am I to say anything
about team Ethiopia, I will admit before I begin that, indeed I might not have
the credentials like many others, but it is worth reminding myself and everyone
that yes, everything is easier said than done. But that is true just with about
anything in life anyway.
There are so many lessons I
feel I have learned and observed as a consequence of Ethiopia’s quest to
qualify for World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Following our lost to Nigeria and few of
team Ethiopia’s games prior to that, I feel there are few lessons the Ethiopian
fans and team Ethiopia in general ought to learn and quit repeating the same
mistakes.
The Negative and Positive Side of the Fan Factor
Dear fans, please understand
even if you are not part of the team on the field, you do have an influence on
the growth and development of the football federation and the performance of
the Ethiopian Walias directly and indirectly. Therefore it is your
responsibility to contribute in a positive manner, else please don’t drug the
team backwards. How could individuals or fans actually drag the whole
federation down/team Ethiopia down? Simple, by going out there and destroying
fellow countrymen hard-earned belongings and properties; and engaging in an act
that is not accepted by FIFA and force the Ethiopian Football Federation to be penalized.
Destroying public assets such as roads signs etc., and of course the real
possibility of losing human life in the process.
Here is how you can
influence the team in a positive manner and watch them achieve what you want them
to achieve faster. Stop destroying things that don’t belong to you, find ways
to earn more income, so that you will be wealthier and the government can
collect more tax money from you. The richer the citizens get, the faster the
government’s revenue will increase, the more money the government is able to collect,
the higher probability that the budget towards sport, schools and recreations
will increase, the more parks and organized sports there are in schools, the
more opportunities there will be for the youth to engage in sports and recreational
activities. The more youngsters play sports the higher the competition and the
greater the pool we will have from which the National team coaches will select
their best players to represent Ethiopia. This directly translates into more
wins against opponents.
On the game day against
Nigeria and many days leading to that, you can feel the excitement and anxiety
on people’s faces and on their daily small talks. Amazingly one of the things
that I kept hearing was, their concern about what will happen if we win. There was
no question about it that, in most people’s minds, that if we win there will be
certain level of chaos in the city that will emanate from excitement. And that
they say, good amount of properties will be destroyed. That is not only it;
people were convinced that many people would die. So it was not surprising but
rather disheartening to hear people take comfort after the game for the fact
that the loss meant people were now safe and sound as opposed to what would
have transpired had the Walias beat Nigeria. I tried to argue with my friends
saying, how can you even take comfort in that, even if it means certain
unpleasant things might happen, we can’t take comfort at the fact that we lost
and find positive side to losing. I thought, if people are really that indiscipline,
they will do that next time too, so maybe that too is something that we should
rather learn sooner than later. We need to get used to winning and uplifting
the nations confidence. We can just keep on postponing things for the future and
hoping. But of course they have had more close encounters and closer experience
than I, hence albeit my disagreement in principle, I could understand where
they are coming from. I have no choice but to retreat my argument and let them
be for I do not necessarily feel and understand as much as they do.
Keeping these points in
mind, I am disgusted to have learned and quite embarrassed behalf of my
wonderful Ethiopia to learn that “some Ethiopian fans” attacked the bus
carrying the Nigerian team on its way to the teams hotel stay following the
game by throwing rocks at the bus. Consequently Nigeria’s midfielder Nosa
Igiebor was injured in the process and needed immediate medical treatment, and
the reports add Nigerian Football Federation Vice President Mike Umeh has
reported it to FIFA. I cringe to call these acts of ‘Ethiopian fans’, that is
not an Ethiopian like, and why in the world would anyone attack a team that
squarely beat your own team at your own home game on your own turf? When your
team gets beat at home, your opponents deserve respect and a total hospitality
to reflect the long tradition that Ethiopians are known for.
That kind of act proves
nothing but one’s ignorance and weakness of not controlling one’s emotions. The
problem I have is even if it is an emotional thing and some people can’t
control their emotions; why in the world direct that at the opponents team? For
what exactly? I hope the responsible individuals are identified and face their
actions. There was an Amharic bumper sticker that I once read in the local
Ethiopian taxi; it read, “የቤትህን
ፀባይ እዛው!” (Yebthn
tsebay ezaw!) loosely translates to keep your personal behaviors at home. Thanks
to the incompetency of the Ethiopian federation and the team’s leadership the
team have gotten so many penalties and warnings by FIFA up to date that, the
last thing we need is more punishments because of some irresponsible fans. But
most importantly please don’t ruin Ethiopia’s centuries old beautiful guest
loving hospitality culture by doing unpleasant things to our opponents and
African brothers. All of this is assuming the act was done by a genuine
shortsighted individual/s who don’t think about tomorrow. However, I personally
wouldn’t rule out people with ulterior motives. Otherwise, እባካችሁ ልብ
ግዙ የሰውን
ክብር ኣትንኩ፣
ኣገርም ኣታሳፍሩ (Ebakachu
lib gizu yesew kibir atnku agerm atasafru).
Team Ethiopia
Playing great game is no
longer enough for Ethiopians, we had enough of that, now we want you to come
home with the wins and really truly believe why should any team be better than
you? I feel part of the problem of not finishing is the level of expectation
set. The best way to gauge that is following the team’s loss. There are two
many people who simply just say, well we played good game it is as if we didn’t
lose. People stopped us on the street to cheer us up and kept saying we didn’t
lose, we played amazing. Those are two different things. Playing well doesn’t
get you to the next level, winning does. Why can’t we finish? Are we choking
because we don’t have the experience and we are just mentally not ready to even
accept we can come out as winners against good teams? Because too frequently we
seen team Ethiopia play really good game for most part of the game and we lose
the game few minutes before the game is over.
Let us be candid about the
strength and the weaknesses of our Walias. Why aren’t we shocked at the loss?
Some might say, we are. I don’t believe so; we are not shocked we are just sad
that we lost. Is it that because deep inside we have yet to accept that we can
play against any team and win? Imagine if the Nigerians had lost, they would have
been distraught. I think everyone the players the coaches, the fans I think we
are still not confident yet on our team’s ability and we keep setting the
expectation way too low. Trust me we are not doing no one a favor. We need to
call it as we see it and criticize our teams and our coaches as necessary. That
is the only way to let them know. No, we are no longer going to be satisfied
with your great games.
When and Where Does Winning Start?
It starts in implementing the little things right;
the competition is won on perfecting the tiny small things that will
unquestionably bring the big difference. A goal is a result of countless physical and mental
preparation. Few months ago, team Ethiopia had 3 points taken away from their
World Cup qualifying aggregate points for playing ineligible player. This
directly affected the team’s standing and which team they got drawn against.
How is it possible for a team not to keep track of the eligibility of the
team’s players? How does at least one person in the whole team not review and
know the eligibility of the players? Most recently, I heard some reports last
week that Ethiopia is either warned or might get penalized by FIFA for failing
to follow uniform rules (I supposed for failing to register a teams Jersey with
FIFA). These things sound something that should be avoided by hiring an intern
to learn FIFA rules if it needs be.
Some will rightfully say, ‘but on this game against Nigeria, we had
scored two, the ref just failed to call it a goal and count it for us’. That
is true, but soccer is a fast paced 90 minutes game. The referees do not always
see everything; until the FIFA Goal Line Technology becomes reality everywhere some
teams will benefit and some teams will lose. It will really continue to be a
matter of luck as far as some close goal line calls are concerned. However, we
should understand, most refs don’t go to the pitch hoping to help one team,
they go hoping to make the best judgment and the right calls to officiate the
game. That doesn’t always happen, but teams don’t need to waste energy on things
that they can’t control. Focusing one’s energy on avoiding repeated mistakes is
energy worth spent. Giving the same team the same type of fouls and penalties and
letting them beat you on Penalty Kicks and when it repeats, it is hard to
swallow and brush it under the rug. The game isn’t over until it is over. It is
over when the final whistle is blown by the officials.
So why do we keep making
terrible fouls and keep giving teams Penalty Kicks? Why do we keep finding ourselves
running behind our opponents? Instead of at least trying to keep up with our
opponents and put pressure on their shots, which really is much more difficult
for a player to score than from a Penalty Kick, we keep giving them the easier
options. Especially the Nigerians seem to know exactly where the weakness of
our defense is, and they seem to have studied our players well as they should,
they find ways to reach where we would foul them, so they keep doing the same
thing, knowing we would keep giving. How come we don’t learn from our past
exact defensive failures and avoid doing the same mistakes? If we don’t have
the speed to keep up with the opponent’s strikers, why not keep more players
back on the defensive end? Especially when there are only few minutes left to
the game, why aren’t most of the players running up and down the whole field to
close the very few minutes left.
Last but not least, team Ethiopia, you exhibited
confidence and in complete control of the game for the most part of the game. You
were playing as if you had been practicing to play like Spain’s team Barcelona
with the exception of wearing a better-looking uniform. We full-heartedly
believe on our Walias that you can beat the Super Eagles in Nigeria on the
Eagle’s own turf. We know you are doing all that you can but you need to work
on connecting with the goal, both taking more and stronger shorts. And most
importantly we must learn and avoid repeating our mistakes of fouling inside
the Penalty area. Do take us to Brazil please. We know that you play better
than the Super Eagles and there absolutely is no reason why you shouldn’t win.
We are all becoming a nation of savers so we can afford or attempt to, to fly
to Brazil to watch you play. The impact reaching Brazil would have on Ethiopia
and Ethiopians is truly unexplainable. “Yes. We. Can.”.
Cheers,
Daniel
P.S. Yes I know, it is easier said than done.
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