Another Date With History

By Godfrey Azubike
Monday, November 29, 2004

Enyimba Football Club of Aba step out December 4 in the first leg of CAF Champions Cup competition which it wants to win back-to-back

Enyimba FC of Nigeria will have a date with history Sunday, December 4 in Sousse, Tunisia when they take on Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia in the first leg of this years Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) champions league finals. The match is very crucial to the People's Elephant as the Enyimba boys are called because its outcome will go a long way in deciding who wins the trophy after the second leg encounter which comes up in Nigeria a week later.

If Enyimba cannot win or at worst get a draw in Tunisia, the team must struggle to keep the score line slim in case they bow to the pressure of their hosts. This will help the Nigerian side not to walk a tight rope during the second leg which will be played at the Abuja National Stadium December 12. CAF had earlier informed Enyimba that the final of the competition would not take place at the Aba Township Stadium because it did not meet the requirement for the epic final. The African football body appears not satisfied with the security arrangement as well as the size of the Enyimba stadium.

Enyimba and Etoile are no longer strange to each other. The two teams met earlier this year in Aba to determine the winner of the Super Cup Competition. The Super Cup is the title meant for the winner of the CAF Champions League and the now defunct Winners Cup Competition. The two teams were separated by a lone goal scored by Enyimba, thus crowning the People's Elephant as the king of African soccer for the year 2003. The two teams also met a few weeks ago in the two-legged encounter during the group matches before they squared up again for the crucial final.

In the previous encounters of the two teams, it has been a cat and mouce affair. While Enyimba defeated Etoile to get crowned as African soccer king for 2003, Etoile had pipped Enyimba in retaliation when they met in the first leg of their group matches of the championship this year in Tunisia. The second leg of the preliminaries played in Aba, however, ended one goal apiece.

Enyimba has an onerous task of not relenting in their effort to lift the CAF Champions trophy. Though the hard-fighting team appears to have lost the fierce energy exhibited last year when they broke the Champions Cup jinx which affected Nigerian teams for 38 years, Enyimba's performance at away matches gives a ray of hope.

The People's Elephant must have to exploit the December 4 match in Tunisia to make the second leg of the encounter less cumbersome. The task of beating Etoile is not impossible. The current FIFA ranking of clubs worldwide attests to the fact that Enyimba, is a better side. From the world football bodys ranking, Enyimba International FC of Nigeria is rated the 99th position among football clubs in the world, while Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia is rated 126th. Most sports analysts and enthusiasts who spoke on the two chances of the two team believe that Enyimba is the better side.

Emeka Obasi, a sports analyst and former sports editor of Daily Champion said Enyimba could win the trophy. He agrees that the team has not fared better at home this year but attributed it to pressure from fans. According to him, even for the financial gains alone the boys will not want to give in, because for reaching the finals the team got $750,000. He noted that if they win the trophy, they will settle for $1million in addition to other goodies that will come their way

Etoile du Sahel attack is marshalled by some hard fighting Nigerians playing professional football in Tunisia. But Emeka Enechi, a sports analyst and Editor with This Day Newspapers does not agree that these Nigerians playing for Etoile du Sahel can spring any surprise at this point in time. He said those Nigerians had their way because it was the preliminary stage that was not taken seriously by Enyimba. He said: "Most Nigerians talk about Emeka Opara, Ugochukwu Obiako, and Chukwuma Nwoha. They are all Nigerians who played with the goalkeeper even in the same team in Nigeria, so I don't see any problem.

Enechi said Enyimba players would want to deliver the trophy to Orji Kalu, their soccer-loving governor. "You know what money means to players. Once you put the money down there is no player, that would want that money to pass by him. No player, as far as I am concerned in Enyimba International will want Etoile du Sahel to cause any problem for them," he said.

Olugbenga Akinsanya Lawal, a navy captain and chairman of Armed Forces Swimming Association is not comfortable with the idea of playing the final leg of the competition in Abuja. He feels the match should have been played in Lagos to ensure the needed crowd support for a game of that magnitude. I don't support taking that match to Abuja. For goodness sake, Enyimba requires all the crowd support that they can get. Abuja is not a crowd puller when it comes to sports. Why don't we take that match to a center where we think people are fanatical about the game. They can give Enyimba all the support needed to ensure the second leg is won and won very well," he said.

To get to the finals, Enyimba beat hard-fighting Esperance of Tunisia 6-5 aggregate while Etoile du Sahel overwhelmed Jeane D'Arc of Senegal 3-0 in Sousse to shoot to the final. Enyimba is the first defending champion to reach the final since the league format was introduced by CAF in 1977. If Enyimba eventually wins the league, the team will be the first clubside to win the trophy back-to-back since the league formal was introduced Tout Puissant Englebertic of the Republic of Congo won the trophy back to back in 1967 and 1968. When it was not based on league format.