Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi
By Olawale Ajimotokan
Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi will meet with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) this week on his programmes for the last phase of the Africa Cup of Nations qualification.
The parley will enable the NFF to consider in advance the plans and the vital inputs needed to ensure the qualification of Nigeria for the Africa Cup of Nations to be played in South Africa in January next year.
The programme, we learnt, will incorporate the number of players to be invited as well as the camping site for the national team.
The Super Eagles, who failed to reach the last Summit at Equatorial Guinea and Gabon 2012, must prevail in two decisive knock out matches, in the last qualifying stage in September and October if they hope to reach South Africa 2013.
All the remaining African teams, including Nigeria, will be pitched at the draw to be held in Johannesburg next month.
The Eagles, who on June 17 eliminated minnows, Rwanda will only pray for the extension of their luck to draw another light weight at the event to be conducted by the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF).
We learnt Monday night that NFF wants Keshi to promptly hold talks on his programme with the technical committee so that Nigeria can perfect its plans and avoid similar pitfalls that caused Nigeria missing out from the last Africa Cup of Nations held in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Apart from the aforementioned details of the programme, Keshi’s proposal should also entail how he wants to prepare his team for friendly matches with formidable African opposition during the international football window in August.
We learnt from credible NFF sources Monday night of the federation’s desire to organize two international friendly matches that will grill the Eagles and help the coaches in looking at the team before the last qualifying matches for the Nations Cup.
Keshi, who was appointed the Eagles coach in November last year, is keen to test his wits against Senegal, Cameroon and Mali and has asked the Glasshouse to work at securing friendly matches with any of the mentioned countries.