Sunday Oliseh Reveals The Secret Behind The Success Of The 1994 Super Eagles

Sunday Oliseh Reveals The Secret Behind The Success Of The 1994 Super Eagles. by naptu2: 1:53am
Today is the 25th anniversary of Nigeria's victory at the 1994 African Nations Cup in Tunisia. The Super Eagles teams of the 1990s (1993-1996) are seen as the most successful set of Super Eagles ever.

The teams was honoured at the NFF Football Awards last week and Sunday Oliseh explained why they were succesful. This is a transcript of the speech. The video is below.

I would like to say a big thank you on behalf of my colleagues. It's the first time that we are getting together in the past 25 years.

And I must confess that, exactly 9 days from today, 25 years ago, the 10th of April 1994, we shocked the world in style when we won the African Nations Cup.

As at that time, we didn't know what we were doing. As you see us all here, we are just one big family. We hardly agreed on anything then.

But as you see these guys here, the moment we put on the jersey. . .

I remember Uche Okechukwu saying, "Jay Jay leave am, as e kick you e go come here".

I remember times whereby (this brings tears to my eyes), whereby Stephen Keshi's wife will cook African food for us all and she will bring it and carry it with her car and we'll all start sharing it in the hotel. Am I lying guys

The other Eagles reply, "No".

That tells you the love that we had for one another.

But as we look back, I'm a coach now and I thank God for everything he's done for us. If you look at the way that football is being played, full backs are asked to attack. We don't have two number 9s anymore. We have a number 9½. This started in 2008.

As at 1994, Daniel Amokachi was not a number 9, he was not a number 10, he was already playing 9½. So he was ahead of his time.

As at 1994 we had an overlapping left back. Sometimes we used to beg him, "Ben, abeg stay, I don tire", but he will still go and we will beat Ivory Coast.

An Ivorian in the audience reacted, which led to laughter from the rest of the audience and Sunday Oliseh said. . .

With all due respect.

As at the time, all the midfielders used to just carry the ball. One small boy from Delta, all he did was, fight for the ball, give it to the players to play.

And at the time, God blessed us with the best striker this continent has ever seen. I am talking of Baba Rashidi.

I will share something that I had between me and him, that he used to tell me. "Şo ri, Sunny, ma da won lowun. Şá ti ná si fún mi"

For those that don't understand Yoruba, what Rashidi used to say to me was, "Sunday, don't listen to them. Just send the ball in (to me)".

And this man had the most clinical finishing I have ever seen in my f**king career and I've been blessed to play with players like Inzaghi, Zidane and all of them, but none could come close.

And then we had one crazy number 10. In as much as I and him have a good relationship today, if I tell you how many times we almost fought on the pitch. "Jay Jay pass now!"

But I must confess to you guys, if I had a problem and I was crowded by players, give it to Jay Jay, he will find a solution.

We were very complimentary, from Dodo Mayana to Baba Rashidi, but we could not have achieved anything we did without players like Edema Fuludu, without players like Nduka Ugbade.

Because, for those of you who are less than 30 years old, you will not understand this, when we trained at the National Stadium, we had 30,000 watching trainings. Our trainings were like matches.

And for that reason, anybody who was going to wear the jersey on Saturday, you know that if you don't give 150%, not only will the Lagos fans kick you so hard, but there's somebody waiting on the bench to take that jersey and good luck to you if you lose it.

And let's not forget, we had one man who brought us all together, Clemens Westerhof.

For 3 years I was going in and out of London to get my coaching license and I was in classes with people like Ryan Giggs and all of them. Even Ole Solskjaer, we graduated together and they were always talking about England National team, England National team. Then one day, I was sitting with Gianfranco Zola and I told him, I said, "Excuse me, the last time England won something, I was not born yet".

I am going to tell you what this guys did (he's pointing at the other Eagles).

⚫ 1993: qualified for the African Cup of Nations.

⚫ 1993: qualified for Nigeria's first ever World Cup

⚫ 1994 (April 10th) : won the African Nations Cup

⚫ 1995: won the Afro-Asian Cup

⚫ 6 of the players from this group were in the Atlanta team that won the Olympics.

Jay Jay Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, Emmanuel Amunike, the Bull Daniel Amokachi, we had also the crazy Sunday Oliseh.

Why am I saying this now is that ever since people think that we have problems amongst ourselves. It is far from true. The thing is that we know that without one another, we'll not be having food on the table today. We'll be starving. We helped each other and we carry on with that friendship.

Daniel used to turn to me on the pitch and say, "I'll come help you defend". Even when I had 3 or 4 opponents, he will come and join me. Am I lying?

Oliseh gives the microphone to Amokachi and Amokachi says jokingly, "You dey lie small".

Oliseh says:

Because then he was a 9½. He was coming to join us in midfield.

And then we had Samson Siasia also coming to join us in the midfield. What was he doing? Samson was a number 9, but then we had the god of Nigerian attackers as number 9. The man adapted, started playing 10 and even number 7. Not to talk of Finito.

So the team goes on.

When NFF invited me to come and I saw the invitation, the first thing I wanted to say to my wife was, "Eh, I go stay house", but then I saw my colleagues who were coming and I saw that at one point in life we have to move forward.

Nigeria has given us everything we have. We have given everything we have to Nigeria. If we are not recognised, Nigeria will not produce another set. If we are not thanked, Nigeria will not produce another set, because what will it take to name one street in every state the Super Eagles of 94 Street?

It doesn't matter if the street is fine or not, just the recognition.

We thank you very much. We are grateful. We thank you for this event.

Oga Amaju, we thank you for doing it. We thank you all. Oga Seyi Akinwunmi, we thank you very much. Oga Dipo, we thank you. And we thank you the most Nigerians. God bless you