Gabon is an education, now we can take on the Pharaohs

Because the games keep coming thick and fast, there is no time for pity parties in tournament football. Like Winston Churchill once said, “success isn’t final, and failure isn’t fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts”.

And this I believe is the defiance we should take to our preparations for the next two games, no matter how painful we think that Tuesday’s narrow loss was, or that it was to Ghana, a country we seem to have on speed dial. Let’s just move on.

The thing though is, if we needed any prompting to sober up after the high brought about by our first qualification in four decades, we got it. Now we know that the tournament proper is a different animal -a game of fine margins and very little wriggle room. Literally.

That one lapse in concentration, the absolute punishment, it should teach us that most times it isn’t down to the actual kicking of the ball. That things like game management, attitudes, motivation, luck and then fusing all that into a game plan, do matter.

And yet the skills required to accomplish plans can’t be gathered during a 40-year absence, or in 45 first-half minutes for that matter.

So, all that aimless running or ‘street-football’ as SuperSport pundit David Obua called it, wasn’t a sign of inferior technic, but a demonstration of our lack of experience or if you will, an attempt to learn on the job.

However, and notably so, we quickly reassessed our situation and were brave enough to take the game to Ghana in the second-half. I saw enough willingness from us, to do what needs to be done, and that normally is the first step to recovery. It didn’t pay off then, but we live to fight another day.

So, when Egypt comes up later today, I expect us to be wiser. Technically, they are more sophisticated than Ghana. Embarrassment awaits us if we fail to find the patience to keep shape at the base of our midfield, fail to retain the ball in supporting attack, and continue to hoof it pointlessly from defence towards a lone striker who can no longer ‘hear’ his legs.

But they are not without their own weaknesses. For one, they have been absent for seven years after political instability robbed them of consistency. That will make them nervous, and was evident in their draw with Mali. Then, their reliance on Mohamed Salah for goals, is rather unhealthy. He accounted for four of the seven goals they scored in 2016. That will make them predictable, as was also evident against Mali. Close him out and half the job is done.

Having said that, I wouldn’t fuss about losing to them or anyone else. Let us be honest, we were never going to win this thing at the first time of asking. Realistically speaking, Gabon 2017 was only ever going to be an education. So, chalk down everything from last Tuesday as experience and bring on Egypt already.