The German tactician failed to correct the disappointment of a capitulation at home, and may pay the ultimate price for his inflexibility
Of all the possible outcomes following the eight-goal extravaganza between the two sides last Friday, a goalless draw in the return leg in Freetown was perhaps the least expected.
Really though, it should not have come as a surprise.
After all, the Leone Stars have built up an impressive record of defiance on their own patch—even accounting for the fact one might, mischievously, choose to interpret the term literally. For their part, the Super Eagles had suffered a grievous blow to the ego, and were without talismanic striker Victor Osimhen for the trip. With that in mind, it was never likely to be another free-for-all.
Gernot Rohr’s approach to the return was to change as little as possible. In came Kelechi Iheanacho to lead the line, as well as Ola Aina at left-back in place of Zaidu Sanusi, whose dereliction for two of Sierra Leone’s four goals in Benin City was met with the ultimate punishment. That seemed to suggest that, in his mind at least, his team’s second-half collapse was entirely mental, and that the set-up had been working perfectly otherwise. An optimistic read, to say the least.
Sierra Leone coach John Keister, however, was brave. He unfurled a different plan, beefing up midfield at the expense of a centre-back in order to better blanket the spaces Alex Iwobi revelled in the previous game.
Fortune favours the brave, as they say, and so even though Iheanacho blazed a presentable chance over the bar and had the ball in the back of the net in the second half (only to see his effort chalked off for offside), the hosts were eminently comfortable for the most part.
They might have even nicked it at the death, and it is a testament to their discipline and application that if they had, it would not have been a travesty.
Indeed, by the end, Rohr appeared to be calling a ceasefire. Gone was his first-choice midfield of Oghenekaro Etebo and Joe Aribo, with Shehu Abdullahi and Semi Ajayi on in their stead, and when he elected to discontinue the Kevin Akpoguma experiment at right-back, it was Chidozie Awaziem, rather than Sanusi or Ebuehi, who entered the fray.
It is impossible to shake the feeling this was a tacit acknowledgment, on the part of the German, of his own shortcoming. Over the course of the two legs, it is Keister who has emerged into the light with his reputation burnished.
