I RESPECT COACH IKHANA, BUT I’M NO PUSH-OVER – EGUMA

This year’s Federation Cup final match holds out a lot of promises considering the pedigree of the two teams involved.
While Dolphins Football Club of Port Harcourt has played in the final of the compe­tition on four previous occasions and won all, Enyimba International Football Club of Aba, two times Africa club champion, has won the trophy twice with this year’s final as its fifth in the last six years.
And aside from having seasoned coaches, both sides parade the two deadliest strikers in the domestic league. Mfon Udoh who set a new all-time record of 21 goals in the domestic league this season is ex­pected to spear-head the Enyimba attack, Emem Eduok who netted 20 goals in the league this season would lead the Dolphins’ onslaught.
In this exclusive chat, Dolphins’ head coach, Stanley Eguma ex­haustively x-rayed the chances of both teams in tomorrow’s epic final encounter, billed for the Tes­lim Balogun Stadium in Lagos. We present the excerpts for your Saturday delight. Happy reading.
How does it feel being in the final of the Federation Cup once again?
I must first of all thank God almighty for giving us life and the privilege to come thus far in the Federation Cup competition. At Dolphins Football Club, we set a target for the team this season and it’s been so far, so good. We’ve not done badly in the league and we’re in the Federation Cup fi­nal; and God willing, I believe we shall cap our season with the trophy.
The Federation Cup is a competition I’m very conversant with having fea­tured in the tournament many times in the past. I must say it’s a competition in which I’ve made my mark right from 2001 when I won my first trophy in the compe­tition with Dolphins Football Club. When I left Dolphins and went to other clubs, I still made remarkable marks in the same tournament. It’s very interesting that once again, I’m in the final of the competition with Dolphins against a big team like Eny­imba International. For me, it’s another remarkable achievement and I think I de­serve commendation.
And what do you think is your chance against a side like Enyimba?
I see this year’s Federation Cup final as a very exciting one considering the pedi­gree of the two teams involved. Everybody knows that Dolphins Football Club boasts of a rich tradition in the Federation Cup having won the trophy four times. Eny­imba on its part is the most successful club in Nigeria. So, a Federation Cup final that pitches the two clubs against each other promises to be a thriller.
It’s on record that Dolphins has never lost in the final of the Federation Cup and Enyimba has not only won the trophy twice but also has a record of being in the final five times in the last six years. And Enyimba being the title holders, we at Dol­phins expect a tough opposition from them and it’s going to be the climax of football this season. We at Dolphins are very eager to face the challenge. We know the pitch at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. And playing against Enyimba, I know that we’ll live up to expectation.
We’re aware that it takes more than or­dinary effort to fight a team like Enyimba. But it’s important to point out that Dol­phins have more experience and pedigree in the Federation Cup than any other team in the domestic league in recent times. Ac­tually the league title eluded us this season. We now want to throw everything we have into the Federation Cup to ensure that we win something to compliment our efforts this season.
Talking about Dolphins’ pedigree in the Federation Cup; is there any special strat­egy that the team adopts for the competi­tion?
When you make your recruitment, you look out for players that have the character and the necessary skills; and you then work on them to play as a team. The Federation Cup is like sudden death. You either win or lose. You don’t approach the matches in Federation Cup like the matches in the league. We approach every Federation Cup match as if it is Cup final; as if you’re see­ing the trophy. Of course, you know that, in a cup final it’s win or lose. So we’re al­ways conscious of the fact that we could be eliminated today irrespective of the quality or pedigree of the opponent.
Again we try as much as possible to study our opponents very well. We have players with different kinds of mental­ity. There are players that are traditionally Federation Cup specialists. Such players may not play well in the league matches, but once you field them in Federation Cup matches, they would give you their best. Again there are some coaches that forget to prepare for penalty shoot-outs when they’re playing the Federation Cup, espe­cially when they’re pitched against the so called underdogs.
We try to guard against such things. That is why during our pre-season preparation, we play friendly matches with teams in the lower divisions. These are some of the technical strategies we adopted to survive those teams.
A player like goalkeeper Chijioke Ejiogu that is reputed for his ability to stop penalties and for actually helping Dolphins win the Federation Cup many times is now with Enyimba, your oppo­nent in the Federation Cup final. Does that bother you?
Yes, we’re taking him into consider­ation in our preparation since we’re play­ing against Enyimba in the Federation Cup final. We know that he‘s a very good goalkeeper; one of the best in the country; very calm, calculative and confident with sharp reflexes. On a good day, Chijioke can be a stumbling block to a team. When you’re up against such a goalkeeper, you don’t undermine his ability. We know his strengths and as well as his weaknesses. Chijioke has been with us at Dolphins and I can assure you that we know how to get the ball past him. In fact, he (Chijioke) was a better goalkeeper when he was with Dolphins than now. But that’s not taking anything away from him as a good keeper. We’d never underrate him. We know his strong points when it comes to penalties. And we know those things we need to do to unsettle him in the goalpost. We know his qualities as a goalkeeper but it would still come down to his current form. But we also have penalty stoppers in our team as well as good penalty takers. We’re pre­paring for the game and if it goes into pen­alty shootout, fine. I’d love to win within the regulation time. But if it gets to penalty shootout, we’re prepared for it. If you must win, you must prepare to win all round; in­cluding penalty shoot-out.
You’re going up against a seasoned coach in the person of Kadiri Ikhana. How do you intend to cope with the chal­lenge?
Kadiri Ikhana is one of the coaches I re­spect a lot in the country because he has contributed a lot to the development of Nigerian football. He has achieved a lot as a player and as a coach. One good thing about him is he always makes a mark in every club he handles. I think he has qual­ity. The high-point of his career was when he guided Enyimba to win the CAF Cham­pions League in 2003 and was awarded the Africa Coach of the Year. He’s back with Enyimba and the team is also doing very well; so one cannot undermine the quality of Coach Kadiri Ikhana. However, at Dol­phins, we have a tradition, and personally as a coach, I believe that if I work very hard, no matter the quality of the opposi­tion, I’d always make an impact. Coming against a coach of Kadiri Ikhan’s standing, I should expect a very tough match. I also expect that Coach Ikhana knows that play­ing against a team handled by me is not going to be a walk-over. So I believe the stage is balanced and both teams are even­ly matched. It would be difficult to predict where the Federation Cup trophy would go. But I can only predict that it is going to be a highly competitive match and at the end, the better and luckier side will win.
Don’t you see Enyimba denting Dol­phins’ unbeaten record in the final of the Federation Cup this time round? Exactly what would you tell your players on the need to maintain the team’s record of not losing in the final of the Federation Cup?
In the game of football, anything can happen. In as much as I’m working hard to see that I keep the record of Dolphins of not losing in the final of the Federation Cup, I equally imagine that the reverse could be the case because it is football. At the end of the day I would want to maintain the record of Dolphins as well as my own record because I also have not lost in the final; but football is not mathematics. If it happens the other way round, I would still thank God for getting to the final which is not an easy thing. Whatever happens, I’d accept it in good fate.
Finally, this year’s Federation Cup fi­nal is going to pitch two players that have been outstanding in the domestic league this season in terms of goal-scoring; that’s talking about Mfon Udoh of Enyimba International of Aba and your own (Dol­phins) Emem Eduok. No doubt you’d ex­pect Emem to do the damage to Enyimba, but how do you stop Enyimba’s Mfon from doing same to your team?
Honestly speaking, it is a very good de­velopment in Nigerian football that these young lads are making very impressive marks. I can talk elaborately on Emem because Mfon Udoh has not played under me. From the much I’ve seen and read about Mfon Udoh, I give him kudos and I see him as a very promising player. He caught my attention when he was with Akwa United where he started to a mark in domestic league before he joined Eny­imba. At a time I was trailing him with the intent to sign him on. Fortunately for him, he signed for Enyimba, and ever since he has been doing very well. I must confess that he’d be a big task for us (Dolphins) to contend with. We know that he would want to prove that the mark he has made in the league this season is not a fluke; that he deserves all the accolades. I’m aware that he would pose a big threat to my team in the Federation Cup final, we’re very conscious of that.
In the case of Emem, he has been like a child to me. He was practically nobody when I brought him from Akwa United when they were playing in the lower league. I saw the talent he has and I said to myself, this is the kind of player that one could develop. He joined us in 2010 and since then I’ve been working on him. There was a time he had offers to travel abroad and I was among those that scut­tled the trip because I knew that he was not ripe for foreign deal then and I wanted him to learn all the rudiments of the game and gain the necessary experience first. As God would have it, last year, the na­tional team coaches spotted him and took him to the Junior World; that was the na­tional U-20 team coached by Coach John Obuh.
He came back from that tourna­ment with some experience that has im­proved his game. After that tournament he had one or two offers from Germany and Switzerland but those offers were not good enough, so he came back and I continued my work on him. Now I can confidently tell you that he is ripe for any league abroad as well as the national team. I know his character and mental­ity. I know his strengths and weaknesses. He’s a player that can also wreck a team on a good day and I think he’d be a threat to Enyimba in the Federation Cup final. If they underrate him they’d be doing that at their peril because he’s a player bubbling with a lot of energy and he has the capac­ity to take on any opponent on a good day.
That he was able to score 20 goals in the league this season is not a surprise to me; that’s why I have always recommended him to the national coaches of the under-age teams. I think he’s even ripe to play in the Super Eagles but it’s up to Coach Stephen Keshi. However, if Coach Keshi would maintain his ideology of giving the players in the domestic league a chance, I believe at the end of the day, he won’t regret giving Emem that opportunity. If given the chance too, I think that Emem would do well. And for the Federation Cup; I expect Emem to live up to expec­tations.