How Rock was the Gentle Giant in Uncle Sam’s?

IKENWA NNABUOGOR

Super Eagles’ central defender Okechukwu Uche didn’t need a second bite of the cherry to confirm the sweetness, his taste buds had long been attracted to sweetness even before the lure of the Uncle Sam’s country beckoned for the Mundial, the first in the North American continent.

Aba home boy through and through, this giant in this gentle mode needed the biggest window to prove he was worth all the accolades including the one the press in Nigeria showered on him with a fresh brand new sobriquet “Gentle Giant” that best described this rare defensive gift from the renowned football factory, Aba.

Clemens Westerhof needed no advice to make this giant a national team commodity when he arrived in 1989, coach Paul Hamilton had long sorted him before the most successful Nigerian coach who had arrived from Papendal continued from where Hamilton had stopped.

From the ECOWAS Cup to the AFCONs in Algeria, through Senegal and Tunisia,the Gentle Giant was consistently gathering enough gas to export to the US, the first ever biggest stage in his brilliant career that he proved he was really a rock.

Bulgaria had threatened with one of the world’s best marksman and defenders’ nightmare, Hristo Stoichkov, Uche had perfected his other plans and subsequently reduced that former Barcelona superstar to a cherry-eyed upstart.

The giant received same signal from his heart of the defence partner, Chidi Nwanu, who had gatecrashed into the team to continue where he has left off in 1988 to form a formidable fortress with Uche to keep the enemies behind their enemy lines.

Westerhof was again experimenting and found a better pair than the other Uche, Okafor, who had been pairing the giant prior to the flight to the Uncle Sam’s. Nwanu’s combination with the “NATO” forces in Uche stood like a bastion in the Bastille Day in France to keep their oppositions quiet.

The giant took his luck further against the three-time World Cup champions, Argentina, in what was to be the Eagles’ biggest test in their debut World Cup but for the giant’s one moment of inexperienced gamble of leaving Argentine dangerman Claudio Caniggia just a yard chance, Diego Maradona came away with that deadly pass and boom, Peter Rufai in goal, didn’t see the what hit him. Argentina edged it in one of the US’94 World Cup’s most exciting encounters.

The giant returned in the action pictured below in the final group game against Greece to help compound the group’s whipping team’s woes by making sure there was no grazing in their half by their adversaries and inspiring an emphatic 2-0 win. Giant was indeed a Rock!

Then along came the Italians invading and Uche was never going to be found wanting as he marshaled the defence and defying orders from even “Hitler” but fell with the team due to gross inexperience when it mattered most.

Uche was on the verge of marshalling his team to one of the biggest upsets in the World Cup history with a rare colour of the “Wonder of the World” but for that lack of World Cup experience that cost them an almost assured quarter-finals berth. Uche and his men believed they were in the touching distance of lifting the World Cup title had they turned the Italians back.

That’s the story of how an Aba boy achieved a rare rock status in the first ever war he fought.