Ben Iroha, the man behind Nigeria's Korea victory tells the story of how it all happened
•Gives credit to Abuja Dome


Ben Iroha looked back to when he was preparing the team that won the world championship in Korea and didn’t know how to thank Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, the proprietor of the Dome, the magnificent Abuja resort that boasts of a Night Club, a first class gym, a conference hall and other sports facilities that make it stand out in the Federal Capital Territory.
“If I have not given these boys anything, I have given them fitness. They are so strong and can run any team down. But they equally play possession football and I can say that we are ready for the world,” Iroha said before the team departed for Korea.
And when they returned with the cup last week, the first person on Iroha’s mind was the owner of The Dome, Obiora.
“Dr. Obiora should take part of the credit for our achievement,” Iroha started in their Lagos hotel while awaiting Presidential reception last Saturday.
The discussion was repeatedly interrupted by the players who, on passing where we were, always stopped to pay their respect to the man who actually piloted their plane. Yemi Teller, the chief coach was in the hospital when Ben had to prepare the team for the championship. Teller had actually taken the team to an Invitational in Korea and on getting there had to be hospitalised. He remained in the hospital and never got the chance to work with the team till they left for Nigeria. It fell on Iroha to prepare the team for the world cup and now he tells the story of how it began. It was just an informal chat that revealed so much.
“I learnt a lot from Clemens Westerhof,” Iroha continued.
“What I taught the boys were the endurance training of Westerhof and the ball work of Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal coach. I have Wenger’s work tapes and I have learnt a lot of ball possession work from them. I admire Wenger’s approach to the game. I equally admire a lot of things from Westerhof. I combined these things and tried to create things in training.
I always felt that fitness and possession were absolutely necessary for any team to be champions. If you score and have possession, it will be difficult for the opponents. But if you always lose the ball, the pressure will consistently be on you and you can crack. So, even when the game is tough, I emphasize on possession. Sometimes, it scares a few who would want us clear all balls deep into our goal area. But when you clear the ball like that, opponents take possession and attack you more. So, I did a lot of ball work with the guys and made them to be confident on the ball. There were times I did one-touch only for days.
They had to learn how to pass the ball pam, pam, pam. At a time, the boys started enjoying it and I knew we had a team. It helped out. Before we left, I worked so hard on their fitness too. We trained three times a day just as Westerhof was doing before competitions. I went to the Dome to use their gym. They charged N1.5m for seven training sessions for the whole team. We could not afford it but Dr. Obiora allowed us to use the facilities free after the FA could not pay. The gym at the Dome is one of the best in the country and we really made use of it. There, I made the boys develop and get stronger physically. Dr. Obiora also directed his physical instructors at the gym to help out.
They did everything including reading of the heartbeats, muscle development and even entertained us with drinks after each training. All these were for free. That’s why I give the man a lot of credit and I feel that such people need to be commended. We got to Korea and started well. We were winning our matches and the boys were responding well.
The coaching crew worked as a team. The good thing about our head coach, (Yemi Tella) is that he listens. With Garba Manu and coordinator, Dahiru Sadi, we were all a good unit. The games went on well. My moment of despair was in our game against Columbia. They scored and led for sometime. I watched and watched and imagined what we could do to rescue the situation.
I was really down for I felt that it would be unfair for us to quit the competition at that stage. Not that I felt that we were unbeatable but simply because I knew the potential and the capacity of our players and I felt it would be unfair for us to leave at that quarter-final stage. At a time, I bowed my head in thought and at the same time feeling that we were out. Isa Sherif is a good player but I noticed that the Columbians around him were all taller and bigger, so they dwarfed him. I told coach Teller, let’s bring in Rabiu Ibrahim because he had the physique to contend with the Columbians. Teller agreed and we made the change.
Two minutes after he came in, he equalised. I knew we were back into the game. Yakubu scored and we were winners. It was such a sweet but hard victory. I always knew were contending for the cup but that victory against Columbia doubled my optimism. The final was simply exciting. The two teams played well and the game could have gone either way. I did not want our boys to be tensed up, so I repeatedly told them to enjoy their game.
I knew that if they read it differently from just a game, they could have pressure and make many mistakes. I had to tell them to be calm, work hard but to enjoy the game. We were consistent and that helped in the penalty shoot-out. I am happy that we won. We have made our people happy and we appreciate the gestures from all since we arrived.” The good things Iroha said about Dr. Obiorah made us get in touch with the man. He was pleasant on phone from his Abuja base.
“I have always believed that our heroes must not be politicians. Better put, the politicians have failed to be our heroes. The real heroes are these sports stars. They are the great ambassadors who have always portrayed our country in good light.
They are the stars who, through sports, make the whole world to respect us. They are the stars that unite our country and make us forget our differences. I am talking of the Keshis, Amokachis, the Siasias, the Ben Iroha, the Kanus and all the stars that make us proud of where we are from. They are the real ambassadors. Now, this team that won in Korea has joined them.
I did not play football. I am just a sports enthusiast. I remember Atlanta ‘96 when we won the soccer gold in the Olympics. That was the best moment of my life. I hope that our leaders realizes the importance of football and change the way we run sports in this country because we can do better than we are doing at the moment,” Obiora said, adding “I’m proud that we are part of the success of the Under 17 team. I’m so proud that we were part of the ingredient that made the soup sweet. I congratulate them and wish them greater heights.”
Dr. Obiora made his gym available to Samson Siasia’s team that were runners up in the World Youth Soccer Championship three years ago. Daniel Amokachi also took his Nasarawa team to the Dome and played in the Super Four last year where they earned a continental ticket.
The Dome is really doming out results for Nigerian football. But how many Nigerian coaches appreciate the importance of gym in training and preparing a team? Only the exposed ones do. And we know who they are. NFA is still backward on technical matters. Our football will be better when we start making use of knowledgeable men in various areas of the game, when merit will be respected and sentiment silenced. While we continue to count, I want to doff my hat to the players, their coaches and all those who contributed to our victory. Obiorah is one and Iroha wants Nigerians to know.

Source: Vanguard newspaper

This is a very compelling story, i enjoyed it so much thanx

this is what being a nigeria is all about,contributing to the dreams of the nation.

Thanks so much Dr Obiora.

We are all grateful.

Thanks so much,Clemens Westerhof and My Prof Arsene Wenger