When Nigeria beat Bulgaria 1-0 last Friday, and underachieving
Spain tied Paraguay 0-0, Nigeria surprisingly became the third
team to clinch the top spot in its first-round group. (Brazil
was the first and France the second.) Much of the credit for the
Super Eagles' two victories should go to their eccentric coach,
Bora Milutinovic, who made light of pre-Cup rumors of his
impending dismissal by turning Nigeria's bickering contingent
into something out of European Vacation.
It all started with Milutinovic's omnipresent video camera,
which he uses to document what he calls "the life." Whenever
Nigeria takes the field for pregame warmups, Milutinovic whips
out the camera and films the scene like a touriste on the
Champs-Elysees. On the team bus he can be spotted filming
Nigeria's adoring crowds out the window, and he often concludes
interviews by turning his camera on journalists and asking them
questions.
"One day when I quit coaching, I want me and my family to
remember everything," says Milutinovic, who was the 1994 U.S.
World Cup coach. "This is the life."
Just before Nigeria's critical opening match against Spain,
Milutinovic showed his team a homemade videotape that included
personal messages from the players' friends and relatives. The
Super Eagles won the game and saved their coach's job, though
Milutinovic conceded last week that he had thought he would be
fired after Nigeria's three straight defeats in friendlies
before the Cup. Not so, countered Nigerian soccer federation
chairman Abdulmumini Aminu, whose appearance in a Bora film
would surely qualify as an homage to Fellini.
"I supported Bora all the time," Aminu said with a straight face
last week. "I think he's a great guy."
Issue date: June 29, 1998
|
|
|
