The last time I saw football loving Nigerians this confused was after Yakubu Aiegbeni's diabolical miss against South Korea at the South Africa 2010 World Cup. The Nigerian Football community fumed, and rightly so.
You see, in football one team is supposed to loose. Teams that are good on the day have gone ahead to loose games they dominated and fans still go ahead to applaud them and sing high praises of them. Reason is simple; the players play out their hearts. Against Italy at the USA '94 World Cup Nigeria lost the game. But the fans celebrated them On their return. On Saturday in Uyo, what we saw was a crop of Super Eagles who didn't know that hearts (and monies, Nairabet and Bet9ja!) were at stake. Soulless Super Eagles.
Did Rohr actually watch Onazi play in Turkey this season? How many games did Iwobi manage for Arsenal? Was Musa Match fit? Please...that dark skinned central defender, who is he? Why didn't Omeruo start the game? John Ogu is the only player close to what Eagles needed to slice in passes to the attack, what is he doing in the bench? Nigeria have the highest goal scorer in the just concluded Belgium Premier league and he didn't make the match day list. The team played with no creative midfielder.... These are the thoughts that raced through the minds of spectators as the game wore on.
If Genot Rohr didn't underrate the South Africans then I don't know apart from the tactics, what went wrong. The Super Eagles got it all wrong, from start to finish. Bafana Bafana played like they were playing in front of their fans in Jo'burg.
Nobody dictated the pace and direction of play from the Super Eagles side. A bloody arm chair manager like me would have assigned that role to Ndidi. We saw him play the second part of the season for Leicester and he was massive for them. Then I would have called in Ogu to play ahead of him and try to run the game. By the way whatever happened to picking players from the local league? Obinna Nwobodo was magical for Rangers in their title winning run last season. His crime is not playing his game outside the shores of Africa? I will rather pick a player that plays week in and out for a B rated team than pick an A rated club player whose club will put up for sale at any moment. Form over rep. Simple.
The first goal Nigeria conceded was purely defensive error. Ranti was clearly unmarked when he headed in. Defenders were ball watching. The second goal was the comedy. The high line kept by Super Eagles must have been amusingly shocking to the South Africans. Little problem placing off the keeper and then sliding in. That goal showed lack of communication and naivety by the Eagles. It is hoped that the Eagles will gather momentum and soar. How they go about it, the most sincere Nigerian Football fan knows.
By the way, who else know that the balls used for the game belong to South Africa as Nigeria didn't have match balls? Oh well....
Photo credit: completesportsnigeria.com
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