Nigeria World Cup Team Blog » Fans

Trophies or Thrills?

Lola — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:12:31 +0000

Despite their recent victory streak, Coach Shaibu Amodu and his Super Eagles have been criticized for not having enough flair. This criticism has been so much so that Asst. Coach Fatai Amoo was forced to go on the record and tell people to just chill out. He made a salient point in regards to Euro 2008: Holland played some of the most exciting matches seen in the entire tournament; however, that was not able to take them all the way through.

This must be the ‘chicken or the egg’ question for football. What do you think? Joga bonito ou joga vitorioso?

After the First Test

Lola — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:21:24 +0000

On Sunday, the Super Eagles played the Bafana Bafana in Abuja with great success. On the merit of technical soundness and overwhelming possession (65%) and two first half goals (10′ Ikechuckwu Uche, 44′ Obinna Nwaneri), the Super Eagles dominated South Africa. In the words of Nwankwo Kanu, “It was a good game, and we are back.”

In my mind, Coach Shaibu Amodu convincingly passed his first test back at the helm of the team. South Africa could not crack the defense he put together, and all their efforts at goal were restricted to long-range attempts. There were still gaps and a couple of squandered opportunities, but overall, this team definitely has the capability of making the World Cup.

The impact of the home field advantage should not be minimized in this match, as the crowd’s enthusiasm was virtually a 12th man on the Nigerian team. We are away to Sierra Leone in two days, and that match should prove telling about our away form.

While we are ranked higher than the Leone Stars in almost every way imaginable, football would not be as beautiful or as exciting without the potential for stinging upsets. Sierra Leone want this badly, but we should want it more. I hope the team take this game very seriously, as nothing, especially not our carelessness or cockiness should deny us a spot at SA2010.

UPDATE: I’m not sure how I got the impression that the EG and SL match ended in a scoreless draw. This post has been edited to reflect the actual fact.

How to Beat Mali

Emmanuel — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:31:33 +0000

Group B is getting more and more difficult, surpassing predictions. This is the widely acclaimed ‘Group of death’ and at inception not many will include Benin among teams to be taken seriously. After the First round of matches, what we have seen shows that even Benin are no pushovers.
The ‘Group of death’ is surely living up to its name.
So far only two goals have been scored among the four teams an indication of the difficulty of the situation.
The super Eagles are sure up against a difficult task. Unfortunately the only option is to win the next two games starting with the one that comes up tomorrow against Mali. The Malians are reputed to possess the best Midfield resources in this championship a sharp contrast with the Super Eagles.
Surprisingly despite Tuesday’s defeat, Nigerians still believe the cup is ours. It will be strange if Nigeria fail to qualify from the group stage. Many Nigerians don’t see it happening so much that we are still thinking of winning the title. We know that to win this cup, we first must qualify from the group stage and then get to the final with a great likelihood of locking horns with the Ivoirians again. Yet we know we can get there.
Everyone back home is disappointed that we lost but no one is particularly bitter with the way we played. It was just that we failed to have luck on our side. Forget Berti Vogts’ comment that ‘Nigeria lost to the best team on the continent’. We the fans don’t think so. We believe our team has all it takes to win this Cup and so Vogts should get into action rather than talk like a loser. He should revert to our natural wing football. I insist Vogts doesn’t understand Nigerian football. He had the resources but he failed to use them properly.
Before Vogts released his 23-man squad I made an analysis naming the players I expect to see in the first eleven. It turned out every player I had expected to make the team did. But Vogts is failing to deploy his resources accordingly afterwards. Like I had said some of the players he named as strikers are the people who can salvage our midfield. We saw what happened when Osaze was introduced. Others are Kanu Nwankwo and John Utaka. This three with Mikel can put our midfield in the right state with Utaka on the right flank and Osaze from the left flank, while Mikel and Kanu can play from the middle with Mikel behind Kanu. This is a midfield that can not be cracked. Then allow Martins and Ike Uche/Yakubu do their thing up front. Instead Vogts opted for Kanu as a striker behind Yakubu with Martins on the left flank. We haven’t seen what martins can do from that position and this is not the right place to try it out. We have Osaze who has done it before from there and should be deployed appropriately.
Emmanuel Ekanem Is the Admin of Naija Football Fans Forum , www.africanfootballforum.com .

Nigerians Must Watch As We Win This Cup

Emmanuel — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:00:46 +0000

There is an outcry that the Nigerian populace may not enjoy the full action as the super Eagles defeat Africa for the Nations Cup title.
This is based on the fact (BON) Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria has refused to pay the asking price of the right owners.
Luckily Nigerians are not used to watching football matches at home. Not that they do not have the means to but enjoy doing so in the mist of other fans .Some say it’s the best way to watch a match if you are to enjoy the game.
Multichoice’s DSTV a south African firm has been in Nigeria for over 10 years and we are almost always certain of watching matches on super sports. So what’s all this talk that Nigerians will not what the matches? Even if you can’t afford DSTV, Nigerians are known to be very united when it comes to football and surely, those who can afford it will make it available to those who can’t. Besides there is a proliferation of viewing centers in Nigeria (A very lucrative business that has come with the increasing popularity of the English Premiership in the country).
So, we are not only waiting to watch the games but waiting to see how the super Eagles will do it.
If anyone still doubt’s this, take a look at this historical discoveries;
8 years under Gen. Babangida, Nigeria won no cup (1985-1993)
Abacha took over and immediately we won the U-17 World Cup (Japan ’93)
One year later Nigeria won the African Nations cup (Tunisia ’94)
8 years under Gen. Obasanjo, Nigeria won no cup (1999-2007)
Yar Adua took over and immediately we won the U-17 World Cup.
One year later We are here again in the African Nations cup!
In the following years we had won this cup 1980, 1994 and these are leap years. Guess what?
This is another leap year (2008)
Between 1980 and 1994 is 14 years interval. 2008 is another 14 years later.
Nigerians are having more and more reasons everyday to believe the cup is coming back home and we are going to see how that happens. TV rights or no TV rights.

Emmanuel Is the Admin of Naija Football Fans Forum