Super Eagles: What Went Wrong?

Someone on Naija Football Fans Forum asked me this question. Below is my answer.
Okay. What went wrong. First i think the super Eagles was the
under-dog in the game today and I was not surprised one bit that the game took the direction , it went.

The Eagles did hold their own but was slightly unlucky. Despite all the perceived deficiencies.
The major problem i see was in the area of coaching. I don’t know why, but i still think the eagles can
beat this ivory coast team.

For today we played without creative mid fielders and that showed throughout the duration of the game.
Kanu Nwankwo’s injury also contributed to boost the opposition’s confidence.
What do i really think? I think the tactics was wrong and Vogts showed everyone he lacks understanding of Nigerian football.
Agreed the Ivoirians overwhelmed us in the midfield after Kanu was injured and expectedly every coach will try to
by-pass the middle. Vogts did that but in a wrong way. With a player of Obafemi’s height upfront it was always going to be
the wrong thing to do.
Rather that send long balls to obafemi, it would have done us more good if Vogts had considered that by-passing the middle
by using the wings instead would have been a better Idea.The wingers could have moved in with the ball on the ground.
Secondly I had expected Osaze to start the game from the left flank while Utaka handles the right.We would have had
a more balanced middle with this combination.
Truth remains that these two are better players in the middle (flanks) than the supposed midfielders Vogts opted to use.
Vogts

Solutions?

I think Vogts needs to ask questions. He needs to allow the team leaders make input. Not that his team should be
selected by Kanu. But he needs to ask Kanu, What do you think? Afterall, he’s the team Captain.
Westerhoof used to do this. He used to ask Stephen Keshi sometimes despite spending four years with the team.
This is a man who dosen’t know the team and should learn to ask questions period!
I think we can get there. As a matter of fact, i see a semi final or Final involving these two teams and I can’t
wait for it to take our own pound of flesh. The Ivorians are a very strong team on paper but we also know what
the super Eagles are capable of. If we had taken our chances it would have been a different story. No one
would have been saying the eagles ain’t good enough. If we did not create chances in this game, i would have easily agreed
we can’t beat the Ivoririans. But we did and at the end of the first half, The Super Eagles had six attempts and
they had four despite leading with possesion of 54% to 46%. In the second half possession improved on the eagles part
to 50%-50% until Kanu was injured.
So I am not saying the Elephants did not deserve their win, but apart from wrong tactics, the Eagles were also unlucky.