The inexperienced Nigerian team gave their all in the international friendly clash, but they could not cope with El Tri’s quality
Nigeria’s home-based players had a game to forget following a 4-0 loss to Mexico in the friendly encounter between the two nations at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday morning.
The Super Eagles starting lineup comprised mainly players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) except for Ibrahim Sunusi, who plays for CF Montreal.
However, the gap in quality between the two sides showed as Mexico dominated from start to finish to claim a 4-0 win.
The Super Eagles defence could not find answers to Mexico’s wave of attack while they were also poor going forward.
Mexico showed their intent right from the start as they took the lead inside the opening two minutes through Hector Herrera, who headed home from a corner kick.
Gerardo Martino’s side doubled their lead two minutes later through Rogelio Funes Mori, slotting home from close range after he was set up by Hirving Lozano.
It looked like it would be a whitewash after Mexico scored two inside four minutes, but it stayed at 2-0 at half-time.
The Super Eagles under the watchful eyes of Gernot Rohr, who handed the coaching duties to Paul Aigbogun, failed to muster a single shot on target in the opening half.
Despite their resistance in the last 40 minutes of the first half, it only took Mexican six minutes after the break to make it 3-0.
Herrera capitalised on a defensive error from Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali to slot home for his second.
Substitute Jonathan dos Santos compounded Nigeria’s woes as he fired in a fourth 13 minutes from time to cap off a dominant performance for the Gold Cup champions.
This post was last modified on July 4, 2021 6:23 am
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I feel sorry for the Mexicans, it must be a waste of time and resources. The exercise doesn't doesn't look like a true test of their abilities. Things like these are not new in Nigeria, we've always been wasteful. Amidst protests and sufferings only NFF could explain why this white elephant project was executed.
Curruption is executed in many ways. The executors of the match between the home based super eagles and Mexico just enriched their pockets. The players are happy anyway, at least they got visas to the United States. The next project is to play friendly with Brazil in Canada.
The Nigeria (NPFL) player's that cannot qualified for African homebase Cups of nations, they cannot qualified and they are not doing well in clubs competition.
Also The (NPFL) homebase selected player's are not good enough to be play for Nigeria national team.
Many just come here to judge these players please, you can't compare their fitness level to that of the Mexicans, what is the job of Rohr
Why the mention of Roth in this matter. Is Rorh their club coaches or club administrator. You have a very bias mindset toward the German.
u call for home base.here is de are.u are crying fake Nigeria fan.
Why Nigeria using homebase to play Mexico? Are they mad or what ?
U no get sense
The match was only meet for them and also for them to go out there and show their ability and not for Ihianacho and co
I'm happy that the football authorities in Nigeria now know where the real super eagles team stands... See many Nigerian players playing for other European countries... It's not by force.. The current players for the super eagles team if camped together for. 1 month can match up against the best teams. In the world.. Well it's a good test for. The home based players.. I don't see anything wrong in testing the home based players but definitely not against a hot team like Mexico... Well can't wait to see the foreign players back. Playing for the super eagles team... Happy Sunday friends and cheers..
Nigeria played defensive football by playing 4411
.I expected Nigeria to play 433 or 3421.There was no pressure on Mexico..However it's important for the outing. At least this will serve as litmus test for both the players and officials.
We can now see reasons with Rohr why he doesn't like using home-based players. They lack the necessary experience and quality.
What if we did not have Nigeria foriegn players? Can't we start with the local players, how many foriegn players were in under 16 85 that won the first under 16 tournament, how many foriegn players were in the team that won the olympic gold? Likes of Okocha, Kanu, Amokachi Keshi and more were first local players. This Mexico game is a sort of investment in local footballers
As at that time,the league wasn't badly run like we have today.Then,our players can easily make the first eleven of their teams or clubs in Europe.Today ,it is not so.The reason is because there is continuous improvement and development in every facets of their game.When last did any of the local coaches go for a refresher course?
Ask yourself why is it that after U-17 competitions we have not been able to win U-20 world cup till date? Simple,there is no meaningful technical and tactical upgrade.There are talented footballers in Nigeria but turning them into finished products had been the issue.K Kelechi,Osimhen,Chukwueze are not products of the NPFL,they are products of football academies.
Foreign based players constitute 85-90% of the Olympic football team that won the gold.
lets say he gets 20 home based players who start to do well. After one year, they all move to europe. WHat does he do? Get another set of 20 home based players?
It's a good lesson for the players and for those asking for inclusion of the local players in the national team you can see the gap in skills level. Players that can't win CHAN or any CAF competition do not have a place in the Super eagles.