There was no desire. You could hardly feel if there was hunger. For a large part of the game, it seemed as though players of the Super Eagles didn’t understand what was in their front. They didn’t do enough for those behind them – the fans.
Victor Osimhen ran channels and laboured to eke something out of nothing. It was as great a personal glory as a national triumph if the team made it through. Ola Aina ran endlessly, Leon Balogun and William Troost-Ekong did their part also, but the overall mentality of the team on the day left nothing to desire.
The brightest response Nigeria showed on the day was the reaction to Ghana’s goal. Energetic, direct, powerful yet as soon as they got what they desired, the energy got punctured. They put their feet off the gas and deflated gradually.
The second half was expected to bring a lot more but it was worse than the first.
Former Super Eagles star, Daniel Amokachi has blamed the technical crew for what transpired in the game. He said they failed to make necessary substitutions when they needed to, but went as far as commenting that Nigeria’s reliance on foreign-born players was partly responsible for the outing. That’s lazy.
“Calvin Bassey was exhausted after the first half, and you could see that he always had his hand on his waist each time,
“The Super Eagles didn’t play at all,” the former Club Brugge star told the Scottish Sun.
“The players did not show how important it was for them to play at the World Cup. They were playing as if they didn’t know that there was an away goal rule.
“The urgency was zero from our players.
“They didn’t deserve to qualify for the World Cup from the way they played. The Ghanaians showed they wanted it more than our boys. Their attitude was not the best at all and they were nonchalant in their play.
“And this is what you get when you have 99 percent of your players born overseas,” the ‘Bull’ concluded.
Blaming a section of players is trying to shy away from the roots of the problem, which lies in administrative cracks and ineptitude.
Nigeria’s qualification route to the 2018 World Cup had Carl Ikeme, Balogun and Troost-Ekong play critical roles. Alex Iwobi was a key cog in the team that qualified for Russia and he was born abroad.
Nigerian football authorities have failed to build and have resorted to queuing at foreign clubs on weekends to find any young player with a Nigerian name. Balogun, Ekong, Iwobi, Aina, Okoye, Lookman and many others were gotten through such means.
Other than the fact they are Nigerians and have a right to be invited when they play well with their clubs, Nigeria hardly has enough locally-grown players impressing abroad.
An ex-international and a former Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia had in the past called on authorities to convince Ebere Eze to play for Nigeria in order to solve the creative midfield problems of the team. Eze was born and bred in England.
Many national teams in the world invite players born overseas, as long as they have the requisite quality to play.
Nigeria lost as a team, and major culprits on the night were players born, bred and made in Nigeria. Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Emmanuel Dennis, Oghenekaro Etebo, Francis Uzoho and many other players developed in the country had games they’d desire to forget quickly.
The Senegalese team that defeated Egypt had six players born overseas starting the game. That’s as many as Nigeria also paraded but their desire to win wasn’t questionable.
While ninety-nine percent is agreeably hyperbolic, in line with the Nigerian culture of describing the excessive, the Super Eagles did not fail because of the foreign-born players.
They failed because Nigerian football administrators made terrible managerial decisions. And their decisions haunted them when it mattered most.
Amokachi’s scapegoating of a group is a deviation from the real problems. They should face it, there’s no growth here.
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Why would anyone blame our defeat on players born abroad we shouldn't blame these guys for our ouster from Qatar 2022 , instead the technical crew should be blamed the likes of troost ekong Leon balogun Ola Aina and Victor osimhen were the best in the Nigeria side they were the ones spraying passes upfront for lonely osimhen as the midfield was not in existence, at least ekong and balogun are known to be the famous oyinbo wall because of their resilience and understanding please we should know who to blame and stop looking for flimsy excuses.
I miss Genor Rohr, this is the match he would have won. He is tactical when it comes to this kind of game. He would have either win in Ghana and draw in Nigeria. See what he did to Cameroon, Algeria during 2018 World Cup qualifier.
Though if he was in charge of Super Eagles during AFCON, he wouldn't have won all the matches, but he would have gone far.
Eguavoen tactical approach to matches can easily be mapped out. He was a physical player during his playing time with this same physical approach mentality to his boys. His pattern remains MAMD, that is (mass-attack-mass-defense)
To play this kind of pattern, the coach has to be highly technical to employ this strategy.
You have said it all.
Oil dey ur head
There’s a lot of blames to go around. The whole process lacks discipline. And that was why AFCON exit. The management, coaching crew, players and we the fans have enough blames to go around. And the key word is there was lack of discipline. The management to some degree were involved in this failure. Never provided an environment for peaceful football to thrive. The management has some explanations to do. It is not going to end with just simply brushing it aside by sacking the coaching crew. Unless they are honest and truthful to Nigerians. Stop corruption with our football. Anyone that suppose to be around our football in any capacity is on merit not on nepotism. The coaching crew didn’t learn anything from AFCON. And came back with the same formation only changed the name. Lol. The players were not playing as they wanted to go to world cup. Some of them can’t run and close spaces and Partey took advantage of that. The Nigeria’s fans need to grow up. And stop putting too much pressures on these players. Once they win matches they are heroes and If they loose the fans will start causing them with very bad and foul languages. For example, using language like “I hope you and your family dies of cancer” This is beyond football and too much pressure. Definitely will contribute to mistakes. Especially on these goalkeepers
Am very disappointed at the attitude of the players, the approach was wrong , no sign of commitment, the coaching crew also got it wrong when they fielded some of the players that suppose to be on the bench who hasn't tested African football for the first time , infact , we need total overhaul of our football regiment.
You have not seen anything yet. you were bragging and making mockery of Ghana because they did not do well in AFCON. Amokachie made a video laughing Ghana that we don't have a stadium to play the game. Yakubu Ayigbeni also said Nigeria has 9 strikers and they can even give some to Ghana. Upon all your noise and mockery you have seen your smoothness level. you cannot just match Ghana. This very young and tiny Ghanaian Coach Otto Addo has beaten you flat. We used what is called silent strategy to confuse your technical crew. I laugh enter Qatar. WE ARE GHANA BLACK STARS!!!!!!!!