10 Take-Aways from Nigeria-Italy Match
Yeah, this is a career and mentorship portal, but I have always said knowing one or two things about other things can make a difference in a career. After all, I was in an interview in 2008 and our discussion drifted from the core interview to football! Needless to say, I was at home even in that. So once in a while, we discuss football here too. Here we go:
- Eagles do well against European/American opposition: When Eagles had a bad game against Ethiopia and Nigerians were saying, “are these the boys that would go to World Cup? Dem go chop 10 from Spain etc.”, I argued with them that Eagles historically struggle African opposition and do well against Europeans. Our football style is a little different from the typical African gba-gba-gbu football (except for the North Africans who also play possessive football). If you observed Nigeria’s best games at the last Nations cup were against Cote D’Ivoire and Mali, both of which paraded top stars that play in Europe, while we struggled against Ethiopia and Zambia with Africa-based players. Nigeria’s traditional play is possessive and attacking football.
To me, even if we lost against Uruguay and Spain in the last Confederations Cup, Eagles did well, we only lacked clinical finishers in that tournament. I was therefore not surprised when with a little better strikers, we held our own against World Class Italy. - We don’t have a second defence line: I was listening to Brila FM analysts after the match last night and heard Babafemi Raji and Anthony Bekederemo shower encomiums on the second-string defenders we used in that match. To me, they had a poor day. In fact, with what I saw yesterday, I don’t think Azubuike Egwueke has any business in Super Eagles. Clearly, the failure of Italy from scoring more than 2 goals was not because our defenders were outstanding, but due to the wastefulness of the Italian attackers. Balotelli conveniently turned around Egwueke twice, one of them leading to goal. Two times, after Pirlo’s free-kicks were parried by Ejide/Enyeama, the Italian defenders got closer to the parried ball before our defenders – a clear sign of non-alertness or bad positioning. Our keepers tried though. To me, Ambrose, Echiejile, Oboabona and Omeruo have no back-up.
- Mikel slows down ball too often: Yes, I know that it is his style of play, to bring calmness into our side after long possession by the Italians, but the truth is, he takes decision too slowly. He needs to release the front men fast. We are not good at counter-attack and I think Mikel is responsible. Sometimes, he even gives possession away. Not to take anything away from him as our bets midfielder though.
- Our attack is good to go: Nigeria has traditionally produced more strikers than in any department in the game. I am also a striker (lol) with more than 100 goals already this year, including 4 goals haul at my debut at the City of David football turf last Friday (LOL). We have always produced fine strikers, just as Ghana traditionally produce more midfielders. I think we are spoilt with options in the front line. We can conveniently bank on Emenike, Moses, Ameobi, Musa and even Ideye for the goals.
- Eagles concede too much: It worries me that Super Eagles hardly maintain clean sheet these days. even in matches we won, the opponents scored. It is not a good record that the only goal Tahiti has scored in a FIFA tournament, it was against us. Ethiopia scored 2 goals against us in Addis Ababa, even if only one was counted. Even minnows like Malawi and Kenya got goals against us. Not to mention the fact that Uruguay got 2 part us, Spain 3, and now Italy 2. What that means is that on a day our strikers are having a bad game (like in Confederations Cup), we will be losing because if we can’t score we are sure to concede. I don’t know whether the keepers or the defenders or even the midfielders are to blame for this, but something needs to be done.
- Onazi is a valuable asset: Onazi is a guy to watch. He hardly has off-days. He is good both offensively and defensively. His legs are packed with ferocious shots. He may be our joker at the World Cup.
- Oduamadi has blown his chances: Yes, he scored the fac-saving goal against Kenya and put 3 past Tahiti. But even my grandmother will score against Tahiti. He has not been spectacular and blown the chances given to him to prove himself. I still believe we should give the Uche brothers a chance. Yes, IK Uche had a bad Nations Cup, but players do have bad tournament. It is not a new thing. IK also has good disciplinary record.
Maybe Keshi should consider replacing Oduamadi with IK Uche in his World Cup Squad - Pirlo is a Midfield Generalissimo: Few players have ability to single-handed turn the fortune of a game. Pirlo is one of them. He came into that game and everything changed, dictating the pace of the game. It was a wonderful performance by the Juve midfielder. Thanks to our keepers for rising to the occasion. This guy has only been unfortunate to be around when Messi and CR7 came of age, and when Juve was not winning anything major. To me, Kaka did not do better than this in 2007 to win World Player of the year [when CR7 (2nd) and Messi (3rd) were just coming up].
- We give away lead too often: Super Eagles still have the traditional problem of giving away lead. If it were Ghana, I don’t think Italy would have been able to come back from the 2-1. That is discipline. Similar thing against Uruguay, when we should have held that draw till the end, before allowing Forlan to make it 2. It happened with the frienly against Mexico last year too. Eagles have a lot to work on when leading a top opposition.
- Will Eagles do well at World Cup? Unfortunately, I’m not good at predicting. Unfortunately too, football is one erratic game. But I think we should be able to go past the first round. To me, barring injury, this is our best squad to World Cup since 1994 set. Maybe at par with the 1998 class.
Finally, let me set up Eagles’ strongest 11, the team I want to see starting in World Cup
Enyeama
Ambrose – Oboabona – Omeruo – Echiejile
Onazi
Ogu
Mikel
Ik Uche Moses
Emenike
(Ameobi, Ideye, Dike, Musa, Nsofor to be thrown into the mix, depending on rythm of the game)
I totally agree with your submissions on the eagles, particularly on Azubuike, that guy has no business in the team. I also concour that Ike Uche should be recalled to the team while Onazi is a priceless asset in our midfield, he’s a total machine. Something urgent needs 2 be done about our back four, Keshi must find a formidable replace for his first choice. Austin Ejide proved once again that we have no goalkeeping worries in the absence of Enyeama. He lived up 2 his billing except 4 his defence that over exposed him. Well said, Mikel needs to up his pace on the ball, he was lost in the game in the last 15 mins.
On keshi’s part, he should do anything to have his first squard available 4 grade A friendlies. A high profile friendly is not an ideal platform for experimenting home based players in a sensitive dept like the defence.