Ayo Akinfe wrote:
I am not perturbed by all that banter as Rohr knows what he is doing. I am sure he will be the first to admit that many of the players who prosecuted the qualifiers are not good enough for the World Cup proper.
In 1994, Clemence Westerhoff dropped many of the veterans who secured qualification. This included the likes of:
Nduka Ugbade
Isaac Semitoje
Friday Ekpo
John Okon
Friday Elahor
He replaced them with fresh youngsters who were unknown but were better. Rohr will do the same thing this time around.
In 1993, the likes of Sunday Oliseh, Austin Okocha, Emmanuel Ammunike, etc were unknown quantities but they all made the squad and we're phenomenal. The likes of Rufai, Emenalor and Nwanu were also all recalled.
This man!!
I'm done after this.
Amunike was the star of the U-23 National team that played at the 1991 All African games in Egypt. The Cameroonians were hacking him and he got a red card for throwing an elbow in frustration (I don't even think it connected well, but the Plantainian was rolling all over the floor). Anyway he was certainly well known as one of the hottest prospects in Nigeria, and Zamalek snapped him up thereafter and they knocked Stores out of the ACL in the Semis the next year. Maybe CE's contributing editor did not know him.
I watched JJ live throughout our WC qualifying series in Surulere right from that amazing freekick vs Algeria. Like Gotti mentioned, the local press (except for Paul Bassey who insisted Friday Ekpo was better) was all over Westerhorf for not inviting JJ.
Oliseh debuted sometime afterwards, I think against Ethiopia. He did not play as much in the qualifiers, but was fully established in the SE by the time of the 2014 CAN which took place about 5 months before the World Cup.
So these guys were certainly not unknown quantities.