Full Match and Highlights From Serbia Game

[mcal]

...tremendous pressure often results in a goal or goals.
That said, the Serbians laid siege at our end for a long period of time, that tend to create confusion and fatigue on players defending, losing focus. Lessons learned.

Funny thing is Nigeria was clearly dominating and then conceded against the run of play in the 68th minute... Then after that the team just switched off and lost focus. I blame it on altitude cause our boys just gassed out while the Serbs who had better fitness and seemed physically stronger looked like they could play for another 2 hours... Not really an excuse but it's still something worth considering.

...remember the east Europeans are the apku and yam eaters of Europe
They are not finesse like the west polished Englanders and former Frenchers before the in flock of Africans in le Blues ranks

[Robotnik]

...tremendous pressure often results in a goal or goals.
That said, the Serbians laid siege at our end for a long period of time, that tend to create confusion and fatigue on players defending, losing focus. Lessons learned.

Funny thing is Nigeria was clearly dominating and then conceded against the run of play in the 68th minute... Then after that the team just switched off and lost focus. I blame it on altitude cause our boys just gassed out while the Serbs who had better fitness and seemed physically stronger looked like they could play for another 2 hours... Not really an excuse but it's still something worth considering.

The substitutions played a part.

[The YeyeMan]

I blame it on altitude cause our boys just gassed out while the Serbs who had better fitness and seemed physically stronger looked like they could play for another 2 hours... Not really an excuse but it's still something worth considering.

Altitude??!!! In London??!

[Damunk]

1st Half:
Just finished watching the first half and it is a relief to see that we actually created chances.
More composed and accurate finishing could have resulted in goals.

Moses forced one near post save from the Serbian keeper but also had another opportunity which he blasted over the bar with his left foot. It was a half chance.

Another half chance fell to Onazi who had clear sight of goal but again carelessly blasted over the bar.
Iwobi had another couple, one (if not both) went wide.

Then there was the foul on Musa when he easily slipped past Ivanovich only to be fouled just outside the box. Like the commentator suggested, it would probably have been a yellow if it wasn't a friendly.

Ebuehi wasn't bad at all in this first half, nothing like has been suggested. Quite composed most of the time.
Awuzie has been quietly competent and same with Idowu.
Ndidi has been his usual 'disruptive' self but showing some silky skills in midfield.

I'm not too sold on either Onazi or J'Obi so far.
Iwobi has been quiet but I'm expecting to see him explode in the second half from reports.
Uzoho - nothing great but no major flaps or errors. I think he can help his defenders by calling out to them when they have time to place a pass or hold on to the ball rather than doing the anywhere-belleh-face clearances to nowhere when not under pressure. A simple call of 'time!' to a blindsided defender (ie telling him he has time to compose himself on the ball) would avoid this annoying habit.

I believe that Serbian ball did fully cross the line only for Uzoho to claw it back and I hope we are not using up all our luck in the warm-ups. We need it more importantly in the WC proper abeg.

[Damunk]

^^^^
Old post I somehow forgot to submit.

[Robotnik]

There isn't enough to be worried about.

Rohr set out 4-3-3 with 3 defensive midfielders and a false 9
This formation is less compact that 4-2-3-1 which explains why the Serbians seemed to have more room to operate compared with the match against Poland where we were tighter.

Our defensive midfielders did not have positional discipline or were confused about there roles and a result it was easier for the Serbians to get in between the DMF and the D.