WE MUST BE PREPARED (AMOKACHI/AMUNIKE/ONAZI)

[danfo driver]

Danfo:

Disagree re Mikel. Why didn't he go down clutching his face when Giroud swung an intentional, angry elbow at him?

Well, hopefully, he can incorporate that into his game WITH Nigeria.

No...that was the match against France in which Matuidi took out Onazi. Giroud swung his elbow at Mikel's face, and Mikel only went to the ojoro ref to say something like: "Oga, warn Giroud o. Tell am make he take time o. We sef get Osaze wey fit slap persin"

Yea, I know what you were saying. I was saying that moving forward, hopefully, he can incorporate what he did at Chelsea into his game with Nigeria. Who knows, perhaps, at Chelsea he was more motivated to do these things because it was encouraged by the coaches. They pushed their players to do it. While in Nigeria, no one cares about it, so he was/is less likely to do it.

Abeg, no call Osaze name inside matter again o! We no want any wahala to disrupt our peace corps team!

abeg camp no sweet without am Osaze o...we need some troublesome bini boys like Osaze and Ikpeba dem

[platinum]

Danfo:

Disagree re Mikel. Why didn't he go down clutching his face when Giroud swung an intentional, angry elbow at him?

That annoys me to this day. Annoys me the officials didn't catch it and that Mikel didn't make more of it. If Mikel had swung his ashy elbow at Giroud you can believe that bearded goat would have been rolling around the pitch and crying as if he someone had stolen his mascara.

Hell, I'm annoyed that Iheanacho didn't make from being aggressively shoved by that bandit Otamendi in that friendly. Our players get pushed and then apologise for being in the way. They should just fall down and let VAR do the rest.

TYYM,

If memory serves me right, the official saw it and did nothing because Mikel made nothing out of it at all.

[The YeyeMan]

Danfo:

Disagree re Mikel. Why didn't he go down clutching his face when Giroud swung an intentional, angry elbow at him?

That annoys me to this day. Annoys me the officials didn't catch it and that Mikel didn't make more of it. If Mikel had swung his ashy elbow at Giroud you can believe that bearded goat would have been rolling around the pitch and crying as if he someone had stolen his mascara.

Hell, I'm annoyed that Iheanacho didn't make from being aggressively shoved by that bandit Otamendi in that friendly. Our players get pushed and then apologise for being in the way. They should just fall down and let VAR do the rest.

TYYM,

If memory serves me right, the official saw it and did nothing because Mikel made nothing out of it at all.

Then the fault lies with Mikel. Or perhaps even with Osaze for slapping him with his Gucci slipper without reply.

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

Danfo:

Disagree re Mikel. Why didn't he go down clutching his face when Giroud swung an intentional, angry elbow at him?

That annoys me to this day. Annoys me the officials didn't catch it and that Mikel didn't make more of it. If Mikel had swung his ashy elbow at Giroud you can believe that bearded goat would have been rolling around the pitch and crying as if he someone had stolen his mascara.

Hell, I'm annoyed that Iheanacho didn't make from being aggressively shoved by that bandit Otamendi in that friendly. Our players get pushed and then apologise for being in the way. They should just fall down and let VAR do the rest.

TYYM,

If memory serves me right, the official saw it and did nothing because Mikel made nothing out of it at all.

Then the fault lies with Mikel. Or perhaps even with Osaze for slapping him with his Gucci slipper without reply.

I still remember after the Argies had been cheating and diving all over the place, Van de Saar baited Ortega into a "head-butt", resulting in a red card

[Odas]

The bottomline is, our men need to learn how to complain to the referee, or how to be an actor when necessary; thereby, forcing the referee to be on your side.

[danfo driver]

Having found that VAR was instituted to assist the big teams, are we still going to be the "nice guys?" The lovely negros who smile with full teeth? Or have you guys learned your lesson?

If Pinnick, Rohr and the players like, let them not take my advice. Keep being the lovely negro, whose head is often rubbed by the master.

[theYemster]

Since our first appearance at the world cup in 1994, we have experienced "tournament maturity" from our opponents. I look back and I remember the "quick" free kick taken by Diego Maradona in 1994, which led to Claudio Cannigia’s goal, while the likes of Sunny Oliseh were busy speaking to the referee, rather than pay attention and mark their opponent. We also remember Eguavoen’s silliness in the penalty box which Zola enjoyed.

For me, in all our appearances at the world cup, the most painful act of “tournament maturity” against us was the 1994 Italian’s hatchet job on Amokachi and Amunike, as well as the 2014 French’s job on Onazi and attempted maiming of Mikel. Let’s be clear, these are not coincidences. Anyone who has played the game at any level will tell you that it is easier to play against a weakened team than to play against a team with full strength. This is very simple. Teams take their time to study an opponent and see who their most effective player is. The player that makes the team click. It doesn’t even have to be the most talented player or the best player on the other team. It simply is just a player who makes the other team’s strategy work. In Barcelona during the Pep era, that player wasn’t Messi. That player was Xavi or Busquets. You took out Xavi or Busquets and you had killed Barcelona.

Nigeria must learn from her lesson. We are often reminded of the old and racist phrase of “naïve Africans” when it comes to football. As racist, silly, ignorant, assumptive and largely untrue that phrase may be, we simply cannot hide from the fact that over the last decades, since Africa began to send representatives to the World Cup, African teams have been let down by lack of experience and tournament maturity. The talent is there, and many times, the effort, tactics and hard work is also there. What we continue to lack, largely, is the experience and maturity to handle the dark arts of the game. The likes of Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, Algeria, and Senegal have all experienced the “what could have been.” Most famously, our cousins, Ghana, refuse to extend visas to anyone with a buck-tooth since the Suarez handball. That incident angered and continues to anger many Ghanaians and Africans. What could have been? “How dare a cheating scum progress to the next round, while out lovely, beautiful, peaceful and God-fearing players go home with a moral victory, knowing that we could have done it.” Well, could have, should have, would have. The truth is that the South Americans and Europeans have been designing and implementing these strategies for decades. For them, it is not just part of their tactical plans for each match, it is part of their training. They work on it, proactively assisting their players to come to grips with the strategy, so as to perfectly execute it on match day.

African teams, and Nigeria, specifically, can no longer be reactive. We can no longer accept moral victories and we can no longer think about “what could have been.” It is time to implement a 2-plan strategy: 1. be proactive and take active decisions to eliminate any dark strategy planned by an opponent; and 2. Plan our own dark strategy, work on it and carry it out decisively against opponents. Below are my further thoughts:

1. What Must Be Done To Preempt The Opponents Strategy

A. We need competent back-ups: I decided to write this piece today because I realized that today was the day the coach was reducing the list to 25. This, for me, is the most important strategy—we need competent backups to our starters. This cannot be stressed more strongly. When an opponent is taking out your most crucial player, they are trying to undermine your tactics, but also, undermine your ability on the pitch. The most painful experience was the 2014 Onazi knockout. This was a game we were controlling and a game I was certain we would win, with all our off the pitch issues.” However, once the French took Onazi out, he was replaced by Ruben Gabriel. And that was it. Gabriel was not as good as Onazi, and more importantly, while Onazi was in fantastic form, Gabriel was unfit and was in horrendous form. We cannot allow that happen this time. This time, we need to take players who are ready to step in for the starters without a huge decrease in ability and tactics. They take out Shehu, we bring in Aina or Ebuehi. They take out Ndidi, we have Onazi. They take out Onazi, we have Joel Obi or Etebo, they take out Ighalo, we have Iheanacho. Etc etc. We need a very very strong bench.

B. Our Players must learn how to cry: Remember when you were in KG3 and you hit your classmate and then your classmate hit you back? Then you run to the teacher crying? Who does the teacher flog? Gone are the days of “this is a manly sport, you have to act tough! Etc etc. First of all, most referees (purposefully or not) see Africans as “physical.” Even when we smaller, we are considered to be stronger than our taller and bigger opponents. So, that already works against us. When an opponent comes for our player, the referee is already biased to judge the African as the aggressor. Thus, we need to learn how to surround the referee and cry after every single tackle. I don’t care if the opponent blows air on our player's hand, I want our players to surround the referee, weeping, wailing, gnashing their teeth and showing the referee the imaginary gun-shot wound. We did it against Algeria in Algiers and it worked like a charm. Not only did the referee keep giving us freekicks, it slowed the game down significantly and frustrated the Algerians, which made them kick out more. In a neutral ground, they’d have had at least one man sent off. Additionally, Mikel is a king at this tactic. He learned it very very well at Chelsea and I believe he even overdid it many times, which caused a big issue between him and Clattenburg.

C. Rohr, too, must learn how to cry: European coaches are the champions of this. They spend the entire press conference complaining about their opponents. How they dive, how they cheat, how “they play in a certain way,” how they rough up opponents etc etc.. they do this for a reason! They know the referee is listening and they want to influence him before the game. They are also the kings of harassing the fourth official. One would think that has no effect, but it does. The fourth official speaks to the referee at half-time and more importantly, the referee sees the 4th official being harassed during games and that could influence his thought. Rohr needs to come to the world cup like a woman who has buried her husband. He needs to weep and weep and weep! Weep to the fourth official at every little thing. He needs to attend pre-match press conferences and speak about Amokachi, Amunike, and Onazi. And how we will be watching any dirty tricks and the referees need to watch. He needs to paint it in a way that will humiliate FIFA. Speak about how African teams always play clean and how “there are certain countries,” who come to the world cup with dirty tricks! And how FIFA has allowed it to go on for decades, but it will no longer be tolerated.

D. We need to learn to defend ourselves: We cant go into 50/50 tackles like JJCs anymore. You watch the South Americans and Europeans and they go into tackles to protect themselves first. We need to go into tackles with secret elbows out, knee ready, etc etc, in case the opponent is coming in with the same. We cannot allow ourselves to be the ones going out on a stretcher.

E. We must be tactically flexible: I was very very happy when Rohr spoke about having 2 base formations. This will help us significantly in unfortunate circumstances. Don’t forget that one of the reasons teams take out your player is because they are trying to negatively thwart your tactics. Thus, if your reaction is to change tactics quickly, their action may not negatively affect you at all. Just imagine back to 2014, when France took out Onazi. Let us assume we decided to change formation entirely and go in a different direction, rather than bring in Gabriel. Perhaps, we’d have had a different result. Who knows?

2. We Need To Be Read To Take Them Out: We need to work on this.

I know as a football fan, we cannot hope for injury on another player, no matter who the player is or what team he plays for. However, I cannot close my eyes and be oblivious to something. We simply can no longer be the choir boys. I am sorry. We need to play how to start taking people out. Not only in retaliation, but also as part of a broader tactical strategy. It is always easier to play against a weakened team than to play against a full-strength team. In 2006, Materazzi hounded and hounded and hounded and insulted Zidane, until Zidane could take it no more and he head-butted him. Zidane was red-carded. In 2018, everyone knows that Italy won the world cup in 2006. No one adds the caveat ‘But they played against 10 men.” When France took out Onazi, no one ends the sentence with “but Nigeria played without Onazi.” Truth is, no one remembers anything else. They ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS remember the victor.

P.s—Speaking of Materazzi/Zidane, that is another circumstance where you have a strategy to take out the most effective player of your opponent. Would you tell me that the Italians did not plan it? They knew Zidane very well. He played at Juventus and his former teammates were in the Italian team. They knew his temper and they knew the sort of things that will get to him. Rather than go for his legs, they went for his brain and got him sent off.


I wish the Super Eagles of Nigeria good luck. I know we have the talent, organization, hard work, effort and peacefulness to succeed. However, I believe we need another ingredient – cynicism.

Was it Zola? I think he had been sent off by then. Maybe it was Roberto Mussi.

Who in this team will they need to take out though...maybe Etebo or Ndidi. Mikel isn't very vital to us.

[cchinukw]

I hope Rohr has instilled this mindset in the boys.

However, I think Nigeria will be a good sport as always which will be a shame.

We need to match their guile.

[danfo driver]

Y A W N

you want Nigeria to do the wrong THING to try and injure another team's player just to not have to compete against him aND greatly enhance the chance of Nigeria winning the game as a consequence? Win at all cost mentality is never good in any sphere of life.

There is still a word called CLASS! Some people can still relate to it and have high regard for people that exude CLASS in their behavior.

Hello there!! You loveable fair-playing moronic loser! How do you feel now? Have you shoved your fair-play up your tiny little booty??? This was Maradona's message to you after you lost like a lovable Mother Theresa negro! I hope you enjoy the fair-play trophy!

[danfo driver]

Did you guys see how long Messi was on the ground??? and how he faked injury and the ref had to give him a yellow card?? The best player in the world!

Yet, some loveable negros said we should stand tall and lose! We should be the sweet lovely mother theresa looking mother fookers!

Some of you are so densely stupiid, its beyond belief! keep doing fairplay, while they keep fooooking you! continue!

[RomanusOjinta]

Maybe I'm a genetic oddity because I actually appreciated Argentina's ability to win in an utterly dirty, spawny way while being absolute dogshit who didn't look like they belong at the world cup. Maybe I'm not supposed to be African, because I found myself identifying more with the spawny, detestable *kindperson* shithouses in blue and white who crowded the referee and waved imaginary cards after every 50-50 tackle than with the choir boys in green who just gormlessly allowed the narrative to play out on top of their heads again.

My spirit vibes more with the classless twats who celebrated like it was the world cup final after stumbling past a team of Tenjai Chiangjun and Leicester City journeymen, than with the witless entities in green who displayed no discernible trace of passion or character throughout, and ended up taking away their treasured moral victory trophy.

As the racist Argentinian saying goes, 'Como es los indios'.

[danfo driver]

Maybe I'm a genetic oddity because I actually appreciated Argentina's ability to win in an utterly dirty, spawny way while being absolute dogshit who didn't look like they belong at the world cup. Maybe I'm not supposed to be African, because I found myself identifying more with the spawny, detestable *kindperson* shithouses in blue and white who crowded the referee and waved imaginary cards after every 50-50 tackle than with the choir boys in green who just gormlessly allowed the narrative to play out on top of their heads again.

My spirit vibes more with the classless twats who celebrated like it was the world cup final after stumbling past a team of Tenjai Chiangjun and Leicester City journeymen, than with the witless entities in green who displayed no discernible trace of passion or character throughout, and ended up taking away their treasured moral victory trophy.

As the racist Argentinian saying goes, 'Como es los indios'.

No o! They said we should play fair! Hell our ancestors played fair and were doing "welcome welcome," while shinning teeth adn they were forced into slave ships, taking away for the rest of their lives. As they slaved their lives away, they spend their days singing old negro spirituals.....being classy and humble!

In the words of African Americans, one of their most powerful idioms ever --- "Ni33er!! You gon' learn!" Una never jam! In this world, NOTHING IS GIVEN TO YOU! YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT! TAKE IT AND TAKE IT WITH FORCE, ROUGHNESS AND CUNNINGNESS!! TAKE IT!! SIMPLE AS THAT! Sit your assss down like a humble negro doing fairplay and you will never succeed! best believe that! You will continue to count moral victories, while other hoist the trophy over and over and over again! Keep doing mother theresa! nonsense!

[john12]

Danfo driver abeg you’re a man of Enermous Wisdom. Please, whenever you visit Maryland, I will like to sit down and have a drink with you

[danfo driver]

Danfo driver abeg you’re a man of Enermous Wisdom. Please, whenever you visit Maryland, I will like to sit down and have a drink with you

It will be my pleasure. I'll keep you informed.

[RomanusOjinta]

Maybe I'm a genetic oddity because I actually appreciated Argentina's ability to win in an utterly dirty, spawny way while being absolute dogshit who didn't look like they belong at the world cup. Maybe I'm not supposed to be African, because I found myself identifying more with the spawny, detestable *kindperson* shithouses in blue and white who crowded the referee and waved imaginary cards after every 50-50 tackle than with the choir boys in green who just gormlessly allowed the narrative to play out on top of their heads again.

My spirit vibes more with the classless twats who celebrated like it was the world cup final after stumbling past a team of Tenjai Chiangjun and Leicester City journeymen, than with the witless entities in green who displayed no discernible trace of passion or character throughout, and ended up taking away their treasured moral victory trophy.

As the racist Argentinian saying goes, 'Como es los indios'.

No o! They said we should play fair! Hell our ancestors played fair and were doing "welcome welcome," while shinning teeth adn they were forced into slave ships, taking away for the rest of their lives. As they slaved their lives away, they spend their days singing old negro spirituals.....being classy and humble!

In the words of African Americans, one of their most powerful idioms ever --- "Ni33er!! You gon' learn!" Una never jam! In this world, NOTHING IS GIVEN TO YOU! YOU HAVE TO TAKE IT! TAKE IT AND TAKE IT WITH FORCE, ROUGHNESS AND CUNNINGNESS!! TAKE IT!! SIMPLE AS THAT! Sit your assss down like a humble negro doing fairplay and you will never succeed! best believe that! You will continue to count moral victories, while other hoist the trophy over and over and over again! Keep doing mother theresa! nonsense!

For a group of people who pride themselves in being street smart and worldly wise, I can never understand how Nigerians both in football and in so many other areas of life get such basic things so terribly wrong. If it's not believing that there is such a thing as a completely impartial ref like in a fukn FIFA videogame, it's voting for a septuagenarian ex coup-plotter who has promised "change"!

I cannot understand this phenomenon!

Where do our brains go?

[danfo driver]

Until we take matters into our own hands, they will continue to fook us over! When I opened this thread some people wanted to be known as Mother Theresa's husband!

Guys! Guys! No tournament has ever been won by Mother Theresa! The earlier we understand this, the better for us! Africa has never don sh1111t in the world cup because we are always trying to be the sweet nice holy child. Wasnt it Diego Maradona who called us the "happy blacks?"

Until we learn to be cynical and come prepared for them, we will never get anywhere.

[maceo4]

Which accent did you affect to write this?

Since our first appearance at the world cup in 1994, we have experienced "tournament maturity" from our opponents. I look back and I remember the "quick" free kick taken by Diego Maradona in 1994, which led to Claudio Cannigia’s goal, while the likes of Sunny Oliseh were busy speaking to the referee, rather than pay attention and mark their opponent. We also remember Eguavoen’s silliness in the penalty box which Zola enjoyed.

B. Our Players must learn how to cry: Remember when you were in KG3 and you hit your classmate and then your classmate hit you back? Then you run to the teacher crying? Who does the teacher flog? Gone are the days of “this is a manly sport, you have to act tough! Etc etc. First of all, most referees (purposefully or not) see Africans as “physical.” Even when we smaller, we are considered to be stronger than our taller and bigger opponents. So, that already works against us. When an opponent comes for our player, the referee is already biased to judge the African as the aggressor. Thus, we need to learn how to surround the referee and cry after every single tackle. I don’t care if the opponent blows air on our player's hand, I want our players to surround the referee, weeping, wailing, gnashing their teeth and showing the referee the imaginary gun-shot wound. We did it against Algeria in Algiers and it worked like a charm. Not only did the referee keep giving us freekicks, it slowed the game down significantly and frustrated the Algerians, which made them kick out more. In a neutral ground, they’d have had at least one man sent off. Additionally, Mikel is a king at this tactic. He learned it very very well at Chelsea and I believe he even overdid it many times, which caused a big issue between him and Clattenburg.

My gosh

[danfo driver]

Having found that VAR was instituted to assist the big teams, are we still going to be the "nice guys?" The lovely negros who smile with full teeth? Or have you guys learned your lesson?

If Pinnick, Rohr and the players like, let them not take my advice. Keep being the lovely negro, whose head is often rubbed by the master.

What can I say!?

[john12]

The problem is that Africans are naturally passive. Infact, the ones that have a strong character are usually insulted and not supported even by their own people. This is why many are just been passive and allow anything

[Bigpokey24]

[pajimoh]

I stopped reading after "Danfo driver"

[ogiso]

For once, I agree with Danfo.