Senegal 2 Ngr 1 (FT)

[oscar52]

IMHO, players who deserve further consideration going forward...

1) Okon;
2) Ozornwafor;
3) Igho;
4) Eletu (why was he limited to 45 mins of football?); and
5) Dele-Bashiru.

The rest can kick rocks until further notice (or they grow a brain).

Those players lack football brain , the coach should never be allowed into any Nigeria team. I believe Pinick should give some one else the chance . He has over lived his welcome

In my opinion, none of them need see the Green White Green shirts again. Especially Tijiani, and the guy who kept punting the ball to no one in particular and the opponent team. What a horrible squad! Get eleven players from the Streets of Benin City, Warri, Enugu and Jos; and they will whip this team to a pulp!

In the second half, they were good but often a team is only as good as its weakest link and that team has some players that are very very poor.

[Enugu II]

That coach should NEVER be allowed anywhere near a Nigerian national team again. He chose the players and it was his system so he is 100% responsible for the failure.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time a Nigerian team has lost to another African side on the world stage.

The coach has a uefa pro license and FB.

Fabio,

Na was for you ooo! You are right. He has the credentials. Paper no be practical ooo!

[mystic]

I like Okon's effort, but my goodness, his football IQ needs an overhaul

Okon was by far one of the BEST players on both sides...

But he was benched for a foreign based lad because foreign is always better. He may not be all that technical but he was very active in ball recovery and covered every blade of grass with 110% effort.

He was benched at the African Tournament as well and that had nothing to do with "foreign is better ".

Bottom line is that the coach is a confused man. I'm still wondering how Peter Eletu got virtually zero minutes at the African Tournament and just a half at this competition, given how well he played when he came on.

[mystic]

I think with time Ozoronwafor, Igoh, Michael, Bashiru, Eletu, Ofoborh can develop into good players. I hear good things about Jonathan Zaccalla the young 16 year old GK. I also like Akpan Udoh another GK that was left out. The U17 winning GK in 2015.

Akpan Udoh is awful. He single handedly eliminated us from qualifying for the 2017 African U20 Championship. He was good at the U17 level but has not improved.

[ohenhen1]

I think with time Ozoronwafor, Igoh, Michael, Bashiru, Eletu, Ofoborh can develop into good players. I hear good things about Jonathan Zaccalla the young 16 year old GK. I also like Akpan Udoh another GK that was left out. The U17 winning GK in 2015.

Akpan Udoh is awful. He single handedly eliminated us from qualifying for the 2017 African U20 Championship. He was good at the U17 level but has not improved.

He looked good at U17 level. Gks tend to take time to develop. He can still develop into a good GK.

[mystic]

IMHO, players who deserve further consideration going forward...

1) Okon;
2) Ozornwafor;
3) Igho;
4) Eletu (why was he limited to 45 mins of football?); and
5) Dele-Bashiru.

The rest can kick rocks until further notice (or they grow a brain).

Those players lack football brain , the coach should never be allowed into any Nigeria team. I believe Pinick should give some one else the chance . He has over lived his welcome

In my opinion, none of them need see the Green White Green shirts again. Especially Tijiani, and the guy who kept punting the ball to no one in particular and the opponent team. What a horrible squad! Get eleven players from the Streets of Benin City, Warri, Enugu and Jos; and they will whip this team to a pulp!

That is unnecessary reactionary thinking. In 1999, when we hosted the U20 World Cup, Nigeria had another dysfunctional team, yet Joseph Yobo, Julius Aghahowa and (to a lesser extent) Rabiu Afolabi went on to star for the Super Eagles.

[mystic]

I think with time Ozoronwafor, Igoh, Michael, Bashiru, Eletu, Ofoborh can develop into good players. I hear good things about Jonathan Zaccalla the young 16 year old GK. I also like Akpan Udoh another GK that was left out. The U17 winning GK in 2015.

Akpan Udoh is awful. He single handedly eliminated us from qualifying for the 2017 African U20 Championship. He was good at the U17 level but has not improved.

He looked good at U17 level. Gks tend to take time to develop. He can still develop into a good GK.

We all want him to develop, but he was rightly left out of the team.

[green4life]

At some point in the first half the coach was trying to correct him after 3 or 4 consecutive aimless passes and instead of taking instruction he was arguing with the coach.

Prima facie evidence that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks!

[ohenhen1]

I think with time Ozoronwafor, Igoh, Michael, Bashiru, Eletu, Ofoborh can develop into good players. I hear good things about Jonathan Zaccalla the young 16 year old GK. I also like Akpan Udoh another GK that was left out. The U17 winning GK in 2015.

Akpan Udoh is awful. He single handedly eliminated us from qualifying for the 2017 African U20 Championship. He was good at the U17 level but has not improved.

He looked good at U17 level. Gks tend to take time to develop. He can still develop into a good GK.

We all want him to develop, but he was rightly left out of the team.

Left out for Oremade Olawale?


Was he that bad? I didn't watch the U20 qualifiers in 2017.

[txj]

At some point in the first half the coach was trying to correct him after 3 or 4 consecutive aimless passes and instead of taking instruction he was arguing with the coach.

Prima facie evidence that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks!

[ohenhen1]

So coaching was the problem..

And bad team selection.

[Otitokoro]

Dude was like a vampire - 3 of the 5 goals he conceded were from crosses

Left out for Oremade Olawale?

Was he that bad? I didn't watch the U20 qualifiers in 2017.

[Otitokoro]

Dude looked clueless!
I mean, why the heck are Nigerian coaches fixated with playing 4-3-3?
If they had played a 4 or 5 man midfield, they probably would have done much better...
Well, not with the 6'6" dullard we had upfront, who was short 2

That coach should NEVER be allowed anywhere near a Nigerian national team again. He chose the players and it was his system so he is 100% responsible for the failure.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time a Nigerian team has lost to another African side on the world stage.

The coach has a uefa pro license and FB.

Fabio,

Na was for you ooo! You are right. He has the credentials. Paper no be practical ooo!

[Otitokoro]

Sorry, but I really don't know what you see in the Okon chap. His approach play and final ball was poor, for the most part.
Also, Ozornwafor was a bust for me, ditto that Utin (highly unintelligent player).

Players for the future for me were: Igho, Dele-Bashiru, Micheal, Eletu and Oforboh (to a lesser extent).

IMHO, players who deserve further consideration going forward...

1) Okon;
2) Ozornwafor;
3) Igho;
4) Eletu (why was he limited to 45 mins of football?); and
5) Dele-Bashiru.

The rest can kick rocks until further notice (or they grow a brain).

[TonyTheTigerKiller]

None of these players merits half a look going forward. They are just not good enough to get the SuperEagles to the level we want. I am tickled to death that Rohr is considering Utin.


Cheers.

[ohenhen1]

Dude was like a vampire - 3 of the 5 goals he conceded were from crosses

Left out for Oremade Olawale?

Was he that bad? I didn't watch the U20 qualifiers in 2017.

He handled croses well at the U17 worldcup.

[Man Ataye]

Lets move on. 2021 8s coming. Bad showing , but lets pick up the pieces.

[Gotti]

Sorry, but I really don't know what you see in the Okon chap. His approach play and final ball was poor, for the most part.
Also, Ozornwafor was a bust for me, ditto that Utin (highly unintelligent player).

Players for the future for me were: Igho, Dele-Bashiru, Micheal, Eletu and Oforboh (to a lesser extent).

Okon was Nigeria's tournament MVP PERIOD!
Much better than Dele-Bashiru, Kingsley Michael or Oforboh (let's not even mention Jamil).

Of course, a tournament MVP performance is only relative (and not just because this team fairly sucked and thus the bar was not drastically high) and does not necessarily mean he is a better player than those other players, just that he outperformed them during the limited course of this particular tournament. Nonetheless, he has done well enough to warrant further consideration (starting from the U23 level) going forward. But folks will more likely return to sleeping on him until when/if he gets a foreign club. That's sadly just the mentality of the average Nigerian footy fan.

Meanwhile, someone like Oforboh who was misplacing passes left, right and center tonight, could not even properly weight his passes, has poor tackling technique and neither displayed much semblance of an "approach play" nor any "final ball" (to use your criteria) gets much kinder consideration and a virtual pass (no pun intended) because of his EPL affiliation. Of course we should rationally presume that these players are NOT finished articles yet, and thus so long as each continues to develop (and one would logically expect someone like Oforboh on an EPL club to be afforded better tools and opportunities for top-quality development), they should merit continued consideration.

Ozornwafor has already proven himself at higher national team levels, starring for the U23 squad in the successful return leg beatdown of Libya and training apparently well enough with the Super Eagles to be placed on the AFCON standby list, and while he was fit in this tournament he was the lynchpin of the defense (Igho Ogbu subsequently assumed the role and acquitted himself creditably, but we already knew he was good from the U20 AFCON tournament). One would thus fully expect to see Ozornwafor become an integral part of the U23 squad going forward, starting with the September final round of U23 AFCON qualifiers against Sudan and (presuming they get past Sudan) at the U23 AFCON tournament proper later in the year (assuming his club releases him).

Conversely, I was not necessarily surprised by Utin's subpar performance, considering that he's had equally subpar showings at the U20 WAFU regional tournament last December (where we also lost to Senegal in the final), after which Coach Aigogbun reportedly embarked on a search for a competitor/replacement, as well as at the CHAN tournament. Furthermore, in the domestic scene, Utim seems to be generally regarded by some national team coaches as behind the U23's Ebube Duru (of Lobi Stars), and thus only backs-up Duru in the Super Eagles B squad (both at WAFU, CHAN and the friendly against Atletico Madrid). Nonetheless, Coach Gernot Rohr apparently sees something in Utin's game to have capped him in the friendly against Egypt and p;ace him on the AFCON standby list.

Finally, the biggest shock for me (albeit pleasant) was the frankly outstanding shift put in by Peter Eletu tonight. That completely came out of nowhere, and thus I will be cautious that it could just be one of those one-off performances (even though the fact that he has made the cut for each of the U20 WAFU, U20 AFCON and this U20 WC squads would indicate that the coaches must have CONSISTENTLY seen something good in his game), but solely on the basis of tonight' showing Eletu certainly deserves further consideration (starting at the U23 level) going forward. Ultimately, this is what these age-grade tournaments should be about - PROSPECTS!
>

[Enugu II]

Sorry, but I really don't know what you see in the Okon chap. His approach play and final ball was poor, for the most part.
Also, Ozornwafor was a bust for me, ditto that Utin (highly unintelligent player).

Players for the future for me were: Igho, Dele-Bashiru, Micheal, Eletu and Oforboh (to a lesser extent).

IMHO, players who deserve further consideration going forward...

1) Okon;
2) Ozornwafor;
3) Igho;
4) Eletu (why was he limited to 45 mins of football?); and
5) Dele-Bashiru.

The rest can kick rocks until further notice (or they grow a brain).

Otitokoro,

The Dele-Bashiru guy has very good technical skill but his effort level is not good enough. IMHO, I can see why he was yanked for Okon. Okon does not have same level of technical ability but his effort level and willingness to work on ball recovery is far much better. For me, his game is like a young Etebo.

Micheal is overhyped, IMHO. He is just an average guy and the same with Oforboh. Eletu, for instance, is much better than Oforboh or Kingsley but we know why Eletu was on the bench because he does not have the credentials.I may give you the point that he may well have played out of his mind today but that play was something the other two could hardly match all tournament.

To me Dele-Bashiru, with a bit more effort, will be far better than all those guys you listed. I alluded to this right after the Qatar match which was arguably Dele-Bashiru's best game. It was just obvious, if you ask me.

[ANC]

I don't remember seeing a Nigerian team play well in these dark green jerseys which I don't wanna say are jinxed. I just don't like them...

No be only you o!

Na only two of you. I love that Jersey. It was the jersey that picked the team ?

[Damunk]

I don't remember seeing a Nigerian team play well in these dark green jerseys which I don't wanna say are jinxed. I just don't like them...

No be only you o!

Na only two of you. I love that Jersey. It was the jersey that picked the team ?

ANC, don't be a typical Nigerian. Let's first get one thing straight: I don't think the jersey (whether I like it or not) had an impact on the team's performance yesterday.

However, just in case you are oblivious, colour of jersey and its impact on individual and team performance in sport has attracted quite a lot of research around the world. For example:

What is clear is that whether down to person perception, self-perception or the psychological properties they hold colour does influence the success of team and individual athletes in even contests. It is clear that this area warrants further research but that it could have implications for regulations that govern sporting attire.
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-s ... am-success

Its one of those things we Nigerians would simply laugh at because we know everything and have no interest in actually researching issues further. And if anyone were to bother, we'd call them "jobless".

You love the jersey. I dislike it. Both immaterial.
What is the success rate of the national teams over the years wearing dark green vs white/light green?

An enterprising journalist would look into the stats, publish them and throw them open to debate.

And I'd find the results interesting regardless.

[olu]

Of all the midfielders who featured for us, I think Dele Bashiru has the brightest future. He is a natural CM/DM and not an AM. He struggled in the early part of the game against the U.S because he was played in an advanced role. He was beginning to get into the game when he was substituted. Michael had an ok tournament, but I do think he will improve and could see him being invited to the SE in the future.

Okon is lively and willing to take on players but his final ball is often poor. He was good for the U20 level, but I don't see him moving up to the SE.