Nigeria drops a point,our Olympic dream is over!

Post by **Waffiman** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:04 pm

I do not believe we canqualify with Musa in charge. I know there is some resentment over Musa. This is because hehas had the best fromm the NFA when compared to all other ICs. In fact, he has been prefrential treatment but has failed. We need a change.

Post by **YUJAM** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:05 pm

BTW, did you notice how Mali beat DRC 2 to 0 away from home? Is there a new alignment to the balance of power in African football?

omey2k4 · Post by **omey2k4** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:15 pm

YUJAM wrote:BTW, did you notice how Mali beat DRC 2 to 0 away from home? Is there a new alignment to the balance of power in African football?

Yujam Mali has been improving at youth level tournaments for sometimme now.

Post by **YUJAM** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:19 pm

No doubt. Mali have some excellent talent with players at teams like Valencia.

YUJAM wrote:
BTW, did you notice how Mali beat DRC 2 to 0 away from home? Is there a new alignment to the balance of power in African football?

Yujam Mali has been improving at youth level tournaments for sometimme now.
_________________

golden boy · Post by **golden boy** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 11:46 pm

Once again I will ask the question, did Nigeria take her best team to the qualifiers or just thought they could put any team together because of the endless talent pool Nigeria possesses.

I keep saying it, Nigeria has to present her best teams for every competition the play in now or they will find it hard to qualify. Those days are gone, these days every team is a contender and will play to win. Nigeria has been absent in the last Olympics, the last U-17 WC, the last U-20 WC, the almost did not qualify for the last WC in what was considered a walkover group. And the reasons are all the same, Agents and NFA officials looking to make money off fresh faces keep insisting on using newly discovered home based players for every new national team, once you play for a youth national team at one level, you will not play at the next because you are now either a foreign based player or a washed up player that did not get bought.

The results are there for all to see, while Nigeria's national teams are failing, Nigeria has the highest number of players plying their trade abroad than any other African country by far and most of them are wastepipes who have Nigerian national team player as part of their CV.

Naija fan · Post by **Naija fan** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 1:07 am

Nigeria has to win the remaining three games and hope for a draw between Senegal and Tunisia. If this happens, then we win the group. We have two home home games and a crucial away game to Tunisia. I like our channces because we have our own fate in our hands. The key is for our strikers to score more goals in order to have the edge on goal differential.

omey2k4 · Post by **omey2k4** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 1:08 am

golden boy wrote:Once again I will ask the question, did Nigeria take her best team to the qualifiers or just thought they could put any team together because of the endless talent pool Nigeria possesses.

I keep saying it, Nigeria has to present her best teams for every competition the play in now or they will find it hard to qualify. Those days are gone, these days every team is a contender and will play to win. Nigeria has been absent in the last Olympics, the last U-17 WC, the last U-20 WC, the almost did not qualify for the last WC in what was considered a walkover group. And the reasons are all the same, Agents and NFA officials looking to make money off fresh faces keep insisting on using newly discovered home based players for every new national team, once you play for a youth national team at one level, you will not play at the next because you are now either a foreign based player or a washed up player that did not get bought.

The results are there for all to see, while Nigeria's national teams are failing, Nigeria has the highest number of players plying their trade abroad than any other African country by far and most of them are wastepipes who have Nigerian national team player as part of their CV.

Nigeria was at the last Olympics men

sarkin doya · Post by **sarkin doya** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 5:45 am

I have not watched any of the games of this U-23 team
and so cannot comment on either the play of the team or
the performance of Musa Abdullahi.

If memory does not fail me, I remember that
qualification for the last Olympics came
courtesy of a 4-0 win in the final match held in Lagos -
with someone like Pius Ikedia scoring the goal that
secured qualification (the 4th goal) in the dying minutes
of the match.

I don't think we are too far off track from the past.
I say give Abdullahi the chance to see out the rest of
the qualifying campaign and then pass judgement.

However, given Nigeria's
history of knee-jerk reactions, I would not be surprised
if they changed coach in the middle of the qualifying
campaign. I guess the most recent reports indicate
that Ikhana make be taking over.

ikwerreman · Post by **ikwerreman** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:01 am

We have never qualified easy for any Olympic gmes, you guys just go back into the record books. What ever made you guys think we will have an easy ride this time.
In 1996, we drew goaless with kenya in Lagos before wacking them three nil in NAirobi.
then we could only beata Egypt 2-1 in LAgos and it took a Victor Ikpeba equaliser in Cairo to see us through 1-1 .
Then the last game against Zimbabwe was also a toughie.
In 2000, we needed to beat Zimbabwe 4-0 to qualify and we also managed to do that which if you remember was dicey and it took us giving Zimbabawe's coach, Westahof a red card to unsettle his boys.
You guys just leave your pants on, we will qualify

MI5 · Post by **MI5** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:35 am

IK,

Yes it's good to look at the records but also what the records state is we've been qualifying based on a cliff hanger. We can't continue like this anymore and infact with the way you pointed this out is the reason why our soccer if failing everyday because we accept this kind of results and feel it's the way to go. I kept saying all along we have to watch and not repeat the mistakes of the past where we barely qualified, the same thing is happening all over again and if we somoe how make it to Athens we will forget how we got there...

If we don't beat Senegal in the return match which will set the ball rolling we are out....

MI5 · Post by **MI5** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:27 am

Where is Robby? He usually doesn't hide from threads like this why na...?