₦airaland Forum

FedEx greatest tennis player of all time

Really happy for kc this will boost his confidence but he needs to keep working hard and perform against the big boys in the premiership that will be the clear judge if he is back to his best form. Echoing supernerd I also wish kc and all super eagles players an injury free end to the season

tbaba1234:
Hearing reports that Sports presenter, Deji Tinubu is dead...

really sad news he was a first class sports analyst and presenter was one of my favorites back in the day may the good lord comfort his family RIP Deji Tinubu

gamaliel9:
On ROHR[ pronounce RAWWW,not ROWER]. This interview is quite revealing because at some point they all started laughing when Rohr said Nigerians are following the interview. Here are what i got ,not word to word...by the way,the program was a NO or YES answer session.

Was Nigeria s qualification your happiest moment? NO, but the match between Bordeaux and AC Milan in EUFA Cup Final. He was coach of Bordeaux then.
Are you happy you are going to your first world cup..Yes
Are the match bonuses and allowances settled this time? Yes
Reaching the quarter final,is that your target? Yes
But the federation has set semi-final target for you? Yes
Can you make it? No. At this point they all started laughing and Rohr quickly said its possible,that obviously Nigeria are following the program,he seemed uneasy and not self confident when he said this.
Is your group the group of death? No
Is France favourite to win the world cup? Yes
Among the African teams,which team is the best? Nigeria? No. Egypt? Yes
Can you come back one day to the French League? No,but Its difficult to say..who knows tomorrow
Is Bordeaux well managed today? No
What was your most painful match or part of your life? My injury
Who is the best player you have coached? Zizou[Zidane]
Which is harder to coach,club or country? Country
If you were the coach of Neymar,would you be harder on him? Yes
Have you lied on any of these questions you have answered? No

As i said it is not verbatim of the interview. What do you think. Please around of applause for me...i love french language...elle est geniale

Merci beaucoup mon ami

Mickael2:
it isn't really about them. Ok let's take for example you have heard stories about jihads(abeg no vex oo ) and you are officiating a match in the north, Kano Pillars are losing at home and you see a random northerner bringing out this curved knife and smiling at you with broken teeth, baba I will award two spotkicks in a minute sef. I think security checks should be beefed up at the stadiums, atleast if the officials can be safe inside the stadium that would be a wonderful development.

lol

TheSuperNerd:
I guess it doesn't get any harsher than Sir Realpoacher's

Dude is not even me but he sounds like me a bit when it comes to tackling the negativity bearers on this thread. No matter how much we try to be peaceful these odorous folks especially Komekn runs around the thread with his mediocre mindset trying to pollute the atmosphere with his lies about our Super Eagles players especially Iheanacho.

And I have always known the championship to be tough. I don't need a Komekn to tell me that. I don't need his analysis to tell me what I have known for years. This is simple psychology. He uses the fact that he can actually make knowledgeable comments about certain matters to chip in his bowel of lies and half truths about our players.
He never sees things holistically when it comes to our players. It is like a disease for him. Even in the face if superior facts and figures, Komekn will still tell you that the people making those stats are missing the main point.

Nacho, most lethal finisher/deadliest striker in terms of goals per mins ratio. He refused to see what those stats meant.

Nacho, slayer of Argentina. He stepped back and never came out to critically admit how wrong he was about Nacho.

I will respect his opinion much more if he can learn to balance his views. If he was on air, believe me, even the producers will question what his agenda is. He repeatedly throws shades at rhe others not standing with his negative views and praised his fellow band wagon as negative propagators as the analysts.

Komekn is not a f**king analyst. He is a bloody agent who just knows how to market and talk a good talk. He uses the fact he can say something right about certain matters to hide and utter his hate and full bias speech against our players. He attacks not only Nacho but also Osimhen and other young Nigerian players that are not borough-bred. He knows no jack about the beautiful game from a holistic view point. He is too limited. So damn limited. When I came back this year... I told myself this...

"TheSupernerd moniker is gonna be like a two edged sword... to some I will be the sun who cracks open the clay ground. To some others still, I will the sun who also shines on the plants and make them grow. I am like the sun... to some, I will heat up, scorch and burn up stuffs, while to others I will nurture and make grow. The sun does both at that same time."

This is a new year. And I know some of these negative talkers were among those happy to see me leave initially when my mother was insulted. None of them condemned the act. In fact, some were bold to speak trash about it and subtly support the act. That speak volumes of the kind of people they are. They don't give a sh*t about humanity and truth. All they care about is passing across their message of hate and smiling when the ones who oppose them are attacked even by their mothers' name.

I won't allow their message linger.

This is why I have no issues anymore with Forgiveness. He can criticise Nacho all he wants but I don't mind much, you know why? It is because, at least, he does his in a manner that explains his own passion. He has been one to suggest the likes of Ebuehi, Aina, Idowu long before now and they are now strong candidates for the world cup party because of what they add to the team.
This is why in Forgiveness, I find a worthy opposition. A worthy antagonist. One who I don't mind rolling with even though we share opposing views sometimes. I gat no problems with his "nacho is not better than these" most times now. So long as he argues along the line of facts and figures.

But Komekn, he goes as far as calling our young players over-aged and criticising their super talents. In the face of facts, he takes off and turn a blind eye. Even condemning the Bundesliga and making it at par with the championship when quality wise the gap is much.

Omo... this new year ehn... this rubbish won't be tolerated. I expect that as grown men as they are, they should know how to balance things and keep to being holistic on matters as sensitive as Iheanacho or any of our golden young players. Shameful how they want a young guy like me to be the one to straighten them out. smh.

Let Komekn learn to be more expansive. Let him go read up. He is too limited to be commenting on Football matters. He is just an agent. He knows nothing outside of his English-coated cerebral cortex. It is sadly the truth.

hi doc how u doing happy new year please turn down the harsh words on komekn. He has his rights to his own opinion like everybody else good or bad let's respect his views without the personal insults. You are an intelligent guy keep giving us your informative and educative posts on football matters take care peace bro

Iwobi assist

pussypounder:
I like safarigirl and I no go mind pour akamu for clean pot if una agree for here

Guy Joebie is right please dial down such comments or better still eliminate them altogether this is a football forum please just stick to all matters football and super eagles. Besides that this kind of comments does not speak well of you it makes you come across as creepy and rapey.

So let's reduce this kind of talk if not for her sake do it for the sake of our mothers and sisters

Thanks peace

[quote author=forgiveness post=64031998]Well, you may be right about indian having clubs that are over 100 and having interest in football but what is the fraction of the population interested in football since independent till just recently?

50%, 60%, 80%, 100% or 0.01%?

Indians are cricket lovers though recently things are changing.

I have met thousands of them in a gathering and when it is time for sports, they normal choose basketball over football.




India is predominantly a country fascinated towards Cricket. Football has never received the importance it should have.

Until the Ambani Family came up with the idea of ISL. A footballing league for India with veteran foreign players flying over to play with the budding Indian talents also at display.

It was in 2013 that India has it's first season of ISL which was won by Atletico De Kolkata. That was the beginning of a new era for Indian football.

Comparing the standards of European football to that of ISL is unwise. But the level of Football has started improving and is growing by leaps and bounds over the past years.

https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Indians-more-interested-in-foreign-football-leagues-while-they-dont-show-much-interest-in-the-ISL-which-is-happening-in-their-own-country

Pls, take note that the Indian league just started in 2013.

This is one of the reasons I said most of our NPL clubs should be sold to Nigerian billionaires.


Chinese urge for football can't be compared with that of Korean and Japanese some few years ago.

Maybe they like watching football but not to make a career in it.

Remember, Chinese are restricted from having not more than one kid and this is why they make sure their only one boy gets educated till university level or groom them in the sports they are dominant at at the world stage.

I have met thousands of Chinese too in gatherings but hardly do you see them play ball.


It is just recently the government developed a policy to make China the biggest footballing nation by 2030 or 2050.
[/quote

No doubt Indians love their cricket but you are underestimating the allure of football to them. Even if it's only 10℅ of Indians that follow soccer that is still a massive 100 million people. It's like their religion we all know that Indians are mostly Hindus but because of their large population any tiny percentage that profess christianity will run into millions. We cannot say why india is not good at football but definitely its not due to lack of followership.

You forget china qualified for the world cup in 2002 so the interest has always been there and like I said their women were a force in the 90s

forgiveness:
I think India and China just recently developed interest for football.

India as a former colony of britain have always had interest in football. You will be surprised that they are some clubs in india that are over 100 years old.

China like other asian countries have been crazy over football especially premiership over the last couple of decades. At least I know china had a top female national team in the nineties

goldfish80:
Netherlands had solid structures on ground and they unsurprisingly produced worldies. Your country have barely anything on ground.

George weah was a one-off. Liberia were too busy killing themselves in the bush when Weah emerged.
It is wrong to bring him up in the Nigerian context.

I brought up Weah because you mentioned nabil kieta who is also an exceptional one of before he came along could you name any exceptional player from guinea?

goldfish80:
India and China are not football countries. India for instance is a cricket country and they are one of the world powers in that sport

It's like you don't watch EPL fan zone Indians love their football.

China not a football country? After all the millions of dollar investment in their super league? Ok o. If japan and korea are good at soccer then there's no reason why china a world and economic superpower should not be doing well since according to your logic they have the population

goldfish80:
My brother, image small Guinea of 10 million people producing a $70M player while a country of 200 million mad soccer fans have yet to produce someone half that price. We are not doing something right obviously. This Naby Keita guy got his football education in Guinea oh (!). He was not produced in diaspora.

Anyway, I don't think this is the real valuation of Ndidi but it is a big positive.

how many people are in the Netherlands yet for decades they were producing world class players more than most of their contemporaries in Europe.

George Weah from liberia once won world footballer of the year award I guess because nigeria has not produced a former world footballer we should feel ashamed too

goldfish80:
I know your intent with the bolded.
You're obviously not interested in any suggestion, your question is an elaborate ambush to lure me into naming a replacement for Iwobi which will cause an unnecessary player comparison. I won't bite that bait, sorry to disappoint you.

One thing should be very clear though, a country of 200 million mad soccer fanatics should be producing world class players frequently. The talents coming through the production lines should be so much that non performing players will be replaced without so much drop in quality.

If we can't boast of at least 15 performing world class players with our population, we should bury our heads in shame.
I hope you're in the clear now?

Population alone doesn't guarantee production of world class players if not china or India would be ruling the soccer world.

Yes we have talented players everywhere in the country a dime a dozen but like every sector in Nigeria we don't yet have the necessary structure, personnel and expertise to harness such talent and if we are waiting for oyinbo to selflessly develop your players for you then sorry you are on a long tin.

goldfish80:
Obviously you haven't been following events closely.

The other day, I commented about Iwobi's poor performance against Liverpool. The reactions I got was that Iwobi was being criticized unfairly ( there were even pointers to sour grapes for dropping England for Nigeria). Ever since, I've noticed some kind of over indulgence and misguided zeal to defend Iwobi at all cost. Someone even posted last night that he's on the look out for Arsenal fans calling out Iwobi after another flat performance against Nottingham Forest.

Any smart person will figure where this is all heading to knowing the history of another Nairaland fan's favorite here.

I think you are generalizing out of the multitude of posters we have here how many have displayed such line of thought? Besides that people will always post reasons to defend their favourite players its nothing new but as far as the national team is concerned we always generally want the best for the super eagles. Don't be surprised that this same alex who is currently the flavour of the month will be criticized heavily by everyone if God forbid his poor form continues abi was it not a year ago that ighalo seemed to be on his way out of the national team but today baring injuries he's on the way to the world cup this life Sha!

goldfish80:
Why post this here? We shouldn't be worried, he plays very well for the super eagles apparently. Arsenal fans are victimizing him because he chose Nigeria.

Lol funny picture but who are the people burying their head in the sand? All I have mostly read is encouragement and call for our players to improve. Believe me if we had descent replacements for the players who are currently underperforming I'll be the first to call for their inclusion but the reality on ground is you don't have any at the moment so we have to make do with what we have. Iwobi has been posting on and off performances for some time now not just of recent we can only continue to encourage alex and make him that he has to up his game same with kc

tbaba1234:
What are your thoughts about Ebuehi's proposed move to Benfica? Good move or should he hold out for an English move?

I would advise him to stay in holland so he can continue to enjoy first team football. Hopefully a good performance at the world cup should see his stock rise which could mean better offers from other clubs.

If he goes to benfica there's no guarantee he'll get playing time or that he would have settled down while he might get good playing time I wouldn't want the physicality of the championship to cause any unnecessary injury to him so close to the world cup

E don do Na ahn ahn!!! We are all adults for goodness sake please let's stop with the insults. we all have rights to our opinions on football matters even if we don't agree all the time let's just respect each other this is an online family we don't know each other from adam in real life so we should not take stuff personal against each other.

Safarigirl Biko nu it's ok let move on and talk football.

Forgiveness egbon Jo o ti to. E je ka tesiwaju. E fi gbogbo Oro ija ATI kaa ma bu ara wa seyin 2017 odun tun tun leleyi Olurun a wa pelu e

Kog45:
My man my comment emanated due to a moniker who portrayed Keshi as a corrupt man.So that's not criticism but tarnishing his image with malicious facts,hope you get my point now,am not here to defend Keshi but to put the record straight.

I do criticised Keshi but with fact not beer parlour fact,definitely he must be criticised but there are some criticisms that are absurds and not good for someone personality.Do we say Rohr is receiving bribes for calling player like Musa to camp despite not playing for Leicester city or do we accused him of collecting money for Nwakili invitation,remember Aaron Samuel invitation,i believe Rohr is the coach and i must respect his decision even if am not happy with it so let respect Keshi decision and people should stop label him a corrupt man.

On Ike Uche,Keshi would not be the first coach to drop a player,we have numerous examples of coaches dropping world class players citing different reasons.

It was on this thread someone was calling Onigbinde $10k dollar man and i need to come out to say that James Obiorah whom i know personally did not pay a dime before 2002 WC or where do we want Enyeama, Ejide, Opabunmi to get $10k from as home based players,forgetting the same Onigbinde coached the same team as far back as 1984.

My question is this why are we always running our country men down just cos we want to praise White men.Did you know how Dosu Joseph got into Atlanta 96 squad,he came in to the team purely on business between Bonfrere Jo and Churchill Olishe,thank God we won Atlanta 96 gold.

ok I get your point for me personally I've always judged our national team's coaches based on their coaching ability and behaviour during their stint. I don't think I have seen people run down nigerian coaches just to say the white ones we have had are saints after all westerhof after stephen keshi was our most successful coach but it's an open secret that he was a proper jobman during that period. The truth is a lot of our indigenous coaches have brought this doubt of their integrity on themselves. From siasia and his boys constant invitations to oliseh and his link to churchill his brothers players or the relationship between stephen keshi and the football agent tony harris. So even though as you rightly said they might not be any evidence to link them to any case of bribery these stories floating around don't help their case.

Kog45:
My man am not disputing that or trying to run Rohr down but i will never accept a situation where my country man who did so well as a player and coach funny enough late,i mean Stephen Okechukwu Keshi to be insulted with useless beer parlour fact.

This is a man that led pioneer under 20 team in 1978/79,made his debut for senior team in late 1980,went to Libya 82 and displaced Christian Chuckwu,captain Eagles at Afcon 84 at a very young age despite the presence of senior players like Muda Lawal,Henry Nwosu,paved way for Nigerian players in Europe,the first captain that led Nigeria to her first WC also coach the same team and won Afcon and reached the 2nd round in 2014 WC,qualified tiny Togo for biggest football tournament in the World,remain the only African to have managed three Africa nations namely Togo,Mali and Nigeria.

Pls with this pedigrees does he deserves insults just cos Rohr who failed in other Africa countries is doing well in Nigeria.

yes you are right that for now there is no comparison between keshi and rohr however one cannot say because of his achievements we will not remember some of his mistakes. I will consider myself one of the big bosses staunchest supporters but I know some of his player selections then were somehow. From Agbim to gabriel reuben to uchebo these few stand out for me but the decision that had me scratching my head was his refusal to take Ike uche to the world cup even though he was our best performing striker at the time. Yes he qualified togo for the world cup but remember it was his falling out with emmanuell adebayor that led to Togo's poor performance at the 2006 AFCON while he did coach mali he didn't achieve anything of note with them. So no matter which way you cut it his critics have enough mud to throw at him but for me he will always remain the legend and great of african nigerian football.

As for rohr he failed with niger and didn't achieve anything of note with gabon and burkina faso so he still has a lot to prove

Dimples129:
Art



I knew you'd be here

You pretty happy new year

joseph1013:
AWARDS FOR THIS THREAD 2017

I should have done this well before now but it kept escaping me. Let's cut the aggressive banters and have a little fun.

So, I will be listing out some categories and you are allowed to nominate the posters of your choice. You can also add the categories I have omitted. This will last for 72 hours. At the end of which, safarigirl, if she agrees, will announce the winners on Thursday, 4th January, 2018 by 7pm.

CATEGORIES
1. Most Controversial Poster
2. Most Interactive Poster
3. Most Intelligent Poster
4. Most Resourceful Poster
5. Most Respectful Poster
6. Most Consistent Poster
7. Most Positive Poster
8. Best Sense of Humor
9. Most Critical Poster
10. Nicest Poster
11. Most Influential Poster
12. Most Pro-Foreign Born Poster
13. Most Pro-Naija League Poster
14. People's Favourite
15. Most Sentimental
16. Notorious Silent Reader
17. Impressive Thread Newbie
18. Diehard Super Eagles Fan
19. Best Friends
20. Most Outstanding Poster
21. Overall Best Poster
22. Top Dramatic Topics
23. Honourable Mention: I, by the power vested on me by this thread, unanimously give this category to THESUPERNERD. Whoever does not accept should go and report to Buhari.

Any other categories I'm missing?

PS: Apologies the get-together could not happen. I am out of the country.

cc: AIG07, Isahalbash, Safarigirl, Joebie, Kog45, Goldfish80, daveP, kennysville, realpoacher, tbaba1234, komekn, Mujtahida, certitude, humility017, forgiveness, enomakos, TheGoodjoe, Mikael2, petrobros, Bascovanveli, TheSuperNerd, chrisoblog, loogan, do4luv14, icon79, maidaboi, terzurum5, Okpekyandega, Icon4s, TheSuperNerd, lakesidepapa, goldfish80, Xzbit91, lexyman, Humility017, ChrisKels, bigblangston, goke7, Chrismario, Daninya11, shawwal1, ganiyat2adeyeri, yemyke001, edi287, krattoss, eseose9, oasis007, jihday etc.

I tender my unreserved apologies if your name is not here. Let's have some fun.

1. Forgiveness
2. Joebie
3. Mujtahida
4. Tie between tbaba/ goodjoe/supernerd ( before he went on leave )
5. Kog
6. Komekn and goodjoe you may not always agreed with their views but boy are they consistent
7. Supernerd
8. Safarigirl
9. Komekn and mickael
10. Aig07
11. Joebie
12. Komekn
13.Bascov
14. Goodjoe
15. Forgiveness.
16. All ghost mode viewers.
17. Joebie and mujtahida.
18. Safarigirl
19. Forgiveness and komekn serious bromance
20. Mujtahida
21. Mujtahida
22. Is Mikel world class, iheanacho, is rohr tactical
23. Words of the year: drill, cult, biased, sentimental,

safarigirl:
It is only God that will judge those people that quoted TheSuperNerd's long epistle.....only God, I will leave you all to Him and your conscience

Welcome back TheSuperNerd, forgiveness has been running amok on these streets and TheGoodJoe has been doing his darnd best to hold the fort , at least the tackling will be much stronger now

loooooool

Happy new year family special shoutout to you Super Nerd regards to you and yours Doc

Kog45:
OK they are not average,hope you are okay.

Nigeria Line up against Bulgaria.

1.Peter Rufai. Go Ahead Eagles. Belgium

2.Austin Eguavoen. Kortrijk. Belgium

3.Ben Iroha. Vitesse Arnhem. Holland

4.Sunday Olishe. Rc Leige. Belgium

5.Uche Okechukwu. Brondby Denmark

6.Chidi Nwane. Anderlecht Belgium*

7.Finidi George. Ajax. Holland*

8.Daniel Amokachie. Cercle Brugge Belgium

9.Rashidi Yekini. Vitoria Setubal. Portugal

10.Samson Siasia. Nantes. France

11.Emmanuel Amuneke. Zamalek Egypt.

Indeed your truth is bitter.

Happy new year in advance

boss lol you should know him by now he will never allow facts to get in the way of some immature need to win an argument. Ask him to name the number of European titles club sides from the elite Belgian league won during the 80s and 90s you will see him running upandan shifting things again

Mujtahida:
Yes my brother. Like Kog.45 said they can deceive those who didn't watch football in the 90's but even the Internet will not allow them do that. If not for the Internet I don't think my memory would have been able to withstand the propaganda of this guys.

The one that is worse is the two who want the team to be populated by players they love. I swear to you once the Ajagun's, the Josh maja, the ojos fill the team, all this cry that the team is filled with below average players will cease. Instead of them to own up to the fact that they are not emotionally satisfied with the team, they under under the team is below average to make their point. But I can see through their ruse.

Imagine komekn using Rashidi to celebrate. I showed him that by his own philosophy, Rashidi will not smell the Eagles, imagine him using Amokachi at Everton, yet turning a blind eye to Iheanacho. Imagine him using an Amunike who for four years (I know Amunike struggled with injuries) at barca had 16 appearances and scored one goal yet he will not give Osimhen breathing space. Imagine him talking about Ikpeba yet glibly forgetting that for 3 seasons at Monaco Ikpeba struggled yet just one season of Iheanacho struggling at Leicester has made him wax a tune on the boy's plight.

bros the thing weak me sef to the extent he cooked up some imaginary goals that dominic solanke scored to fit into his better than kc narrative or how he's always on osimhen's case or dismissive of kenneth omeruo's contributions to the national team just because he wants to promote someone else over him

Mujtahida:
[author=komekn post=63710531]

To this day the fans in Everton remember Amokachi with fond memories. Not too long ago at a match he was given a standing ovation.

When he was at Brugge he was considering one of the best strikers in that league. He was being courted by a lot of top European clubs after Nigeria's exploits in the World Cup of 1994.

---

The Amokachi in Belgium was not the same Amokachi in Everton: 43 appearances 10 goals.yet Iheanacho 46 appearances 12 goals for Man city is your sworn attack target.



Consider that Amunike had left Sporting for Barcelona.
WC year Amunike was in Lisbon. After that he went to the Barcelona you are joyously putting forth. Well, here is Amunike at Barca for you: 1996-2000, 19 appearances, 1goal.

Taribo was considered one of the best defenders in Europe. If I'm right he played two seasons for Inter without missing any games almost. Uche was the top defender in the Turkish league for Fenerbache, Oliseh, Finidi, Kanu, Yekini, Babayaro, Okocha, Ikpeba were top players playing in the top teams of Europe not in the backwaters or warming the bench permanently.
First Taribo, Kanu, Babayaro, Babangida were not in the USA 94 set at 94. They joined later I think after the Olympics. But then let me put things in perspective: Uche was a defender in Turkey not a top defender. That's your own palatable spin. Ekong could as well be called top defenders. They are in the same Turkey. And you didn't mention Uche Okafor who was in Isreal, nor Ezeugo who was in India. Okocha was struggling for game time in Eintract frankfurt, Ikpeba had not yet blossomed in Monaco. Yekini was playing for a division two team. Kanu was getting cameo appearances at Ajax unlike Finidi. I don't see anything exceptional those guys did in their clubs that this guys have not done and wait let them go to the WC first. Judging them now with 94 set and their post WC activities is what tbaba1234 calls false equivalency.

Add to that list the much under rated but top quality players in the name of Wilson Oruma, Tijani Babangida, Adepoju.

Compared to what we have now. We have gone from shopping in Harrods to the £1 pound bargain basement shop. That's regression.

Our back line of Uche, Taribo, Babayaro, we're seasoned first team players for too clubs in Europe.

Compare that to Balogun, Ekong and Echiejile.
Only Echiejile gets the stick. Ekong and Balogun are as good as Taribo and Uche.
What we have are in all honesty below average players particularly in comparison to the pre millennium SE. You can have all the team spirit you like that will only carry you so far. In the end quality gets you ahead.
You have created a romantic vision of the past (and I understand) but I will always be here to inject healthy doses of reality to dispel your false notions. This team is as average as the 94 set. The facts speak for themselves.
But this 'below average team' as you put would become stellar if Solanke, Tega, Tammy, Josh Maja, Onomah, Seyi Ojo etc are in the team abi?

Facts are consistent, facts are stubborn, facts are sometimes inconvenient if it doesn't fit your narrative. Carry on the good work of bursting myths and bringing out the true state of affairs

goldfish80:
Presumptuous? This is pure analysis, No football person will forecast a team which defeated her opponent 3:0 in the group stage to loose to the same team in the semi finals. It will take an unusual level of capitulation to loose.
We beat same Bulgaria in 98 if our dominance was ever in doubt.


Can you point out were I made the Italians look rubbish? I basically said they took out the corner stone of our attack and thereafter, it was curtains. We managed just 1 shot on goal afterwards( a Jay Jay Okocha free kick).
The Italians attacked down the wings. Their equalizing goal came as a result of a cut back from the left which Baggio scored from. Amuneke would have kept their fullback busy if he was on the the pitch.



If you agree that the players arent performing to world cup standard why argue in the first place when I stated the obvious?


Our attackers goal returns this season have been poor. That is a fact, No skepticism there


I have always had faith in the team. Before the game against Zambia, I told Micheal2 that we would qualify after the game . Before the Cameroun game, I told anyone who cared to listen that if we go with physically strong players, we will win easily. I was proved right in the end.
This attitude that any critique of the team is bad could eventually be the undoing of the team but thankfully majority of Nigerians who I interact qith daily have different mindset to people here.

Again with the presumption so it wasn't possible that the bulgarian team just had a bad game against us and were improving as the tournament progressed The bulgarian team that we defeated in 1998 where a shadow of themselves and not thats great again.

Why I said that you insinuated that the italians were rubbish was because you said there was no reason why we should have lost that game but the italians you forget were a top side full of experienced players who managed the game better than us. Plus it's not the first time that a team of 11 players will lose to ten players for example didn't argentina lose to cameroon in italia 90? Please tell me how many shots on goal we had before emmanuel and daniel were taking off. If we had been tactically smarter and jj had been more purposeful we could have wrapped up the match before the equaliser I can't count the number of times Okocha would dribble into promising positions but fail to release the ball on time while for the equaliser sundays inability to deal with the on rushing Italian was the cause and not this urban legend you keep repeating that the loss of two individuals led to our inability to defend a one goal lead.

Yes I agreed that our strikers have been poor this season but that hasn't correlated to their performance in the national team. Last year when the previous season just started apart from KC how many of our strikers were prolific. Is it victor moses all moses simon or odion ighalo or iwobi but we use this guys to successfully execute our world cup campaign. Curiously henry onyekuru and kayode who were scoring left right and centre for their clubs didn't play any crucial role for us.

Your scepticism is believing thats because our players are going through a tough time means they won't do well for the super eagles and like mujtahida said no be today our players dey post average performances it happened before 94 98 and so on

I would advice you learn to manage your expectations as regards this team and not feel we have some world class players somewhere that will transform our team into world beaters over night.

If you choose to give yourself high blood pressure over what cannot be changed in the next 6 months that is your business as for me I will continue to support and give realistic critisms of this team

t

goldfish80:
Hope you know we didn't win the world cup in 1994?

That 94 team had their problems, from wrong tactics, nativity at times, poor game management, name it.....

We We actually had a chance to win that world cup but we bungled it. But hey,we came back with the "most entertaining team " trophy and we are ok with it.

As far as I'm concerned, it was inexcusable to loose against 10 men Italian team from a winning position.
If we had scaled the Italian test, next in line would have been an underachieving Spain. I have no doubt in my mind that we would have taken them out (we won them in 1998 with a badly beat up team). In the semi final, we would have faced Bulgaria. The same team we whipped 3:0 in the group stages. The final against a very beatable Brazil. Recall the USA with a team of part timers and musicians exposed that Brazilian team after Leonardo's red card.
We missed a trick in 94.

This once more brings me to the question of inform players. Emanuel Amuneke was our most inform and hottest prospect in 94, the Italians understood this and they took him out. Immediately this happened our attack was shut down. We basically managed just 1 shot on target all game.
I don't think this would have been the case if our attackers we in form as you have pointed out.

If these guys we have now , know they are undroppable, there won't be motivation for excellence.
The Nff gave them a semifinal target, if they are ready to meet that target, then they should start working.
Getting a new club this January will be a step in the right direction. Otherwise, it will be 94 all over again

I think you are being overly presumptuous that we could have won the world cup. Football is not mathematics where by if you beat mr A it doesn't necessarily mean you will defeat Mr B. Remember bulgaria that we defeated also beat Argentina so they are no guarantees we would have beaten them again.

Yes with hindsight we should have seen off the Italians but you make it sound as if the azzuri were completely rubbish. In my opinion it was tactical naivety and player irresponsibility (Okocha dribbling all over the place without purpose, oliseh's half hearted tackle that led to the Italians equalizer) that caused us that game not so much the loss of amunike and amokachii. After all they didn't do much before and after the goal.

I understand your concern that we go with the very best players that can represent us and the world cup and not sentimentally stick to who is not performing clubwise but who are the replacements?

Bro I know you want the best for the super eagles but don't allow too much skepticism to blind you to the potential of our team.

For sure our coach and players are not sacred cows that can't be criticized or questioned all some of us posters are saying is have a little faith at least our team deserves that much

Honestly I've just been laughing at all the orisirisi arguments.

Like everyone else I am concerned that apart from our china based strikers the rest of our european based forwards are not doing great club wise but what can we do nigeria is not a club side that can go out and buy players so we have to make due with what we have cuz no matter how you cut it apart from ighalo and martins non of our favorites is doing well so far this season.

Whether KC o, Iwobi o, awoniyi o, osimhen o, kayode o ati bebe lo. Thankfully rohr has so far built a good team not reliant on any individual player so I trust him to get us battle ready for the world cup.

Before I conclude this my post for the record so that we won't be mis informed again dominic solanke has not scored a single goal for liverpool this season anyone that disagrees should please post a link as evidence of the goal scored

Icon4s:
Yeah I recall Rufai was in goal but the whole team was poor that day. And I think he made a couple of saves that people were welcoming him back.

As for Willy, he was far down in the pecking order. Even a goalie like Emmanuel Babayaro was ahead of him. Willy Opara, Willy Agbonivbare and David Ngodigha were in the bad books of Nigerians due to their poor outings at the under aged competitions. They were not trusted. We took underaged competitions then very seriously cos those were the only means to participate in the WC. Angus Ikechi, Emeka Amadi and Lemmy Isa that did well at their respective age grade competitions just fizzled out.

The whole problem started when Ike was ruled out due to injury.

yes shorunmu's injury came at the worst possible time but going back to Rufai was the easiest and laziest option. Rufai had been out of the team for about 3 years plus and his career was winding down.

Icon4s:
William Okpara you mean.

William never impressed in the national colours.
He was not even in the national team radar at that time. You remember his outing at the 1987 WYC?

The other keeper was Wilfred Agbonivbare. This one too, we know his nick name to be Agbonibasket those days. That guy na basket. May his soul RIP

Ike Shoromu was out injured and it was time for Abiodun Baruwa to show the stuff he was made of after missing out on the 1996 Olympics party due to age discrepancy. But he made some calamitous errors especially against Yugoslavia. And we got whipped 3-0 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. We followed that game with a 5-1 thumping by the Netherlands.

The coaching crew led by Bora Milutinovic found no local league keeper capable for stepping into those gloves and rather preferred to recall Rufai.

yes thanks for the correction Willy okpara. How can he fail to impress when he wasn't given a chance to keep in goal for the senior national team. Apart from youth team level do you remember any time he was given a chance with the super eagles which he messed up?

By the way Rufai was in goal when the Netherlands thrashed us 5-1 in that pre-world cup qualifier