₦airaland Forum

Bro did you watch it? It was Ekong and not Balogun that supposedly kept him onside. But that thing was close. Only an eagle eyed individual may have let that chance stand. Mikels goal against Algeria, till today some Algerians would tell you he was offside while others would say he was not.

BascoVanVeli:
thank u the first half was a mess. Honestly I don't know how some people watch football. Leon played the man onside for the goal that was ruled off and he also got manhandled when Zambia missed a sitter around 30mins.

My takings on the game. Just as I expected, Nigeria won but not how I had hoped it would be. I thought the Zambians would have loved to attack more from the beginning which would have opened up more spaces for us, but hey they remembered what we did to CMR and didn't come out until the second half precisely after the goal. Who knows maybe Zambia were hoping for a draw to try and see if they could trounce CMR in their final game and hope for a Nigerian loss.

To judge a players performance you need to combine both halves of the game not just one half. Therefore, it is very unfair to say Mikel Agu was poor in this game. If this game was only a first half game then he was very very very pisssssss pooooooor. But in the second half he grew into the game and played very well.

I'm thinking Aina has taken Echejile's shirt for good. Aina started reciprocating the same optimum value our RB was enjoying under Shehu. As for Shehu, if you don't leave Cyprus for a better league by first week of August next year, sack your agent and get you a new agent that would take your career to the next level. Shehu is a damn good MF. He made Iwobi's substitution really look good because Iwobi was an extra body in the midfield while Shehu ran the show alone in the right wing for the last 20mins. I don't know who is more energetic btw he and Onazi. This leads to the next point on Onazoi.

Onazi! Onazi!! Onazi!!! That guy is really disrespected and underrated by Naija fans. Where I watched the game got into a panic mode when Onazi got injured. It should never be so!. His energy level and consistent pressing makes him a very valuable assets to teams. The only sub for him is Shehu, but I'd never trade Shehu from RB to the MF cos he's very good in the RB. Rohr should start looking towards Azubuike Okechukwu as a replacement to sit on the bench for Onazi.

Lets face the truth, except injuries, Ndidi, Onazi and Mikel would always be the starting MF.

Overall, this game was of a very high quality and any neutral fan would have enjoyed the game. But why can't Nigeria have a good playing surface. Today it's good, tomorrow e don dabaru. Look at CMR and their lush green stadium. If we can't get the required training from Europe or SA, at least we can go learn from CMR on how to maintain a lush green pitch. It's becoming ridiculous and it's affecting our game. Little wonder the 2 games we played on a smooth field have been our best games (against CMR in Uyo and Yaounde).

No sane coach would make wholesome changes to a team all in the name of trying out new players. If it was in a competition proper where games are back to back then you can. Qualifying games are like get togethers and far apart so you want to try your strong team always. I expect only 3 or 4 changes to the starting line up against Algeria. I don't see the CB pairing altered at all.
My squad for Algeria:

Ezenwa GK
Ebuehi RB - 1st change
Aina LB - 2nd change
Ekong CB
Balogun CB
Ndidi DM
Ogu CM
Mikel AM
Iwobi LW - 3rd change
Moses - RW
Nwaekeme - ST - 4th change

Bro na maths me I de do. Assuming we draw (God forbid!), then Zambia would be +2 and Naija +7. If we lose by 3 we'd go to -4 and if they win by 3 they'd go to +5 and edge us out. So I don't wanna go thru all this calculator shenanigans in November, so let's jist kpuf them 2mrw. So Zambia doesn't really need truck load of goals per say. It depends on how and if we decide to 'tian'.

daveP:
na Zambia i dey tok of o. na dem ni 3 unreplied goals. well, its shocking most of their hope is in their Mweene and not their defence. wondering what an IHEANACHO & IWOBI would do when scattering that def.

If Zambia then wins by 3 and we lose by 3 Zambia would then be going. Just want us to finish it here. There's nothing as bad as playing a team that has nothing to gain from a game and blooding new players that wana impress. Don't wanna play an Algerian side with nothing to play for than pride at home.

daveP:
Lol. we have +7, there have +2. meaning they have to score 3 unreplied goals to smell ice. for every goal we score, they'll have to score 3+1....

Even if papi Rohr fielded team b, we cant lose by that margin. But they would!

His last game against Besiktas showed great improvements. His passes were crispy and he broke up play a lot. But as usual he picked a yellow card and was promptly substituted.

daveP:
if i start to defend him, it will lead to 20+pages of argument and counter argument, just like the legendary argument.

HE TRUTHFULLY HAS IMPROVED.

That was Esiti's introduction that slowed and stifled any kinda threat the Zambians had in Ndola. I don't think Ogu even made the bench in that game. Subs were Musa, Esiti and I think Shehu if I can recollect well.
But I do get your points regarding Ogu. I remember he and Mikel over bossed the game against the Uruguayan team in that 2013 confeds.

Daejoyoung:
Remember that Uruguay match, how he bossed the midfield with Mickel or the SA friendly in the Mandela cup, even in the game against Zambia, his introduction slowed down the tempo of the rampaging Zambians in that last 15mins.

Thank you! You just said it all. Algeria shot themselves in the foot. In Lusaka Algeria had loads of chances. On a good day, Algeria would have scored 6 goals. Had a cheat pk declined. There was an early chance after Zambia just hit the post from a corner kick, Algeria just went straight and created a 4 to beat 2 counter, but that bubbly pitch killed their passing as ended that chance. Algeria had like 3 more chances in the 1st half and had never ending chances in the 2nd half.
In Constantine, Algeria missed an early pk, missed loads of chances. It was just luck and Mwene that helped Zambia.
I have watched that Zambian game vs Algeria many times, and any coach that watches that game would just laugh...

Daejoyoung:
They weren't that good against Algeria even in Lusaka.

I really didn't see what he posted about Zambia's strength cos I skipped so many pages due to the legendary argument. However, no one should be afraid of an opponent based o their performance against another opponent. Before we played CMR,
You would assume they were world champions, before we played Algeria, one would assume they had Messi, Mess I, Ronaldo, Modric, and Ramos in their team. Only people that down play the strength of the Nigerian team are just Nigerians due to what I term as "see finish". See ehn, if I was an opponent and I saw a team with Iwobi, Moses, Mikel even Iheanacho I go dread them for Africa. Senegal, Morocco, and CIV would accord Nigeria the ultimate respect and wish to play other teams instead. How much more Zambia with players from Zanaco et al. This SE team don suffer sha... Ask the Zambians that brag if they were to bet and realistically hope for monetary gains from such bet, I swear, 200 percent of their fans would bet on Naija winning. So don't let anybody tench your mind with how strong Zambia is. Chaiiii na Zambia we de talk of. Algeria see what u have caused, by losing to Zambia. We go cure their craze on Saturday.

safarigirl:
I watched their games against Algeria, both of the games, their wingers are good yes, but their midfield is useless.

Echiejile may be a weak link, but if V Moses is working on the same wing, he can bring in his defensive abilities and mute them down.

Once again, it could be a case of overrating them, because the opposition matters a great deal on what a team looks like during play.

As long as Rohr has worked on the wingers, I do not think those guys would give our CBs much trouble.

Maybe some people are now seeing them as Brazil which is laughable, but considering Algeria looked like Tahiti most of the time, I can understand why such people were seeing things.

I know how many times Algerians lost balls that simply shouldn't have been lost and their passing was horrific, it's like they had zero team chemistry and simply couldn't find each other in the final third. That was their biggest issue

I know many people will not regard my input because oga forgiveness has put the fear of God in them as he's wont to do....but I do believe we tackled this panic last month and icon4s put it to rest.

None of us on this thread want to be in Russia more than any of the guys on that team and most of them have never been to any major tournament, so, for once in this country, it would be nice if a little optimism was expressed rather than allowing rabblerousers get into your head

Alhassan scored today

My only problem with thus us that we lose Vistor Moses's versatility. Against CMR, V.Moses was a planning winger as he was always roaming. Due to this I'd say Iwobi sits for Moses Simon to be the out and out winger.

Mickael2:
I think Iwobi played very well today as part of a front three playing out wide. It is just a matter of what the coach wants and if he wants to retain possession(like I know he will) then Iwobi for me, we don't need two wingers who will be trying to play totally on the wings. In context this was how Barca won their last treble, Neymar was stationed out wide as the only true winger on the team(VicMo can do that) while Messi was always coming into the midfield as a midfielder and of course Messi does not exactly track back(almost identical to what Iwobi can do). I think this system will work wonders if Ndidi can be technical enough to cover Iwobi's wings when we are without possession just like Rakitic used to do(Onazi should not do it at all because that will leave an empty space in the middle)

You're one of the few realists on this forum. I score the list a vey high 93%. I would remove Tammy cos he ain't playing for Naija. The mess caused may lead to some kinda animosity btw he and NFF handlers.
Also, I would not even put Joel Obi near that list, he may injure while the team is in the plane to Russia. Lol
No loki is going. So I'd confidently give his slot to Ebuehi...
Tammy's position would be btw Success and Kayode...
But overall, almost accurate list.

elyte89:
Infact dis is d list going to world cup if we qualify and barring no injuries to dem
Keepers
(1) Vincent enyeama(if he gets a club b4 world cup)
(2) Daniel apkeyi
(3) Ezenwa/alampasu
Defenders
(4) troost ekong
(5) Leon balogun
(6) Aina
(7) shehu abdullahi
( elderson echiejile(weda u like it or not,he's going)
(9) any good local player dt proofs his worth at chan and also gets playing regularly mite go(will act ad back up to echiejile,d name I dont knw.
(10) chidozie awaziem/omeruo(if he starts playing scintillating football at his club in turkey
Midfielder
11...john obi Mikel
12....eddy onazi
13...Wilfred ndidi
14 john ogu/Joel obi/alhassan Ibrahim
15 O.Etebo
Strikers
16..Iwobi Alex
17...Moses simon
18...Vic moses
19....odion ighalo
20...Ahmed musa(weda u like it or not)
21...iheanacho
22..Tammy Abraham if he switches
23 Anthony/onyekuru will battle d last spot

Before CMR everyone was talking of how the pace of CMR would kill us. Bassagog Bassagog, Moukandjo Moukandjo was all I heard. My brother pace met pace on that day. That pace you saw from the Zambians against Algeria was cos Algeria didn't have their own pace to trouble them. There's a kinda pace you'd be faced with that you'd have to channel most of your own pace in defending. Zambia need to be worried about the 2 Moses. If God wan come punish Zambia to the fullest that day, and allow Rohr mistakenly play Aina in LB, then it would be the same pace that attacks that would also defend against Zambia.... Bro leave matter for Matthias, Zambia would see the kinda speed they have never seen before in this qualifiers. Every coach has complained against Nigeria's style due to our coordinated speedy plays.

Mickael2:
not that we won't attack, no. Have you seen the pace of these Zambians on the wing? Coming up against them on the wing will be a serious problem because we don't have speedy fullbacks who can cope, so the idea is to make sure the bulk of the game is played in the middle of the pitch were we have our own advantage(s) and this can be achieved easily by playing Iwobi(not that MS isn't a good option but the opponent determines the team for me)

If this team goes near CHAN they would be chewed with draining by the northern and southern African teams

This is the worst kinda display of football ever. Even in my VCs cup back in the university we played way better than this. Now I see why Ghanian and Nigerian clubs are playing rubbish on the continent. These are very poor players. And to think that people use their last breadth to defend the invitation of these players to the SE. In fact Rohr, if you invite any outfield NPFL player to SE, Also I u have my blessings to fire Rohr. How can people that call themselves professional players not be able to pick out a simple pass. Must they always punt the ball for every pass? Gosh!

The way u said Dipo Dina stadium, someone would think you referring to a stadium that equates to the Mercedes Benz arena in Atl. Person no go know say na one loki stadium for ogun state. Lol. I feel uyo stadium should be the minimum standard for any state that decides to build or renovate a stadium. I heard Lagos is planning on renovating onikan. We go de sidon to see plan.

soetanoreoluwa:
Yes I know it's not update... All I am after is the capacity and the infrastructure on ground... Saw someone said we don't have the infrastructure to host...


Even some Stadium are undergoing some rehab eg aba Stadium that's taking heaven to be completed


I didn't even mention. Dipo Dina Stadium that host one of the U17 world cup in 2009

I have seen this document somewhere. There are some that even grade karakanda and New (fake) Jos stadium. You and i know this document is outdated and only references the past glory of these stadium. Only uyo, AA stadium ph, and Abj cut it

soetanoreoluwa:
5 Liberation stadium
6 Teslim
7 UJ
8 sani abacha
9 Aburbaka Tafawa balewa
10

Talent no de hide. If you're good, the World would know. Alhassan went to Europe and is playing 90 mins, Ifeanyi Matthews is now the Lord of Lillestrom. These guys were in the npfl and were always talked about. I hope Odey starts playing for Zurich

The guy that scored against Algeria in Algeria. He's a very good player and full of running. One of their shining lights from their under20 team

soetanoreoluwa:
Who is he?

WC alert... Ewooooo, Patson Daka just made his senior team debut for Red Bulls Salzburg... Hmmm. He's really a talent sha

But I remembered CAF using 2 artificial pitches in 2015 in Equatorial Guinea. I don't know if that was only allowed due to the short period....

Icon4s:
Teslim Balogun pitch is not acceptable by AFCON standards. it is astro-turf.

With the level CAF is tying to set for AFCON, only uyo, adokie amesiamaka in PH, Abuja, and teslim would qualify. If they decide to renovate National stadium in Lagos it could also meet the standard. Those Enugu, Calabar, kano stadiums are too archaic.

whizola:
pls how we Nigeria struggle to put 6 standard stadium together . from kano to Kaduna to abuja to river ,uyo , Lagos ,akure and Ibadan in the south west, that of Edo not exclude

Truth is that people feel you must agree to their views all the time. If you don't share their views the next thing you see would be words like Babylonians, Bullocks, Lobotomy etc. It makes no sense. If everybody had the same views the World would have only one country with a single name. The way one person interpretes a fact would be different from the way another person interpretes it. So if some people don't see certain players as their kinda player it's their opinion. You either move on or comment without making someone feel they posting rubbish.
But no matter how anyone gets upset moms are no go areas.
That's why I post something but if someone tries to counter in a rude manner I just bone and move on. I hardly comment except it's coming close to an SE game cos all I always read are insults. We should learn to not always try and force your views down other people's throats. Just say yours and move on. We should try to be civil on here....

I remember one lyric from Iyanya's song "from the bed to the bedroom", Musa has gone from the bench to under 23, hope he does not drag Iheanacho along. Though I couldn't rate him today cos people would say how many minutes did he play. But Oumar Niasse entered within a shorter period and scored 2ce for Everton. Well those Nacho's goal scoring stats that we so hold dearly are diminishing with each passing game if aggregated over a game period. Can't remember when last he scored a club goal but he's been playing. So we shouldn't look at those prior stats as a standalone except we also incorporate this season's stats which is almost as equal to abysmal. I hope he picks up cos I have so much belief in him. But time waits for no one...

I am disturbed with the continuing bench role of Iheanacho. I don't care if he's just coming back from injury. It's been almost 3 weeks. He needs to start playing or fans would start classifying him as a big signing flop. If he enters today, please he has to score, I mean asap....

I can't fault Pinnick in this Tammy's issue. Knowing Naija papers and journalists, everything is a damn competition to them. What may have happened is Pinnick would not have explicitly said we have landed the boy. He may have told journalists in whatever state they were the other day that we met with the boy as I was visiting my padi who happens to be Tammy's dad and the outcome is looking positive and shown them the pics. Trust me in the eagerness to be the 1st to break the news, the journalist would label it as Tammy Abraham agrees to play for Nigeria. This is what I'm thinking happened. To Nigerian journalist "the outcome looks positive" is the same as "he has agreed". Is it not Naija papers that called Rabiu Ali's goal against Benin as screamer.... lmaooooo

I don't think Pinnick would want to jeopardize his friendship with his boyhood friend by claiming his son said what he didn't say. Cos if I'm the one, I'd call Pinnick and be like "bro wet in u go yan for Naija, see pressure wey u don put for my pikin".

Now to what England can do in terms of tying him. England have 2 games till the qualifiers end and need one win to qualify. If they win their next game, they could call up Tammy from the under21s for the last game. If they do that, be rest assured he's going to play even if it's 1min of injury time and that would be it. If for some reason they lose their next game and need the last one to qualify, then Tammy would be available until the Euro qualifiers begin next year. I don't expect England to go through the playoffs for WC. They are 5 points ahead and must qualify as top.

NFF and Pinnick must discreetly submit the papers to FIFA provided he's not cap tied after October this year. It'll just surprise England when they receive the form from either FIFA or NFF asking them to approve the request.

Henceforth, NFF should be quiet in its allegiance switch dealings. Take a cue from Senegal and CIV. You don't hear of it till they have invited the player.

Makes sense. No wahala

Humility017:
my bro relax...
you are taking things too serious...
the best per se is subjective....
you can hardly omit the club name...when listing 100 best clubs in Europe...
so relax...
my reason for that...is because of their value as Austrian champions...

Why do we hype things when Naija is involved? Just look at the bolded. I dare you to go on a non-Naija forum and call Austria Wien "one of Europe's best clubs. So when they are calling roll call for Europe's Elites, Austria Wien go raise hand? Let's fear God abet in these hypes...

Humility017:
good...at least we now have an AM being groomed....in one of Europe best clubs..

I remember telling done guy here that Moses won't start. Surprised that he did and he responded with a very solid display. I have been happily shamed and I'm glad he's risen to the competition. But he should not take his foot off that gas cos Zappacosta is waiting and breathing down his neck

Do you Wana bet on that. He'd play but he WILL NOT start. Zapacosta is a thoroughly good player. He defends better but on the attacking front, they're almost same. Hence he'd get the nod ahead of Moses. I just pray Zapacosta loses form along the way. This is the first real competition Moses has had and he doesn't respond very good to competitions ranging from Liverpool to WestHam.

junnyjake:
Moses would start against Arsenal.

Guess what? Maybe if Africa had the luxury of having all 54 countries placed in 9 groups then CMR, ALG, and NGR would not be in the same group. But 54 were trimmed to 20 teams and placed in 5 groups, what do u expect. Your comparison of Euro and Afro qualifiers hold no water cos one is a bigger pool and the other a smaller pool. A good comparison is Euro cup, in 04, we had Czech, Holland and Germany, In 08, we had France, Italy and Holland, in 12, we had Germany, Portugal, Denmark and Holland all in the same group. So you see the smaller the pool of teams the high likelihood of having bigger teams pooled together irrespedctive of rankings.

jotey:
abegi caf no get sense

we are talking about African representatives here with their football pedigree to represent Africa

look at group A and look at our group and tell if caf has sense

forget ranking here no matter how england and Italy are low in ranking uefa will never place England Italy and Germany in the same qualifying group

Reading with 4 pages to go I couldn't continue reading till I posted cos it would have been the same fear fear comments I'd be reading on and on. It's cos we are Nigerians we ni de fear this Nigerian team. We just took our foot off the pedal against CMR and missed a couple of chances, if not we would have been 3 goals up in CMRs house. Truth is if I were Zambia I'd fear thus Nigerian side to the bone marrow. All of a sudden, Zambia has turned to best team in the world. Infact every team is the best team when it comes to Nigeria. Against Swaziland, everyone said " those guys can win us at home". Against Ethiopia in 2014 qualifiers, people remembered the names of the Ethiopian players and I had to look through FIFA player of the year to see if either Shimeles Bekele or Saladin Said had just won the Apoty. Everyone reminded us how Mahrez gives people broken waist after each game, same was said about Bassagog, Danagog, Aboubakargog. I started asking myself "Abi Naija just de go answer present for these games ni". We would beat Zambia if they hope to come out to win us and put their destiny in their hands. We would be so devastating on the day that Zambia won't know what hit them. We may draw if they decide to sit back and take a point back and hope that Algeria win us while they try to win CMR and overtake us on GD. This may seem the most feasible path for them. But we are currently on +7 and Zambia on +2. God forbid that we draw Zambia and then lose to Algeria by 3 0, then our +7 goes to +4. The most I see Zambia winning CMR may be 3 0. So we mist try not to lose by more than 2 0 if were ever decide that evil spirit wants to overtake us. But I don't see us losing to this Algeria. And I am very very very very sure we would beat Zambia in Uyo cos they would fall for the bait and come to attack us in Uyo and that would be their undoing.
Guys let's not fear any team this is Super Eagles abeg.

I see nothing wrong with the way we played. It's not every time you go all out guns blazing. Cameroon needed the game more and haf to come out. Except Ezenwa's error and a shot saved by Ezenwa on the line, CMR didn't really trouble us. We were very patient and CMR made sure they defended deep to prevent any counters from happening knowing how fast we could break. The people concerned said they aimed for 4 points and got the 4 points now we de complain that they didn't collect the 4 points with swag! Who does that. On Instagram, the players are all singing and jhirating to Tony One week's jams and we de complain for here. Chai some Naija people can greedy sha.