₦airaland Forum

Gosh!!! I can't take this sentimental analysis no more. There are some people that would defend certain players even if they show 2 owngoals in a game. Omeruo just proved to me today that he's internationally better than Awaziem. Guys international footy is not moimoi ooooo. Awaziem started getting jittery when we were faced with counters. Omeruo would never. Nobody cam ever convince me that cos Azuibike plays in Turkey he's not good. Taaaa! That boy is a MF Comptroller General. Depending on Aina's switch, Shehu should go to LB. Boy's a damn good player. He's just not been lucky to move to a good club. Against CMR, I don't wanna hear Iwobi and 1st 11 in d same statement. MF would be Ndidi Etebo and Mikel. Attack would be V.Moses, Aluko and Ideye. I'm not discarding Iheanacho but if we keep goimg to play 3 attack, Ideye is a beast in it. They way he plays, his take-ons, his football intelligence is well suited for a 3 man attack.

This match exposed Rohr's preference for only one formation. Makijg like for loke subs when you're down.
On another note I have never seen a country thatdiscards it's older players due to the emergence of new talents. I know of Naija fans were French fans, they'd tell Koscienly to go and die, tell Giroud to go represent the Village team. On top yeye talent and newspaper derived imaginary transfers that never materialize, we go de front.
We play this nonsense against CMR, I'd happily wager on a CMR double victory and even make more money by betting that we ain't gonna score CMR. We hype average talents too much. It has gotta stop.

Truth is we over hype our players. Truth be took we are hyping bunch of green horns done academy players, some bench warmers, others unknown club bangalees. Truth is if we had half the talent pool nations like Senegal and CIV have, this thread would have reached 5000 pages cos people woyld be hyping to high heavens. We hype everyone that plays everywhere. I'm reading someone did Iwobi should play as a 10. I can't remember one through or good pass iwobi has given for us lately even in this game. He came to the middle at some point and kept doing this stupid no looking passes or flicks to no mans land. That he plays or warms the bench at Arsenal doesn't mean he should start for Naija. I'm already at the point where I'm looking past Iwobi in our team.
This team is still labored in passing the ball swiftly. Happened in Algeria and Senegal's game. Still happened today. I watched Congos derby today, watched the CIV game, watched d CMR's game and now Senegal's game, all games were fast paced, swift passing. Rohr needs to comb everywhere for a good MF combo. If we play d way we played against Algeria and SA against CMR, we would be roundly trashed home and away.

But just to chip in that means it was worse of for Madagascar playing against unified fans for the whole of Sudan as opposed to Rivers Utd who played against a portion of fans loyal to a club. Although the stadium was filled in both scenario, I'm just trying to understand the logic of what you just said.

BascoVanVeli:
Don't be naïve, Rivers united played a single club in Sudan and not Sudan as a whole. Those fans did not represent the whole of Sudan.

I knew he was NEVER going to pay for us. You see these guys Solanke, Lookman, Onomah and Ojo they would NEVER play for Nigeria even if there's no 3 Lions callup by the time they are 30yrs. They only see themselves as Nigerians because their parents told them that they the parents come from Nigeria. That's the only connection they have. They don't care much about Naija. So let's erase the team sheet fantasies with these guys.

I would have added Tomori but his earlier romance with Canada and subsequent switch to England shows he has a tendency to be an "ashawo/aristo". I think whoever offers him a better prospect at senior team level would get his services. His preferential order would be England, Canada and Slightly Naija.

tbaba1234:
Nigeria is actually short in defense. There is plenty talent in other areas.

My line up:
Akpeyi

Shehu. Troost. Awaziem. Echejile


Ndidi(DM)
Onazi(CM)
Musa. Etebo
Iwobi(AM)

Iheanacho



Depending on how the game goes here are my subs:
1) Although, I do not envisage a scenario where we'd be trailing and need a goal to equalize or win, but in the event we trail - Musa (Kayode), Onazi (Onyekuru), Awaziem (Alhassan).

2) Assuming we are winning by a slim margin and we are hanging on for dear life - Iwobi (Onyekuru), Musa (Ogu), Shehu (Omeruo).

3) Last, foreseable, and best scenario is if we are trouncing them like 3 0 first half - Musa (Onyekuru), Iheanacho (Oshimehen), Shehu (Ebuehi).

Thanks.

I beg to differ. Most Austrian first team players are predominantly bundesliga based or EPL. From the top of my head, Fuchs, Prodl, Wimmer, Aurnatovic EPL; Alaba, Baumatlinger, Dragovic & Shcopf Bundesliga; Janko is not Austrian based. But I get your point tho that they may have played in Austrian league at one point in their career.

goldfish80:
I hope you realise Austria qualified for the last Euro nations cup, winning 9 games at a spin and drew only once out of 10 games. At some point last year, they made the Fifa top 10.
All these achieved with mostly players from their league.
You may say their league is weak, but it doesn't change the fact that something is brewing in that country. I rate the Austrian league ahead of the Scandinavian league.
I honestly do not see a gulf in class between the Austrian league and Belgian league. They are on par with Belgian and Swiz leagues.

They have recorded massive growth.

The other dude is correct. Etebo played from the wing. Mikel always played behind Sadiq Umar. Usman and Azuibuike pivoted the deeper MF roles. Etebo was mainly on the left wing, but occasionally switched with Imoh. But Etebo was on the wing for 90% of the tournament he played.

Mickael2:
nope he played behind the main striker

Of the Nigerian players, Lookman looks most likely to play for the 3 lions for a long period because he has a skillset most English teams never seem to have. Prior to this competition, I always thought Lookmam was just a winger, but he's a very deadly AM - glides easily past players like Iniesta, shoots accurately, and keeps attacking momemtum flowing. The closest to the him in the 3 Lions is Sterling but Sterling is on the wings, so England would be happy to have someone close to a Wilshere. Ejaria looks really limited, and "yes" he kills attacks a lot with unnecessary dribbles and side passes. Would not play for 3 Lions no more than 5 caps. Fikayo is better off playing for Canada since that's where his heart is if and when he decides to move on from England. Truth is North American qualifiers can give you a better chance to the WC than Africa that seems really tough. Solanke would never play for Naija even if England tells him he would never play for them. You can tell the ones that don't give a damn. Onomah de parol with some Naija boys and could possibly play for Naija. But Tottenham is becoming a big club and they now give a lions share of players for the 3 Lions, he could ride on that wave and with luck and form on his side, he'd get maybe 20 to 30 caps for them. So nothing foe Naija.
Seyi Ojo no just sabi in my view. Je may be very good ti some but he's not just my kinda player. Don't see him playing for England. May want to opt for Naija in his 29s to 30s.
Lookman is miles ahead of these players.

maidaboi:
why you Want break forgiveness heart?

Every National team selection has a pattern. Coaches don't just bench existing players merely because a new entrant is in-form. France played a friendly yesterday and Giroud still started ahead of Mbappe and Lacazette. In terms of National teams chemistry is very limited due to shorter training camps. So coaches tend to stick with existing starting 11. That's why I know I can confidently select my 11 for June10.
Akpeyi; Shehe RB, Elderson LB, Omeruo and Ekong CB; Ndidi DM, Onazi CM, Etebo AM; Iwobi RW + free roamer, Musa RW+LW, Iheanacho ST.

Free Roamer means, he'd not be pinned to that RW all game. He'd interchange with Etebo and Musa a lot. I'm 98% sure that this is the team.

Tho Iheanacho is not lesser of a talent than Mbappe; however, this past season Mbappe has achieved more than Nacho just because of the trust of their respective coaches. Nacho would thrive well at Westham cos Bilic WANTS him. A coach's trust is very key in a players development. I can never ever buy that Iheanacho is not as good as Mbappe cos they have not been given equal oppprtunities in the same comparative season.

http://livetv.sx/enx/showvideo/468672_bursaspor_genclerbirligi/

This is the highlights of Bursaspor vs Genclerbirligi. I only watched it cos Bursaspor is a club directly in a relegation fight with Obabona's Rizespor. Bursaspor is at home and lost this game in the dying second. Watch what led to the winning goal for the away team. Assuming this was Naija league, let's be sincere - do you think any person (fans/players) affiliated with the away side would walk out of the home stadium alive? I would appreciate responses.

I would attempt to answer it first. My take is 1) it would be in the away sides best interest that the guy that square played the ball never did so. 2) Per adventure he mistakenly square played the ball, it would be very imperative that the supposed goal scorer reduces his speed as not to get anywhere near that ball so as not to score. Cos if that ball enters the home teams net, that's death sentence for most away individuals in the stadium. That's how I view events would have played out assiming it was npfl.

Please, the EPL fixtures are all there to see. You can go as far back as any season of your choice and show me a weekend where there was only 1 away goal and no away point... Please, our leagie ain't it. I notice you try hard to support the league, that's very good of you. Infact I never missed any highlights last season on the npfl YouTube page. I hated highlights in Abia and Heartland grounds due to their bad surface. The league has done talents but whatever makes home teams always win is becoming worrisome. One season, every team would just finsish with 38 points by winning all of their home games. Before you go admit asking how much i know of the league, the best I do now is that I follow almost all the team twitter handles, Mowiz, Mitch and Mekus Mekus handles. Our league has a problem, lets face it. You cannot statistically create a betting odd with the npfl data. Today Enyimba are champions, next Pillars, next Rangers, now Plateau utd are gunning for it. What special additions did Plateau make to their teams to make them strong. Eg Monaco / Tottenham's success can be attributed to youth; Leipzig, Chelsea, PSG and ManCity can be attributed to financial prowress. In Naija we no de know wetin de make championship team fight relegation next season while non entities fight for championship.

Danycrusoe:
there are also times like that in the EPL where away teams perform poorly even the big teams

And while many countries are now looking at us as a benchmark and using our templates to develop their cadet teams, guess what we are doing - JONZING. I hope we get back to those long camping periods that helped Manu Garba pick a strong, skillful and cohesive unit. B4 we played a game it was not a matter of if they were going to win, it was a matter of by how many goals were they going to win with. Only CIV had that teams mugu button. All others were sent to the cleaners. We should utilize all the youth competitions staged in every corner of Naija to our advantage.

TheSuperNerd:
Looollll.... Very true. I was on one of their sites and I saw many comments from the fans condemning the team as one lacking enough cohesion.


Several of their fans admitted to the individual quality talents in the fold of the black starlets but kept insisting that the team lacked teamwork and had more players who always wanna showboat and play to the gallery.

Their game with Guinea in the group stage hammered home their points somewhat.


Well shaa...... The Ghanaians are obviously looking at Nigeria as the benchmark especially the Nigerian class of 2013 and even the class of 2015. They believe this team should aspire to such heights with the talents they have got in the team.

Ghana still have a couple of months to try make the team more cohesive. They have a fine bunch of talents in the team... but the fans must cool down and not scatter the morale of the boys.

Please what's Kekechi's snapchat handle? Been looking for it for ages. Thanks in advance

Nigerdeltaboi:
kelechi abeg don't follow iwobi round London o cos this una Snapchat ehnnnn

That ball could have made it to Nacho easily. It depends on the player's mentality while with the ball. If Onyekuru decided to pass, he would never have ran so fast like that. With the speed he was on, only one outcome - shoot. But if he had gone slowly then he could easily have cut the ball back and then picked the right square play. It all depended on his frame of mind while running with the ball.

TheSuperNerd:
Come on Sir Basco.... not like they were all lined up in linear fashion and forming a wall akin to China's great wall....

Two defenders were already behind Nacho with only one keeping up slightly and keeping him onside... Had Onyekuru placed the pass on time, it would have gotten into Nacho's path....

Bros, forget NFF. These guys that believe u need to be in a big club b4 they can hustle for u. They don't see the talent in an epl championship player, how much more a player in dutch div2. I seen his highlights and he's quite good.

tbaba1234:
Cyriel Dessers identifies as a Nigerian on his Instagram.

@ Supernerd, Don't worry, ANS is saying BS this time. Iheanacho is not in Paris. I don't get why those 2 sites keep fighting. I don't think Owngoal strives to counter ANS, but ANS always tries to rubbish every news on Owngoal. Even though Owngoal reports some fabricated stories, I know they are not the ones always looking to pick a fight.

You think that Schengen visa would help. you may get visa and not know the location of the game. That's how secretive our games have become these days. E come be like to see SE play you must join Ogboni cult. lol

adegwurulez:
I wonder what we have to do to see super eagles play these days. Get a schengen visa maybe.

If COrsica was playing CIV or Senegal, I promise you that the game would be on TV. Senegal played Naija and there was no live viewing. Senegal played CIV later in Paris, game was on tv. Naija would play Togo in same Paris, I promise you that there would be no link and the game would not be on tv.

BascoVanVeli:
And Pinnick is the media director of African football.

So if it Ain't WC, ANC, or any of the following qualifiers, we cant see SEE play? I feel that's very disheartening to know.

IS the link posted working for anyone? Mine is a 2min video?

If you rate playing in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Co. as exports, then kudos to you. Is it by the quantity of the export or the quality? Please look at the main Euro countries , the contingent of each Franco phone countries trumps ours. Is it Belgium, France, Scandanavia, even England, Senegal has a nigger presence than Naija. Is Italy where we have maybe 5. We shoukd accept, Naija players are finding it tough moving to good leagues. Remove our core 30 to 35 players, then you need to start going to obscure places to find Naija players. Even the Turkey we are shouting about, Franco phone countries have a lot of players in Turkish teams.

maidaboi:
yet
we are the biggest exporter in africa

Watching Austria Wien and Salsburg, it beats my imagination that there are 2 malian players from their 2015 under 20 and 17 teams playing for Salsburg - Haidara and Samasekkou... I want to think Nigerian agents are very wicked people. These Francophone national players have no problems moving to Europe. In fact, Europeans prefer to deal with them as there would be No: 3rd party agreement, future law suit, greed, CAS case, etc. It goes on and on. If I'm a Naija young player, I'd strive hard to go to either, CIV, Senegal, Mali, or Guinea to get scouted. Or to a larger extent Ghana sef. Our agents are the worst individuals to have anything to do with. If they're not getting a certain amount of OWO, nothing for u as a player.

Lol. I feel you. But on Venezuela, except something different is happening to their football, i just don't rate them as a footballing nation. Never qualified for senior WC. Portugal with a strong squad can be beaten by an African country, but it ain't gonna be as easy as Zambia made it look. You know deep down European nations have started acting some type of way to fifa youth cups which i feel is not cool on their part.

TheSuperNerd:
Relax..... looooollll... no one is hyping the Zambians.... We will roast them okay.... I am super sure of that. I am only pointing out their shining lights in this tourney.... it is not everyday they get to produce super talents like their west-african brothers.... (especially like Nigeria) so I was just commending them.

But on Portugal U-20... I can assure you that this squad Portugal brought is their best.... Or are you saying that an African team don't stand a chance against Portugal even when they come with their best? come on man... dont take the shine off their (Zambia's) victory.... they beat Portugal and that is now part of history as far as The U-20s go.

Germany may be missing a few starlets but in Ochs, Torunarigha and a couple more, they have similar players who featured in the U-19 Euros of last year several of which play bundesliga football or bundesliga 2 soccer.


In Conclusion... Zambia should be respected but yes... Nigeria is Africa's most dreaded on paper (maybe after Senegal for now.... but for the long run, it will be Nigeria) and the future of another Golden Era in African football coz the rise of Nigerian super quality talents all over the place just don't wanna stop and it is super exciting...

In world football today... In terms of an abundance of rising top young talents... The likes of France from Europe, Nigeria from Africa and Brazil/Uruguay from South America lead the way.... not forgetting Portugal from Europe also.


And about Venezuela... lol... you dont know that team. Soteldo, penanrenda, and co are top young talents and their team is quite a unit but not unbeatable.

Truth is, Germany could never beat them 4-0 not to mention 7-0.

My dear thank you. I don't know what it is, but Europe and South America are no longer taking these Fifa youth cups serious. The days Spain, Brazil and Argentina sent strong teams, are long gone. I read people saying England took a strong team to this cup, hell naw! A really strong English team would include Rashford, Hollgate, demarai Gray, or is it France, they should have Mbappe, Dembele, kimpembe et al. The validity of this cup is fast dying down. Remember when Argentina repeatedly took strong teams to under 20 wc? Even if Naija had gone, I'd support them cos it's my nation but I'd know deep down that this is a BS competition. Then to now use these smallies to threaten Naija? Chai Naija don suffer. Just watch how Algeria would tear them in August.

safarigirl:
If Zambia like, they can draft their entire U20 team to play against us, na Mikel go show them the difference between youth and experience.


The way you guys give anybody levels in this our group sometimes ehn, instead of us to watch Cameroon playing Confeds in June, una dey yarn all these small small children for U20. Unless they have an Mbappe and a Jesus, I no send them.

Countries wey even get Mbappe and Jesus no qualify for U20, just goes to show the quality of opposition in this tournament this year

I no longer take fifa youth tourneys serious. Uefa and SA don't take it serious anymore. Africa and North America are the ones still taking fifa youth cups serious. If Europe e.g. Portugal decided to come with their best under 20, do you think Zambia would have had a corner kick against them not to talk of a goal? If Germany pulled their real under 20 team, I promise you that Venexuela would have eaten the 7 goals they gave Vanuatu. Look at most of the African teams that have done well in under 20, not more than 5 in the whole team have meaningful careers. All these initial gragra Zambia is doing, you may only remember some of their names cos of how funny it sounds not cos of their career. Naija would trash Zambia in Uyo even if they camp this their under 20 team plus Kalaba for 5 months leading to the match. I don't yake fifa youth comps serious again. Africa and SA haf spoilt ur with age cheats.

TheSuperNerd:
You are right oooo..... This Zambian team ehn.. hmmmm.... I just dey look them... they look so resilient and very very enterprising.

They have already equalled the class of 2007's showing at an U-20 WC (Zambia's best performance and finish so far). It is most likely this squad surpasses their predecessors and some of them go on to be household names for Zambian football just like The 2012 Afcon winning side that had Emmanuel Mayuka and Stophila Sunzu from the 2007 U-20 side that lost to Echiejile's Nigeria.

When would African teams know that the world stage is not a place to just show that you are the best dribbler in the world? That's what killed Guinea today. If Vanuatu has a good goalie I could even vouch that they could beat the Guinean side. They kept dribbling repeatedly whereas, Korea moved the ball intelligently and purposefully. The worst culprit was one guy called Jules - very skillful but very tactically deficient. Well, I have my hopes pinned on SA. I think Zambia beat SA just cos of home advantage. SA has a thorouhly cohesive and fast unit. The final I watched against Zambia, Senegal was just filled with gragra. Except they fortified their team for the WC they may just be heading home after d second round

Thank you. That's hiw I keep reading Naija would have won nations cup if we had qualified. Why did we not qualify so as to go win it. 2016 was a callous year for Naija men's soccer. Hope we get our acts right, or else we'd just keep missing these youth tournaments. Other nations are now keying into the fact that youth tournaments are one very good avenue for building a strong senior national team.

BascoVanVeli:
To me that's very poor form. We should always be gracious losers and not act so high and mighty.

How would Africa miss Naija and Ghana? It's not like they excluded us from qualifiers. We should learn to respect other African reps. We were not just good enough. Both nations LOST their qualifiers, so no one is missing these nations. The Mali u are talking of, were hammered 6 1 by Zambia and lost 3 2 to Guinea. So they should try better to qualify for the 2019 WC

Icon4s:
Which fashionable sakala?

At this stage of the game talent plays a major role in how teams perform. Players from that region are not much gifted talent-wise.

Good Preparations matter and when talent meets with good team preparation an excellent team is produced. but when one is lacking.... hardly anything can be achieved.

Look at the Guinea team that just lost 3-0 to Korea Republic. Technically gifted individuals. But the cohesion was no just there. Evidence of lack of good preparation.

I know teams like South Africa and Zambia would have prepared well but because they are not much blessed with talent that will hamper their performances.

Africa would miss the likes of Nigeria, Ghana and Mali in this tournament. These are the only 3 countries in Africa that have what it takes to make bold statements at this stage.

Senegal of recent are gunning to join the trio. I think they have realized the essence of having good youth teams. This there rise just started 5-6 years ago.

Having the friendlies is not the thing. We go fit watch am? Not the one somebori would carry a device to work to watch the game only to end up watching it on fb . NFF should get their acts right. The falling hand is becoming too much. We should ask CIV and Senegal who beamed their match when they played in March. Me I wan watch the game.

TheSuperNerd:
So finally we know we have two friendlies to look forward to....

May 26, Friday
Vs Corsica Senior Team at the Stade Francois Coty in Ajaccio starting from 8pm

June 1, Thursday
Vs Togo scheduled for the Stade Municipal de Saint LeuLa Foret, Paris starting from 7.30pm.


Despite the uncertainties after reports of the extended camping plans cancellation... we still have two friendlies to look forward to. That's nice.

Did u see Aluko's 360 skills on the touchline yesterday? That guy was the heart beat coming from the right side of attack. He's really very good.

tbaba1234:
Iwobi was outstanding yesterday. Sharpness is back. He needed the time off.

Aluko deserves a call-up. He was filthy good yesterday. He will be an asset to the team.

Azubuike is one player I really like. He was very pivotal to build team gaining promotion. Very dynamic player. He Onazi's mf pairong could be very good. Only fear is that both are box to box and may constantly make forays forward ehoch vould expose the defence sometimes. Other than that, i really wanna see both play alongside Ndidi and lets see what happens.

Icon79:
Another guy I would like to see get a call up tot he Super Eagles. Right now, I have 4 players on my Super Eagles waitlist:

1. Henry Onyekuru
2. Tammy Abraham
3. Azubuike Okechukwu
4. Emmanuel Daniel

O pari