₦airaland Forum

Bossoflife25:
This why we love AFCON!!! 2 GOALS IN 2 MINUTES! BURKINA LEADS!!

I watched this game to almost 80mins thinking it will be a dead rubber game I went out and came back to watch the Algeria and say let me check scores of the previous game and I saw 2-1 I though my eyes was seeing double I had to check the the time the goal was scored Omo two goals in added time chai. That’s what makes Afcon thick

9JAMac10:
Anybody else think the North African or the Mediterranean African nations should be the only African countries hosting the Afcon tournament. The ambulance and pitches in Morocco 🇲🇦 reminds one of the European soccer leagues. Abeg let Egypt host the next one then Tunisia then Algeria then back to Morocco hahaha

Please Dead this agenda, Ivory Coast hosted an Afcon per excellence and that’s what Morocco is trying to build upon. Ivory Coast spent a billion dollars or even more to host an Afcon event the Europeans were full of admiration about

semid4lyfe:
There are two commentators in football matches, the Play-By-Play commentator and the Colour commentator.

Play-by-play commentators are those who run commentary and narrates the action as it happens. He speaks constantly during the match, describes who has the ball, where it is, and what is going on. eg Corner kick to Nigeria. Chukwueze takes it short to Lukman. Lukman passes back to Iwobi, wobi floats in a cross, Semi Ajayi rises above his marker, and nods it into the corner beyond the reach of the goalkeeper, and its a goal. Play-by-play commentators are usually professionally trained, experienced and are expected to be neutral.

A Colour commentator on the other hand adds interpretation, context and explanations. They are mostly not commentary professionals, and are usually coaches and retired footballers. They talk during pauses or after key moments in the game. Their commentary is mostly subjective and biased. eg. Chukwueze run dragged the right-centre back away and created space for Osimhen, and Osimhen has to be finishing better from there.

Sunday Oliseh, Daniel Amokachi, Victor Ikpeba et al have all being colour commentators.

Watching the game yesterday, especially in the first half. we were playing so well, controlling the game and to my shock, Oliseh was praising the Tanzanian team as if they were the better team. It was incredulous to me. And to worsen matters he was overtly critical of the Nigerian team and I think he didn't fully grasp his job description.

As a colour commentator he is allowed to be biased. The fact he's Nigerian is even the reason he was selected to commentate the match. I felt he thought he was supposed to be unbiased and in wanting to do that he overcompensated by being too critical of the Nigerian team.

Also, hin change mouth many times during the course of the game, which many people viewed as hypocrisy. One minute Nigeria was poor, next minute we were dominant. No clear line. No consistency. It came off confused. (You need to listen to his post match comments which was a complete contradiction of his match commentary).

Lastly, he kept doing deep tactical and technical breakdowns in the middle of live play. That is not colour commentary. That is post-match analysis. That level of detail belongs in a studio, with clips and pauses, not during a flowing game.

That is the real issue. Nigerians were not angry because he criticised the team. We criticise the Super Eagles every day. The problem was timing, tone, and role confusion.

As a colour commentator, his job was to add flavour, context, and insight without killing the moment. Support the team emotionally, even while pointing out flaws.
Oliseh spoke like someone afraid of being accused of bias, so he swung too far the other way.

Football commentary no be exam. Na conversation with fans wey dey watch the same match as you. Many Nigerian fans accessed the game differently from his commentary hence the backlash he received.

😂 oliseh thought it was his normal podcast show where he berates the nff, players and the entire nation. Dude no sabi the job description as you clearly stated. He carry activism go match commentary, ode!

Beyond the pitch dude got nothing more, a divisive character per excellence. His eloquence is what makes people thinking he’s got anything extra. Today he will support tiki taka tomorrow he go change am to parking the bus. Phew

minfelix:
thats why we go still dey argue dey go na…so no dey tag my own as Amnesia or PSTD, you dont also expect me to reason like you na abi?

💯 👍

FiveFootNinja:
Which business? 🤔

Bed shaking business 🫨

Arizoner:
I saw the highlights of the match. I didn't watch the match cos I had private bedroom business I had to attend to. But boy nwabali is becoming ann onanna in goal. Has anybody notice it? The way he concede goals is rather alarming beside his ball playing abilities

We can’t blame Nwabali much o he probably thought it was an offside, btw let’s be easy on this keeper he still get the job done some how some way he made a great save yesterday in the first half. He remains our number 1. A keeper who is an Afcon silver can’t just be discarded. He’s an experienced goalie

charlesemeka85:
bad belle wan finish the one yesterday 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yet person Dey defend am here. He couldn’t even commend on Lookman goal. Na when game don almost finish he come say the eagles are doing something right. Mad man

semid4lyfe:
There was no need to introduce Moses Simon.

Chukwueze was very enterprising. He dribbled, took on defenders, and tucked into the half-spaces. He helped defensively by collapsing into midfield and gave us an extra body there. He also filled that gap between midfield and attack. Every time he got on the ball, I expected something to happen.

Moses Simon, on the other hand, hugged the touchline. He slowed the tempo. He delayed transitions. He killed promising attacks by taking too many touches. No synergy with Zaidu at all. Once Simon came on, Zaidu’s game dipped. Misplaced passes. Poor decisions. Jittery play.

The team lost balance. We became predictable. Everything went wide, nothing through the middle. The press weakened. The rhythm died.

Not every substitution improves a team. Eric Chelle needs to let the game breathe and leave what works on the pitch. No be everytime you gats do substitutions. And even if you wan do, make one at a time, observe the flow of the game for some more minutes before making further substitutions.

I happy we got the 3 points yesterday but the manner it was achieved left a bitter taste in my mouth, and we must massively improve if we want to defeat Tunisia.

I think the coach panic too early, it’s not that we were even trailing and boom you make substitutions. I complained here about the timing during the game.

You’re right he needs to make the make the game breathe, from what I saw both chuks and Akor were not happy being substituted. Both of them had goals in them in that match

minfelix:
bro i no be 1way trafficating football watcher….im not the type that will come and be romancing you when things are not going fine….my points earlier remains…NFF is putting our soccer to shambles, failing to qualify for two world cups back to back is one of the result of how poor our soccer is going….as for Tanzania game yesterday we played very well even though i feel our scoring ratio was poor but Tanzania should not also be seen as a minnow minnow team like that…they are not Djibouti and Somalia

You sef see how people opinion differ from you now 😂 na so life be o! No be fight. Cheers

My thoughts - The previous Afcon was adjudged highly successful because of the top-notch officiating with the VAR.

Currently, we are seeing bad signs of the VAR not being properly deployed. I saw the coach of Benin, Rohr, complaining about the VAR equipment not coming on to detect a penalty shout against the DRC. Why will the VAR go off suddenly when a possible penalty check is to be done? Also, I have seen people complain that there was no replay on TV about the goal we conceded against Tanzania, which was probably an offside goal. VAR should have checked that too. Imagine VAR didn't check the Osihmen goal, wouldn't that have been counted?

It's still early days, but CAF needs to ensure this competition won't be like what we see in Europe at times when VAR won't be deployed to intentionally make biased calls and refereeing, abeg o! and I pray Nigeria won't be the one at the receiving end of such bad calls.

mostob:
Cape Verde never play o...
AFCON na full package... We got everything

May your agenda never agend 😂

WarHammer2000:
Bro, He praised the team when they did well. The very term "lateral movement" which he used so often was used to praise Akor Adams' superb movements off the ball which he noted was probably a result of Adams' training in Spain.

I also remember he praised the Super Eagles when they started to keep the ball in the closing stages, saying this is exactly what they needed to do since they already had the lead.

As for the subs, he said that Adams was our best performing striker in the game up to that point and therefore, shouldn't have been removed except he was injured. This is correct. If Chelle wanted to put sentiment aside, Osimhen should have been taken off instead of Adams, based on their game performance.

That was the only time he praised the team when the game had been won. He’s a bloody fool. The goals we scored Oliseh couldn’t commend the team for the good team play leading to the goals, nothing about the world class finish by Lookman and oliseh is supposed to be one of our celebrated ex players but kept commending the Tanzanian team. He should continue his nonsense in the other games and see. Rubbish

minfelix:
make una calm down oo😂…in as much as i was not happy we couldn’t score more goals against Tanzania, lets just believe super eagles are not te kinda team that statpad lesser opponents to them, but we must still look at it that Tanzania(28th in africa) is not in the class of Minnows oo, they senior Botswana(42nd) that was beaten by senegal by faaaaaar oo, even Burundi the likes of Aina,Ighalo etc struggle to beat in the 1-0 opener of afcon 2019….in 2013 we had no business drawing Burkina faso 1-1 in that opening game, them no b our mate, we suppose flog them

😂 na you Dey talk like this! chimoooooo

TheGoodJoe:
I see why lots of people were disappointed with Oliseh's commentary. Yes they were educational but there were things that worked for Chelle that Oliseh failed to mention or point out.

Like the way Chelle used the defense to keep possession and draw out the Tanzanians. The way Chelle used Ademola to form what I call an inverted pivot for fast transition from defense to attack.

Also the inverted triangle using Ndidi, Iwobi and Lookman to create chances. Oliseh didn't talk about the inversion play of Chukwueze. Yet, Oliseh was quick to wax lyrical of the tactical ideas of the Tanzanians.

When Ademola scored the goal, it took Oliseh so long to acknowledge the brilliant play. I wonder what's educational in that. Kept praising the Tanzanians throughout. Bullshit.

Mujtahida:
Exactly. I immediately saw why he can't manage SE. He strikes me as someone who is highly divisive.

person wey get problem with enyeama and mikel. Enyeama had to retire because of his antics, one major reason I no like Oliseh.

Tunisia 3-0 Wahala

I pray Uganda scores to reduce the goal difference for Tunisia, this is why scoring enough goals is key in group games

Mujtahida:
Dem dey drag Oliseh online. He deserves it. He was just too acerbic for a commentator.

Now this is the problem, even with some of us on this thread, nobody says you shouldn't criticise, but don't be a cynic in the name of trying to be objective.

see as this man finish Oliseh

https://x.com/akinalabi/status/2003549502641439110

Hanibal:
That Tanzania goal, there was no full replay all through... I still suspect offside
The osimhen goal... What manner of offside was that?
All 50-50 challenges was awarded to Tanzania as free kick

The officiating was bad.. really

This is why Nwabali was casual, he thought it was offside

charlesemeka85:
It will be difficult winning this Tunisian team.

If we are clinical in front of goal, we'll beat them; they too will be scared of our attacking threat

123jamessmith:
Who na two dey blame coach self.. this guy has never lost any competitive match even the hardest game against congo went to penalties.. he has always find a way to get results.
Go and watch the match again we have so many chances to kill this game.

you can't satisfy anybody. When JPes was the coach, we said he was too defensive. Now we have a coach who is more of an attacking person, we still dey complain, I'm not sure what we want again. His philosophy is to outscore the opponent if we take our chances.

This team does not have enough personnel to make a very complete and balanced team, and no coach can do any magic further. I have said this over and over again.

FiveFootNinja:
Uganda is the banana peel we need to watch out for in this group.

They may be the whipping boys; their defence is no good. Tunisia is not that enterprising, but it seems to have good scoring boots; those chances the Tanzanians wasted today may not be wasted by Tunisia.

omo Tunisia 2-0

Mujtahida:
He was awful. People turned down commentary because of Oliseh

I wished I did that too, it would have been better listening to brila sports radio commentary. Many folks are just complaining online about his rubbish

chrisooblog:
At least Amokachi's takes were entertaining unlike egbon lateral abi collateral movement.

True Amokachi is a better commentator, even the good moves the Eagles were making, Oliseh did as if he didn't see it, but praising the Tanzanians instead, he should be careful before angry Nigerians descend on him.

chrisooblog:
Simon was more impactful when he came on if you ask me.

Osimhen too was off colour today. Trying shots from impossible angles, poor first control, still straying offside and also moaning unnecessarily.

Osihmen no link well today make we no lie. He needs to stop the habit of reporting late to camp. He wasn't like that before. Discipline is key! Hoping he gets his mojo back in the games ahead. He almost scored with a bicycle kick in the first half, though.

typicalgamer:
But ndidi and Simon were there 9 years before chelle how are they his boys

You still Dey ask? Ok o 😂

See Uganda 😂

Tunisia 1-0 just after 9 minutes

Ademola Lookman goal for Nigeria to make it 2-1 for Nigeria! What a strike! pic.twitter.com/dw30bzOTzZ

— Buchi Laba (@Buchi_Laba) December 23, 2025

Lookman goal was just a beauty to behold

elyte89:
Tanzania 🇹🇿 make
Una mind Neva rest o …NFF still
Fit petition Una (Dey re checking already) 😎

We don win no wahala but make Benin go petition against Congo 😂 na dem need am

TheGoodJoe:

I felt the sub worked. After the changes, they stopped running riot on us and the switched of play reduced.

Simon Moses also used his play to keep the right side of the Tanzanians staying back to prevent his pressure.

I think I will give Chelle props for the changes.

Simon wing - yes but bashiru hmmm