₦airaland Forum

ChrisKels:
I was just being economical with the analysis. Do you know that there are many Camerounians in Aba, but you can never tell them apart from Igbos and AkwaCross, but you can easily tell Igbos apart from people from South West and northern Nigeria.

When I went to Gabon, I just felt I was in Port Harcourt; it was the French people speaking that made it look different. Geography is a true storyteller, just like when you go west of Nigeria towards Ghana and the Ivory Coast, many there also begin to look like our people from the west in terms of body build, dressing, food, and the rest.

ChrisKels:
This boy looks like a Nigerian from those Cross River and Akwaibom axis, yet he was too mean to us yesterday. Dude was playing as if he had a personal akpor against us. He should be checked, he must be a Calabar man but angry that he could not make it to the eagles. Same way Omotoyosi used to play against us. I'm very angry. 😂😡

From Cameroon to Gabon, DRC, and Congo, many of them all look like our folks from the SE and SS part of Nigeria. Truth is, borders and colonization from different countries divide us; we are almost the same kind of people in looks, behavior, manners, tradition, food, and almost everything.

LordTheus:
We'll bounce back from this. We needed this loss. For years, we've been using fanciful perfume to mask our pungent body odor without treating the root cause of the odor. Hopefully this spurs the FG to declare a state of emergency on our football. Losing back to back World Cups is no joke.

If Senegal and Morocco can suddenly dominate African football after being minnows for the entire 20th century and part of the 21st, why can't we?

I find it poetic though, that the two biggest African football powerhouses in Cameroon and Nigeria are currently in the doldrums.

with big names like Osihmen and Mbeuemo, really poetic! I agree

TheLoneCitizen:
This season has shown me the how a true elite striker can really swing the fortunes of a team.

2023, Pep disrespects Tottenham by calling them the Harry Kane team.

2025, Table swings full 360 as Haaland scores over 60% of City's goal even more than Kane for Spurs in 2023.

When questioned about this overreliance, Pep accepts it and is happy.

If such can happen to a team manager like Pep, who am I to hate on Nigeria's overreliance on Osimhen.

It's just a shame he got injured at the biggest moment.

Everybody here at halftime were confident that Nigeria were superior and would dismantle Congo.
But once Osimhen goes off the whole team collapses.

Nigeria in the first 45 mins with Osimhen: 3 total shots
Nigeria in the 75 minutes without Osimhen: 1 total shot

Osihmen can’t be bailing us out all the time, he’s even the reason we came this far and he keeps doing his part. Even Yekini in his days was not scoring in every match and still we won games without him scoring for example in the Afcon final in 94. It’s a big indictment on the rest of our players especially the other attackers and midfielders if they can’t find the net without Osihmen. It shows they are at best average players. In 2013 Emenike was our point man and highest scorer but we had other players who could score and just like the 94 finals mbah not Emenike scored our winning goal in both quarter final and the final itself. That’s how balanced a team should be not everyone switching off because the main striker hasn’t scored. In fact we won Gabon in the previous match because ejuke turned up before osihmen found his mojo again. Truth is this team is deficient and can’t win in bigger moments. We need more quality and depth in the squad. National team football can be harder than club football and you need more than your point man in crucial games.

123jamessmith:
Terrible players indeed. Is it not the same terrible player Eric chelle managed that got us this far. You think there's any coach in the world that can be perfect

Chelle remains my MVP in all of this as he’s still unbeaten and maintains his 💯 record! His players let him down yesterday but he’s done a decent job. He has and continues to have my respect! If we like we can sack him but am happy for him despite all our shenanigans.

Samueltemi337:
Where did you see me say our boys are good?
The boys are to be blamed same as the coach
There were many wronged decision Chelle made in that match

No coach even the greatest ones are perfect and all these he should have brought in this player are all assumptions cos if those suggested players come in and we lost we will still assume that if this other player came in too.

We had the best of our players on the pitch last night the same players that have been giving us joy in the previous games but they all let us down when it matters most. Nwabali, Bassey, Fredrick, Onyeka all stood up to be counted yesterday even Bassey was going into the midfield to do some other people’s job. The question is where were the other players? The same coach gave everyone the opportunity.

jedisco:
Hehe... one literally said na we be the reason wey e no fit buy house. Same person is living in a tax-payer funded house on my newbuild estate. Wouldn't be surprised she's eyeing the next motability freeload.

Moving from the UK has shown me how socialist the UK system is. It's quite good for some but unduly punishes others.

😂 the US treasury minister said na immigrants make beef expensive for US by bringing and importing diseased cattle through the South American border crossing. What immigrants cannot do or cannot be blamed does not exist

bigtt76:
Na den way. Soon when preek not stand, e go be fault of the migrants 😂

Aunty this looks like hate speech o 😂

123jamessmith:
Who dey say chelle nor be good coach, so they should sack him and bring in a local coach again who na nor dey learn

Our coaches always take the fall for terrible players. Rubbish talk always

Samueltemi337:
Chelle is not a good coach
It's clear for everyone to see

No coach can never be good for the eagles if we keep saying this. Jpes no good, Finidi no good, Eguavoen no good all of them! Rohr, keshi all the way to westerhof sef. Only our boys are good 😂

Dannyxy:
Iwobi simon time to go, they consistently refuse to step up.

So without Osimhen no football yea, no na Osimhen eagles, such embarrassing performances not against Brazil or Argentina, Congo Dr, outplaying for almost 90 minutes because you don’t have osimhen, none of Simon chukwueze, Iwobi lookman could step, not even of of them, and that’s the reason we are here in the playoffs because of such mediocre players like them with weak mentality.

In a Final where you drop it and give all like you want it, see them casually strolling…

Same thing happened in the Afcon final with Ivory Coast those four players(chuks, Simon, Iwobi and Lookman) cost us. For me they can never offer us better than what they are currently doing. It’s time to move on from these players, they can’t raise their game in bigger moments

We should just use Afcon to rebuild if we can.

Give more players a chance for us to see what they can offer. If half of the list can be fresh legs that would be fantastic after all we never knew a Benjamin Frederick existed until that unity cup earlier in the year. Let’s use the Afcon to try out newer players or those with very few caps for tomorrow future. We already know what players we have had for 5 years and above can do. It’s time to give many others a chance.

Lastly just like some of us here have been saying this is African football you need power and pace, it’s a bit of shame to see how DRC was out muscling our boys even bullying them in some instances, these light weight players that we often parade can’t cut it for us all the time. It’s the same thing Ivory Coast did to us in the last Afcon finals.

Until we start having again the likes of very physical players in the past like onazi, emenike, obaobona, robust players that can go toe to toe with very physical teams in Africa omo this is how we will always come short. Even an onyedika some of us have been crying about would have been muscled out by the DRC players. There is a physicality to our game that’s still missing and like I always say most of our games are played in Africa except when you play friendlies with other countries from other continents or at the World Cup when you qualify but this physical aspect of our game need to be addressed since almost all of our games are on the continent, apart from Bassey or maybe Onyeka our boys easily get bullied by very physical African teams.

Mujtahida:
Truly. See Benjamin. A star. Nobody can deny it.

Tolu sha. I really had high expectations of him. Thought he'd burst my theory of not selecting big clumsy attackers but he's failed to prove me wrong.

Despite how they kicked that boy all through the game, he held his own; he's one of the reasons we still had a chance till the end. I must commend all our defenders and the goalkeeper today. I can't fault them much, but players like Iwobi, Lookman, Chuks, Simon, and all our attackers and midfielders let us down. I will only excuse Onyeka cos he got us a goal.

Odunayaw:
Yeh griefff

Nwabali even handed us life line.

Abi o, If we have won, honestly na only am go deserve match bonus

QueenJazz:
Setting aside the fact that the players were godawful themselves, we had two full days to train and work tactics, and somehow we couldn't plan in the event of penalties? Did Chelle seriously think the game was sure to be wrapped in regular time?

You couldn't bring in Ekong in the dying seconds to prepare for the shootout?

I get that he's still somewhat inexperienced with the squad, but really?!

Also, you're monitoring 5000+ players, and somehow you can't identify anyone to solve a midfield problem we've been having for almost decades now?

Like I said, Eric Chelle stays, but my oh my was he thoroughly exposed in this game.

There is no point blaming anybody; we don't have leaders in that team. The only guy who gingers that team is Osihmen, and when he's having an off day, it's finished. Coaches can only work with what they have. Folks like Ekong na still management, even if we went through tonight, what else would we have offered in subsequent matches? At a time during the game, I was asking myself Is this what we will go and play at the Intercontinental Play-offs in Mexico?

Thank God we were not disgraced, and we still managed to bow out honourably via penalty shootout instead of a straight loss. See how DRC was putting in their leg for every ball that led to even two cancelled goals, only Osihmen plays like that for us. The other folks we parade as attackers are a complete joke, as the disparity btw them and our top man is too wide. We don't have enough quality, and there is a limit to which Osihmen as a striker can continue to carry us if we like to change coaches again with the same players, nothing much will change.

opes:
At a point, I blamed CAF for clearing Ndidi for the match. Onyedika could have replaced him and might have done better.
I faulted Iwobi largely for the equaliser

Looks like CAF was doing everything for us to qualify

We just lack quality; let's stop all the hype. If Osihmen doesn't come to the party, we are doomed

That former Sierra Leonean player who said Osihmen was the only leader in this team was right after all. No Osihmen, no party!

We need more quality in our team, especially in the midfield, all these names we keep brandishing here abeg make we forget am. The day we see quality, it will be too obvious, and you don't need to beg any coach to feature such players; we just don't have the materials

How we miss out on players like Eze is a shame. Quality doesn't hide, it's too visible!

TheGoodJoe:

I have been saying it since Rohr. We do but we are not ready to scout, screen and try out.

I think we need to take our U-17 and U-20s more seriously and focus less on the senior national team

123jamessmith:
Iwobi join players wey make us loose today. I have been saying it like forever iwobi is not playing anything.. he doesn't mark, he doesn't give pass na to carry ball dey dance for midfield

Dude seems to always try and avoid injuries when playing for the Eagles. No charge at all except when the opponent is weaker, then he starts throwing in the passes, but with tough and very physical sides or when the game becomes more physical he goes missing

Psittacus:
Can someone change the name of the thread to 2030. Hopefully we will have a better Eagles by then. I'm only pained we let those xenophobic SA go to world cup. Not like Benin deserved it. If they really fought like how Ghana fought in the last playoff, they would have at least gotten something.
Nothing dey the AFCON too, the same set of players that don't have anything to proof, except for osimhen.
All the best see you in 2030

we should have just allowed Benin, we just dashed the ticket to SA

zuchyblink:
This midfield cannot survive Tunisia,Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Senegal

very true, we can keep blaming the coach sha as if the materials are there

TheGoodJoe:
That is because we are still not properly screened and coached.

If DR Congo can hold and move the ball, transition in phases from defense to midfield to attack why can't we just do it?

Who will transit the ball from the midfield to the attack? Who? I'm asking

TheGoodJoe:
Em, we looked Peseiro most of today's game.

That was the only way we survived till the penalties

TheGoodJoe:
We are not yet ready to build a sound tactical playing side. When we are ready, NFF will seat up.

Very true, our deficiencies are too visible

9JAMac10:
See you guys in December for the Afcon.

If we don't go back to that Pasiro pattern, nothing for us at Afcon. It will be a waste of precious time

TheGoodJoe:
This is just the fact. We just did not turn up.

We have been exposed; we don't have the personnel for the kind of playing pattern we want to see

You can't win tournaments without a midfield. Lesson Learnt

We need to scout for midfielders

Thanks to the coach and the boys. DRC deserves to go thru

Joebie:
I don't know what to say. to crash out this way or move forward this way. makes me feel some kind of way

Anyway, is ok, we were not disgraced

No matter the outcome, I appreciate our boys and the coach; they fought till the end, and it's good to see!

omo congo show us shege but kudos to the boys for holding up