₦airaland Forum

No surprises Maroc VS Iran still goalless. The Iranians are pragmatic goalless draw merchants. I still recall the bore goalless draw they erked out against Nigeria in 2014.
That game could pass as the most boring world cup game ever, in my opinion.

Jarus:
Was that truly boring? I dont think so

I saw 2 overly tactical teams playing with lots of respect and handbrakes like you expect in a typical world cup game. Nothing fancy or exciting.
Should have been a draw

Typical boring world cup game. Thank goodness it's over.

Mujtahida:
Hahahaha hahahaha. I'm not oooo. I've given an account of how I came about my moniker. I attended ABU Zaria where you must choose an elective in Islamic law in your 200 and 300 levels. I liked Islamic law and was good at it. My colleagues started calling and still call me mujtahid meaning a scholar/authority of Islamic law. Now though I've quite forgotten some of the things we were thought then.

Since morning I've been quite happy all thanks to the breeziness in my soul from Marcus the mystic's prediction.

LOL.. Don't mind me, Sometimes I just can't help myself. I knew you weren't Muslim.
Though in honor of Marcus the pig, I will give up eating hot dog and sausage for 1yr if his prediction was spot on

Mujtahida:
That's why I am no good - I always predict my desire. If you know how I love that pig now ehn, you will be surprised.

I thought you're a Muslim.

Mujtahida:
I'm no good with predictions but I predict 3-1 for naija against Croatia.

Prediction different from desire oh

gbosaa:
You got it wrong sir. You blew your trumpet a bit too early.

Exactly, I blew my trumpet too early indeed.

Mujtahida:
There's psychic cat, wise elephant and mystic Marcus all of whom have given various predictions on the WC. The cat predicted that Russia will win the opening game.

But seems we have our own in-house prophetic goldfish80.

Please predict who will win between Nig and Croatia.

@all
Google mystic Marcus on daily mail.co.uk and read the interesting piece

LOL.. You don jinx am...
It will be fun if we run an in house world cup prediction game while the world cup lasts.
The person with the most accurate predictions by the end of the tournament wins

Russia lead 1:0.
Told someone they will win this game 3:0.

I'm enjoying the pace of this first game. Not your typical boring world cup game so far.

krattoss:
Balogun ruled out for the opener

This is serious. Thank goodness we have an inform Kenneth to call upon.
Although, if Rohr prefers Awaziem as usual, my hand no dey oh!

edi287:
Beckham from 99 - 02 was probably the second best midfielder in man united after Roy Keane.
It's a myth that he was only good at crossing. He was a superb passer, had an above average touch, great vision and crazy stamina. Yeah he didn't have the flair and Skill of Figo, but he was a VERY good player.
His best position was as a CM. Didn't have the pace and skill to beat defenders on the flanks.

It also did help he was handsome.
If Beckham had the looks of Kante or Luke Chadwick, he wouldn't be remembered with so much nostalgia.

chrisooblog:
yes a strong league would be a start but you also need good competition to sharpen your players skills can that be gotten alone from facing enyimba, kano pillars, mamelodi sundowns, tp mazembe, al haly?

i think forward thinking exceptional local coaches will be our redemption. look at south america top argentine coaches like simeone, pelligrini, pochentino. brazil as well produce exceptional coaches.

some how the nff will have to start grooming coaches same way we do for our cadet teams. by the time we identify and train these exceptional local coaches who understand the philosophy of how we play we then ensure most clubs in the land employ these people. we should also put in place a fair system of genuine competition which ensures that the best succeeds. it's from this same pool of top coaches who did well nationally and intercontinental that national team handlers will be picked from

On paper, it looks like playing against those sides you listed on the first paragraph might not be ideal but what you loose in facing quality opposition, you gain by building a solid unit of individuals who are used to playing with each other.
If you look at the 3 previous world cup winners, you will find a pattern which suggests that those national teams consists mainly 80% of player from 2 clubs. Use Germany with Bayern and Dortmond, Spain Real Madrid Barcelona, Italy with the Milan teams and Juventus as a case study.
Egypt dominated Africa using this trick with their golden generation between 2006-2010.

This prototype can work on a bigger stage if implemented. Honestly speaking, I think Egypt missed a trick between 2006-2010 by not qualifying for the world cup. You'd be surprised how far they could have gone. Recall within this period, they played in the finals of the confederations cup.

Martz101:
for me spain is better than France with greizman and Argentina with messi.

The last worldcup spain won was with average goal of one in each match, worldcup is not about talisman, is about the team.

Of course they are better than Argentina who they beat blue black not so long ago in a friendly. Having a talisman in a bad team can only get you further so much but you begin to look world conquering when you have a good team and a talisman.
Although, comparing this team with the golden age class of 2008-2012 is stretching it a bit. Must be said.

Mujtahida:
Chrisooblog said this much as you have just said: that we can impose our style if we become successful.

The question is: how do we become successful when it seems we are playing the game the way Europeans have styled it? How do we disrupt the current template?

To become successful, we basically have to go back to the basis and fix our league from Amateur to the premier league. It might sound cliché but that's the only way possible to raise good players who can cause major upset in world cups with our style.

South Africa toyed with the idea of having their national team play in the Psl a season prior to the 2010 world cup,it might sound unattainable, but such radical ideas might actually work.
As Africans, we must be brave and push out our boats. This is one of the reasons I like the idea behind Chan.

Mujtahida:
MY THOUGHTS ON THE EVE OF THE WC
since 2002 no country apart from european countries has won the WC(and more european countries have won the WC than any other country from other continents since the inception of the FIFA WC in 1930. while it can be argued that this is because europeans have proportionately more teams than other continents -could there be other causes?) could this be as a result of the fact that global football is tailored to suit the style, the nature and character of Europeans?
take this issue of pressing that has almost become the alfa tactics employed by most teams for example. it is about choking and pressuring the opposition when they(the opposition) have the ball. now i think this is what happened: europeans eliminated the dribble(yes dribbling is almost dead) because i do not see how pressing can be effective when you have a team of good ball dribblers. can you press maradona, or okocha or any team with a good number of dribblers like Brazil 82 team? they will just dribble themselves out of the choke and pass the ball to a team mate who is free from the press. just a moment of sheer individual brilliance, a sweet turn, a flick and dance with the ball and the whole press will collapse.but you see what europeans have done: they eliminated the dribble, clamped down on individual displays and erected a temple to the god of passing, passing, passing and laid more emphasis on team game.
europeans thrive on organization and efficiency: they hate anything disorganized which is how they regard anything free flowing(meanwhile africans want expressiveness and flair). check out classical european music, opera and the ballet dance. everything is timed and organized. the world of music was cold until africans and south americans(and it was still africans if you know your history)with the their toms toms, sense of natural rhythm and free flowing dance brought in the blues, jazz and pop culture was born. for the life of me i have tried to enjoy mozart, bach, handel and others but omo i still prefer the sound of the gong, ekwe, beaded gourd and talking drum. to the european ear african music is disorganized but as africans we know theres a method to that seeming "disorganization". our music is all about rhythm and improvisation.

my point is we must break away from this european model of playing football: we cannot beat them when it comes to an organized approached to football. no wonder xavi said that they understand football as a space-time concept. this is nothing but the scientific european mind speaking. the black man has no such concept. (thats why he cannot operate by the 24 hour clock). africans understand football as a dance, as rhythm, as beat, as robustness and vigour.
this is how we must play our football. we must play football according to our soul. we are africans and its not a matter of race- its a matter of an outlook on life which we can perfect and use to define our game.

my brothers i would appreciate your thoughts on this issue
cc
Icobn4s
asha80
bascovanveli
goldfish80
tbaba1234
safarigirl
servik
kennysville
oasis07
thesupernerd
goodjoe
joebie
chriskels
davep
AIG
mikael2
kog45
forgiveness
soetanoluwa
martz07
charlesemeka
and every other esteemed poster on this great thread

Europe is the headquarters of football no thanks to the money, organization and the rich history of the European game. Every boy playing football across various continents around the world have dreams to play for Man utd, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan etc..
This stronghold influence they have on the game makes it easy for them to impose their style, their rules and culture. It is their game after all,just like USA have Basketball and Baseball.

The only way to upset the apple chart is if an outsider from Africa( for instance), rise above the odds and dominate the world game with their unorthodox style. Trust me, if this happens the Europeans will drop their style and inculcate the new one in vogue.

For instance, American high school coaches started advising tall kids to consider Athletics not just basketball and American football because of the break out star from little Jamaica, Usain bolt who stood at 6ft5. A height previously unheard of for a track athlete.
We can impose our own style if it becomes successful. That's how the world works.

Icon4s:
The Maroc 2026 Bid was not successful . Too bad but they can repackage for 2030.

I reckon the Canadian and Mexican inclusion pushed the bid through. Anti American sentiment might have sunken it.
Although it will be a a tough task for Morroco to handle 48 teams.

asha80:
you think so?

They are a semi final team at the very best (being generous).
In my opinion, they lack a talisman in the mould of Greizman, MESSI, Ronaldo, Bale or a prime Torres/Villa up front. And in midfield, this team is not as talented as the class of 2010 to offset the lack of world class quality in attack.

asha80:
hmmm chaos in spain ..seems they have sacked their coach on the eve of the world cup https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/1006839528735301632

With or without the coach, Spain wouldn't have done much anyway. They are back to the bland Spain that flattered to deceive in the early 90s/2000s.

tbaba1234:
We both know that is not the average age of WAEC takers these days, especially in the cities. The average age is between 15-18. You can not be looking for outliers.

Besides, those who know the family personally can confirm that he is certainly the right age.

18-19 is not exactly an outliner when you're talking about Waec though. I see a lot of city kids who are admitted into Secondary school at 12, especially those who studied up to primary 6.
My next question is if the said result was at his first sitting. I know people who wrote Waec twice and made good grades on the second sitting. It is a very common occurrence.

tbaba1234:
No, i know he was writing WAEC. Infact, his WAEC result made news when it came out because he did very well.

He is the exact age that he claims. His early marriage is just what it is.

What was the date of birth on his Waec certificate?
I know people who wrote Waec at 19-20 and did very well. Just saying.

edi287:
Yeah probably. Apparently he rejected moves to Bundesliga sides for them.
I'm just not sure if Stoke can bounce back up straight away. They've been very poor in the transfer market and aren't as organized as before.

My brother,I like being practical. We have to understand that football is being played for money.
If those Bundesliga clubs offered more money than Stoke, there's no way Firense and Etebo would have opted for Stoke city.

Truth is that their project enticed him and I'm very sure he is due a handsome bonus if Stoke regained promotion to the elite division, maybe 2-3 million large ones or even more, in addition to 30-50k P/W. I will be surprised if any Bundesliga club matched that offer.

Look at the guy on nairaland front page, Chikeluba Ofoedu. This was a poor looking street boy I met some years ago wearing okirika polo when a mutual friend introduced him to me as a footballer. I took interest in him and discovered he was a madly talented football player. When I heard he was signed by a Turkish 2nd division team, I was livid, because I knew he was good enough to play for a top champions league team, but today look at him, he can afford a N200M mansion and a Porsche for his mom. All these while not playing for a popular European team.
Make no mistake about it, it's all about the money and rightly so.

BOOMnaija:
All hail d boys...
Show some likes

Imagine how this attire will look on Brian idowu and simi nwankwo

This will be the first time I have seen Mr Rohr look daper.

edi287:
Etebo signs for Stoke. Poor move imo. Should've waited till after the World Cup

Maybe they made an offer he could not refuse. Also, Stoke might have other targets who they could sign hence, the offer might not be on the table after world cup.
Also, playing in the world cup can go both ways, he can have a bad tournament or get injured, he may as well be a revelation thereby increasing his market value.
Stoke took a chance on him and he took a chance on Stoke. Hopefully, it will be a win-win situation for everyone.

.

edi287:
Amodu's SE teams got criticized despite making the WC twice and winning Bronze at Afcon twice. They weren't as bad as the CHAN team

This was during the era of golden bronze and I don't think people waited to celebrate the team loss just like I saw during the last Chan.

edi287:
The Chan team was thrash. That's why they were criticized

If the super eagles play trash and qualify for the world cup finals, will they be criticized?

nelszx:
They'd hold their held high
We (Africans) need to learn to bury our chances same thing with Senegal against the Croats yesterday. Tunisia should have layed this game to rest in the first half if only they learn to punish opponents.

Nonetheless, they have given teams expo on how to deal with Spain.
This world cup will be the best world cup in terms of smart formations and team setups. Many teams are coming with young and upwardly mobile tacticians.
World cup is no longer the play ground for geriatric septogerian managers.

A hard fought 1:0 victory to Spain. Totally different completion to the result if Tunisia used their chances in the first half.

KK555:
If they play with such intensity and consistency of performance, England will find them a hard nut to crack. They have not lost in their last 4 friendly matches. I think they will come out of their group in the world cup.

England have their work cut out for them. I watched a video of Peru playing out of their back with intricate passes reminiscent of a peak Barcelona and hard pressing you will see with Klopp teams. I was just applauding their game.
If I was a betting man, I'd wager England to loose to almighty Peru.
The Tunisia I am watching against Spain will disturb a lot of teams. I'd be worried if I was English.

pelezico:
However have you noticed that Spain are not finding it easy playing there tappy tappy football because Tunisia are not only defending well but are passing the ball with intent. Nigeria should pay attention to this game.

Spain have not managed to create even a half chance while Tunisia have created 4 solid chances.
From the African perspective, Tunisia is playing a solid vertical game, allowing Spain have the ball in less threatening areas while they get the ball with super sonic speed to the Spanish defence.
Hopefully the Nigeria team is paying attention to this game.

pelezico:
I wouldnt go as far as saying they are out balling but they are most certainly playing well - they have neutralised Spains tappy tappy football and have had the better scoring oppotunities - early days still

They just missed a third chance. Did you see that?