₦airaland Forum

somehow:
No sir, he's the one Alloy Agu chose based on his own "experience". Have ever been the best in the league. Not in any season since he's been in the league.

Hence the word "luck working for him".

Only saving grace I have is that the coach even knows this, hence the reason he's shopping for a number one in Enyeama or groom Uzoho and the other small boy for the position.

Rohr is never confident with Ezenwa and unfortunately it's too late for him to try any new hands from the league.

Ezenwa is about the most consistent goalie in the league . He has been in the national team set up for quite a while now working under Keshi, Oliseh, Salisu and then Rohr and has gotten several exposures both in the continent and outside the continent.

This is a major edge he has over all other goalies in the NPFL.
I have always stated that goalkeepers selection is a lot more complex that outfield players selection.

There are a lot to the selection criteria.

darkelf:
Bro, not trying to hate on Ezenwa, just stating an observation.

I think a major factor contributing to Ezenwa's several clean sheets is the strong defence shielding him; both SE and CHAN Eagles

Just imagine an Ezenwa in btw the sticks against Argentina in 2010 and 2014 WC,he would have conceded more goals than Enyeama did

Anyway, I hope he improves and learns from errors. He'll be up against football geniuses at the WC.

Also imagine if it were Uzoho or Alampasu in goal.

CaptainStephen:
not so fast on uzoho, I also heard Rohr say a goal keeper trainer will also be sent to Alampasu too.

Interesting.

So will Ezenwa and Akpeyi get there's too?

somehow:
Ezenwa is not the best in he NPFL, I can prove this to anyone who cares to discuss this. His luck is working for him and that's all to it.

He is the NPFL goalie that is best for the Super Eagles job.

.

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- a subscriber.

elyte89:
Alampasu hasn't done enuf to merit a world cup spot,from d reports I read here abt him,he hardly makes d bench let alone of playing so I feel an ajiboye or any oda good local gk can take d 3rd spot

On Enyeama I stand.

I no dey for all those Rookies talk.

Kog45:
Oh your apology i don't even need it.

Bros, no vex abeg.
Just ignore.
Some people just do not know how to make comments without adding insults.

Kog45:
Oh your apology i don't even need it.

Bros, no vex abeg.
Just ignore.
Some people just do not know how to make comments without adding insults.

tbaba1234:
I am not criticizing him unfairly but he has been really tested in any game so far in my opinion. If i had the time, i would have made screenshots of particular instances where he was out of position in the Libyan game.

I am deliberately watching him because he could be our WC keeper.

I understand your point.

But there is no way a goalkeeper will be in perfect position all the time. As rightly pointed by petrobros, u saw Petre Cech make some wrong decisions in dealing with aerial balls today.

We all know Ezenwa is not world class but you cannot dispute the fact that he is about the best we have in the local league.

I am not expecting a perfect performance from him. In fact I have lowered my standard for the entire team.

We will all keep following the tournament with a closer look at Ezenwa.

BascoVanVeli:
I never said we must agree but what I notice is that u spend most of the time sending cheap shots instead of discussing the topic at hand. My player this my player that, when u get proven wrong u act like nothing ever happened.

Please, pardon me but I don't know what you are talking about.

tbaba1234:
It is not the case of a a goalie making the occasional mistake. It is time and time again.

Ezenwa had no save to make in both games, he was shielded by the defense.

In a game, where several shots are raining in and we are under pressure, i am not convinced that Ezenwa is the man to save us.

Ezenwa is more comfortable with crosses than Akpeyi but i am not convinced that he is world cup level.

In the first half against Libya, they had 3 shots on target and Ezenwa coolly saved all.

I am not saying Ezenwa is world class or is the best thing since after bread and butter, but the the point is he getting an unfair criticism.

He is not my first choice for the WC of course, Enyeama is. We just need to see him back in action and the rift between him and the NFF settled ASAP.

But as for this CHAN tourney, Ezenwa has done well thus far.

BascoVanVeli:
It never is a crime but if u don't care about what I have to say then what's the point?

I cannot always see things the way you are seeing it.

Do you also care about what I have to say? But I am not bordered about that.

It is a two way thing. So don't take it personal. We are only debating.

tbaba1234:
Ezenwa has not been tested. Do you know how many times he misjudged crosses already. His defense is saving him from been exposed.

If you are really expecting him to be tested so much, the oppositions we have in our group are not the type that can give him such.

I don't even see any team in this tournament that can give him the type of tests he received in the double header against Cameroon, and the games against Zambia and Algeria all of which he didn't concede from open play.

He could be a major factor for the team to progress far in this tournament.

One major thing this tournament can do to him is to rebuild his confidence and give him opportunity to make amends to some of his errors.

BascoVanVeli:
then why didn't the MOTM awards go straight to him? Oga u better respect those men (Eze & Orji)

See me see trouble o I could care less who u give credit, u are the one that quoted my post not the other way around.

So when has it become a crime to quote your post here?

tbaba1234:
I am not a fan of man-marking a player as you will give advantages to others. We should try to work as a team. Zonal marking and tracking back.. Do not leave Balogun isolated with Messi.

Zonal marking. Yeah that is key in modern day football. Leaving Balogun alone to mark Messi will only spell doom for us.

Ndidi will have to do a lot to shield the CB pairing and also slow down the expected fast pace Argentine forwards line.

I just pray we would not need to beat Argentina in that final group game to remain in the tournament.

BascoVanVeli:
Ezewa? I don faint. How many shots did u see Ezenwa face and u have singled him out for credit. Stephen Eze has twice been named MOTM and u are crediting Ezenwa. Faleye is good don't get me wrong but Emeka Ogbugh has been more consistent than him.

So keeping clean sheets is no worthy of credit. Do you know one of the major tasks of a goalkeeper is to organize his defense.

Sorry, your Emeka Ogbugh has not done enough to deserve my credit. He can get it from you. A million of it even.

BascoVanVeli:
there must be a tax in Nigeria on giving credit when due, at least that's wat I think is worrying oga Icon4s

Credit?

The only players that deserves any form of credits thus far from that team are Sunday Faleye and Ikechukwu Ezenwa, who has continued in keeping clean sheets especially not conceding from open play.

Faleye shows flashes of brilliance and that goal he scored could have been blasted away by any other player in that squad. Take that to the bank.

He is just 19. And that underscores the need for CAF to have an age limit for this competition. There is no way I would be excited about the mediocre performances of players like Emeka Ogbugh, Rabiu Alli, Osas Okoro, Anthony Okpotu and the likes. Thus far they have simply not done enough for any form of credits.

BascoVanVeli:
are you the hype police? abeg if I think a player is performing I will say it. I thought u were going to attempt to prove me wrong but since this morning the only thing u have brought up was one bad touch. The player has done a good job and I must always acknowledge that. He has been the most consistent forward player we have and it is no surprise he has played every minute so far.

Haha, "performing".

Games that one just manages to support them because they are putting on our jerseys.

So many misplaced passes and aimless long balls. There are actions you watch and wonder if some of those players are even professional footballers.

The only reason I would endure and continue to watch them is because they are representing Nigeria.

When a team plays well I acknowledge but when they are not playing I criticise. You can call the police on me if you want. Hahaha.

BascoVanVeli:
Did I say the team was lights out or something, I am struggling to get ur point here. U said I was hyping a player now u have shifted the goalpost to the team. Na wa o

The whole team, including the player you were hyping.

BascoVanVeli:
Okpotu should have put his header on target but nobody would score from those crosses unless u can bring the ball down to the feet.

I didn't talk about a danger man or compare this team to any team. I said Ogbugh has been the best forward going by the 2 games.

The team thus far have been far from convincing. Period.

BascoVanVeli:
Then who the heck has been our best player going forward?
Those crosses u mentioned were not dangerous. The speed and angle did not help the strikers. I was talking about the whole tournament but in the last match what about the fizzing cross he made at the beginning of the match? The one everybody thought the keeper got a hand to.

The two crosses Faleye set up for Okpotu and Oghugh were not dangerous?

If those crosses had gotten to better players I am sure you won't be saying what u are saying.

Overall, that team does not have any player I would call a danger man. Not even the Faleye.

Compare this CHAN team with Keshi's CHAN team of 2014 then you know what I am talking about.

gbosaa:
I think there’s been a lot of improvement in the NPL. Players and teams need to develop winning mentalities. I think away teams are not ambitious enough.

Enugu stadium seem to be one neutral place where any team that works hard enough would win as the fans love good football and not hostile to away teams.

Lobi beat Rangers 2-1 at Enugu few days ago. Teams like Heartland, Elkanemi, Pillars, Enyimba have all won convincingly inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium. Shooting stars, Ifeanyi Uba fc, Sunshine of Akure have all drawn while home fans applaud their beautiful football. Enugu fans would rather attack Rangers for bad football than turn their anger on visiting teams who play well.

Hostilities by the home fans. That is a major challenge we have in the NPFL. It didn't start today.

But officials still need to make the right calls without being afraid of being lynched. Adequate security need to be provided for the refs themselves.

goldfish80:
LOL. I was talking about Nigeria 2009. They were the broadcast partners of the organizing committee. Billions were spent to upgrade their facilities in 99, 2003 Coja and 2009 U17 WC.
As a matter of fact, N8.2b was spent in 2009 on upgrade of facilities alone.
http://saharareporters.com/2009/07/19/nta-scam-82-billion-naira-nta-broadcast-equipment-nigeria-2009-questions

With the facilities at their disposal, I shudder to think they cannot show a simple replay when a goal is scored. We are talking about facilities worth £32M for goodness sake. With a pentium 3 computer, you can edit and show replays. Ha!

They seem only to upgrade facilities during the hosting of major events.

May be they are waiting for us to host another major event for them to upgrade their facilities.

BascoVanVeli:
You are the only one here guilty of hype. One mistake is what you use and say he couldn't control a pass. What about Faleye who made a harsh of umpteen scoring opportunities? We take the good with the bad, we don't come out bashing a young man for one single mistake.
Go and watch the games don't watch me. U seem to be more worried about proving me wrong that looking at the reality on ground.

If you had hyped Faleye too. I would have criticised him for having a cane deserving first half.

You hyped Ogbugh by saying he made dangerous crosses and I told you the only two dangerous crosses I saw all game were made by Faleye. One messed up by Okpotu and the other headed straight by Ogbugh. This one everyone can remember. Now tell me the dangerous crosses Ogbugh made.

BascoVanVeli:
You are the only one here guilty of hype. One mistake is what you use and say he couldn't control a pass. What about Faleye who made a harsh of umpteen scoring opportunities? We take the good with the bad, we don't come out bashing a young man for one single mistake.
Go and watch the games don't watch me. U seem to be more worried about proving me wrong that looking at the reality on ground.

If you had hyped Faleye too. I would have criticised him for having a cane deserving first half.

You hyped Ogbugh by saying he made dangerous crosses and I told you the only two dangerous crosses I saw all game were made by Faleye. One messed up by Okpotu and the other headed straight by Ogbugh. This one everyone can remember. Now tell me the dangerous crosses Ogbugh made.

Mickael2:
they have the facilities. When I visited the NTA office at Asaba(?), just somewhere in Delta I was genuinely shocked. They had better broadcast equipments than Channels TV for example but I guess we all know who the boss is. The problem is putting square pegs in round holes. Some of their workers have been handling same positions for 50years straight without any form of improvement through forums, workshops or all what not. It's just the same issue destroying the civil service as a whole

Do they transmit digital signals from NTA Asaba?

goldfish80:
Could their problem be lack of facilities? Recall their broadcast equipment was massively upgraded in 2009 for the broadcast of the U17 WC.
I doubt they have auctioned off those OBB vans.

For God's sakes Nigeria '99 was 19years ago!

The world has gone digital while they are still bragging about their analogue facilities.

Go to YouTube and check out those Nigeria 99 videos and see if they are different from what we see on NTA today.

TheSuperNerd:
Home Eagles Coach Yusuf: Misfiring Okpotu Will Start Against Equatorial Guinea
By Johnny Edward

https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Nigeria-vs-Ghana-2017-WAFU-Cup-Home-Eagles-and-Salisu-Yusuf.jpg


Home Eagles coach Salisu Yusuf has stated that Lobi Stars striker Anthony Okpotu will lead the team’s attack when they face Equatorial Guinea in their final group game at the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) on Tuesday barring injury, Completesportsnigeria.com (CSN) reports.

Okpotu has been unimpressive so far after two games, failing to get off the mark for Nigeria and several calls have been made for the striker to be dropped ahead of the next game for Ibrahim Mustapha who came on for the Lobi Stars striker as a late substitute against Rwanda and Libya.

Salisu remains upbeat that the Nigerian Professional Football League top scorer for last season will end his drought soon.

“We still have four days to the game and Okpotu has more quality than him (Mustapha). Except for injury, Okpotu will start on Tuesday,” Yusuf raid during his post-match conference.

“He (Okpotu) didn’t score against Libya but he did well.

“Okpotu blocked the lines very well and worked very hard defensively but I believe he can score in our final group game.”


Source: https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/home-eagles-coach-yusuf-misfiring-okpotu-will-start-equatorial-guinea/

Okpotu. That one na striker?

goldfish80:
Don’t Laugh at NTA, Support them to Grow Domestic Sports


It appears the lot has again fallen on the government-owned Nigeria Television Authority to revive the Nigerian sports industry. Following the decision of satellite broadcaster, Supersport to stop covering the Nigerian Professional Football League games last season, the League Management Company has turned to the NTA for answers.

While the national broadcaster has the widest reach and decent equipment, our abandonment of our domestic sports has meant much of the equipment was left to rot, while there was hardly any effort to grow expertise in 21st century sports production. It was no surprise then that when the 2018 season of the NPFL started last weekend, the NTA coverage left much to be desired.

Most analysts were unsurprisingly critical of the quality of the production, compared to what Supersport had offered before. In Nigeria, when we are not directly involved in something, we tend to gloss over the variables involved in achieving world class quality. To reach the quality levels of Supersport, let alone the standards of European packaging, will take massive financial investments and time. This can only be possible if there is considerable support from the local business community and government. The problem however is that our brands only want to sponsor the glitzier English Premier League and UEFA Champions League games, while government has failed to grasp how sports can engage and unify our exploding and increasingly polarized population.
In the more successful parts of the world, people understand how self-protection is critical to society’s success and global competition. The business community would have understood the need to back the NPFL for two reasons: First, this funds the league, Second, it creates jobs and wealth within society that translates to better patronage of their products or services. But this is Africa where we would rather look good and lose than to look bad and win. When our businesses sponsor the foreign leagues they essentially fund the leagues overseas and create almost zero value within our society. In the end we all lose, and we can see the results in our economy today.
Television is critical to the success of the sports industry. Ideally TV networks pay for content like the NPFL and recoup their investments through subscriptions and advertising. Supersport, to their credit, used to pay for the rights to the NPFL to encourage the development of the local game. For years this South African-owned company poured millions of dollars into the league and got almost no support as our own Nigerian brands were instead throwing their own millions of dollars to the European game.
Now the collateral damage from not developing our own has reached all corners. Business is bad for everyone. Although Supersport blamed some contractual breach for pulling the plug on the NPFL deal, we all know business is not as rosy as it once was. It may be convenient for most of us to blame the government for our woes, but the fact is that if we continue to ship N70 of every N100 we earn in Nigeria overseas, we will be poorer every year regardless of how brilliant the government is.
NTA as a government-run organisation can hardly afford to pay for the NPFL rights. Beyond the rights the network also needs to commit hundreds of millions into filming the games. Were the NPFL a darling of Nigerian fans, then maybe the government would undertake the investment, but is this is hardly the case. However sports remain a critical tool to engage our exploding population and unify our increasingly polarized peoples, so it is imperative we find a way out.
The LMC is also critical to the solution and it appears they are moving in the right direction. Were they awash with cash, they would set up their own filming company to record the games and then simply sell the rights to TV networks around the world. However they lack the resources to do this and must now work with the NTA to arrive at their goal. This appears a partnership of strange bedfellows, but it is for now the sensible thing to do. Their success however is dependent on whether they find advertisers as, unlike Supersport, the NTA does not make any money from subscriptions.
The idea is not for us to ridicule NTA and the poor quality of their production, or to dismiss the NPFL, but for us to find a way to help out such that the league and sports industry survive to create the value we desperately need within our society. While the federal government may not directly commit funds to the NTA and league, there is no reason why rich government parastatals like the NNPC, CBN, Customs, NPA, etc cannot put some of their community development and marketing funds on sports. Each of these organisations can directly sponsor top sports events like our football league or competitions in other sports like athletics or tennis etc.
The behemoths have the budgets, but for now they use them for silly things like calendars and expensive gifts for already wealthy people. We cannot afford to waste more time and resources before we take sports seriously. For now it is imperative chime in our bit to help NTA and the LMC succeed, unless we feel that when the food finally disappears from our tables the EPL and UEFA can help.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/01/20/dont-laugh-at-nta-support-them-to-grow-domestic-sports/

We will continue to laugh until they upgrade their facilities. They should go take a look at the quality of production from other national TV stations.

I even manage to watch the games shown own Supersports even with the HD signals. I can't even imagine tuning to NTA for anything program talk less of to watch the NPFL.

They better mend ways with Supersports and return broadcast to them.

BascoVanVeli:
Emeka Ogbugh has been our best player going forward, he gets past his marker at will and his crosses are dangerous. Okpotu will be more dangerous if he played along side Mustapha Ibrahim. Also Dayo Ojo changed the match with his introduction, he brought in urgency.

Which Emeka Ogbugh and dangerous crosses?

Did we not watch the same game? Ogbugh that could not even control simple passes put across to him.

The only two dangerous crosses I saw all match came from Faleye. One Okpotu made a mess of it and the second Ogbugh headed straight to goalie.

Please stop hyping mediocrity all in the name of defending local players. Be objective please.

The team even played better against Rwanda.

Thank God we were spared of another embarrassment.

tbaba1234:
Enough with the achievement measuring contest. Whatever you think, you have done in your life, several people have done more. You will find people who have done far more with their lives on this thread and do not even mention the half of it. This thread is for football and not for bragging about your academic or professional achievements.

Humility and respect for each other goes a long way and will help you build lifetime connections. You could need each other someday in the future, it is a small world. Please, sheath your swords. We all view life from different prisms. Respecting each others viewpoints regardless of how you feel about it, is important.

Michael2 and TheSuperNerd please harken to these words of a wise man.