₦airaland Forum

Well what I'm saying is that they had a golden generation era and during that era they dealt with us. Then we ended their grip over us with a team we barely believed could beat them in a match where the odds were against us. What I'm saying is similar to the era when Cameroon used to beat us especially in AFCON finals until we ended that grip in 2004 quarter finals against them. And since then we have continuously beat Cameroon at every AFCON we met them that is In 2019 and 2023. CIV at that time had a slight edge over us during their golden era. It was during this era Nigeria wouldn't qualify for AFCON in 2012 . And six years earlier we failed to qualify for the world cup.

Napoleon55:
I can't say the things you were trying to say isn't true,
but I can't quite understand how it relates or negate my own points.

Is it that because CIV have defeated us twice in previous occasion,we should never have defeated them on the next occasion?
Did you u also point out that we have defeated them before the 2006 edition.

Or because they had pedigree and good playes,it should prevent them from losing to Nigeria that also had good players and even greater pedigree?

CIV with some top level players in top leagues losing to Nigeria with some top level players in top leagues is just as normal as anything,
But when CIV lose to Ethiopia or Lesotho that probably won't have players in top leagues, that's when it becomes news.

We had played CIV twice and lost . in 2006 AFCON and they stopped us at the semi finals. For some reason they were becoming our boggie man. They had played the 2012 final and lost to Zambia in penalties. They were finalist before then as well and lost to the greatest Afcon squad of Egypt. They had pedigree with names to boast of. In 2013 we assembled what many felt was out weakest squad coached under Keshi . It was reported that the players had packed up their bags to leave the hotel in the inevitable lose to CIV. It was certainly at that tournament that players like Ahmed Musa, Ideye, Ambrose Efe, Elderson Echiejile , Emmanuel Emenike and Onazi etched their names in the history of Nigerian football. They stepped up and delivered for us. And that was the final tournament for CIV's Drogba who never lifted an AFCON only for CIV to finally win the following AFCON led by Yaya Toure

Napoleon55:
These things are just simple things that shouldn't be too difficult to understand, but some of you just like to get it twisted.

CIV and Nigeria were the two countries that had more players in better clubs,or even better players than others.
So if Nigeria defeats CIV,no one should call it an upset.

CIV had the Touré brothers at Man City,Gevinho at Arsenal and Drogba their biggest star even though he was not in Chelsea during the competition.
Nigeria had Enyeama at the top of his game,
Victor Moses and Mikel at top of his game in Chelsea. Emenike and Onazi were big factors even not in big clubs.
Talent for talent, Nigeria could match them,it was 50-50 or 55-45 chance, it was always going to be who had the the better tactics, or who was luckier.

Nigeria defeating CIV with the players at their disposal should not be considered as an upset.

Just as in Africa today,
Among these countries, Senegal,Morocco,CIV, Nigeria.
Even the likes of Ghana and Algeria,
Which ever country that manages to win an AFCON should not be seen as a surprise.
It's not necessary the country with the more players in big clubs that have monopoly of highest chance of winning.
All of them have players in big clubs and top leagues.

Odunayaw:
Economy and passion go hand in hand. Disposable funds isn't available to travel even to nearby cities to watch your team.

Facts. That's why north African countries and South Africa thrives in the continent's club football

I see our list was delayed due to the political instability at the glass house

Moniter0:
Invite Kelechi Iheanacho to the S.E. now!

And Ahmed Musa

Haissem Hassan

AndSunGorilla:
Oh ok, thanks, what's his name again

I think he moved to Celtic

AndSunGorilla:
Abeg what's the name of that Egyptian winger that tormented Argentina at the WC? Has he been signed by any club? Fantastic and exciting player.

Taiwo is that kind of guy with that kind of luck ,he will definitely score against Nottingham Forest when he faces them this season

Kog45:
Nottingham forest coaching staff,Players and fans today at City saying goodbye to big Awoniyi.

@seun
pls treat this as a petition with due urgency.

Sugarboyy:
@seun, some of us have been on nairaland since 2012 and I was one of the founders and earliest contestants of the Mr Nairaland years back. I think it's time to call you out to know what's happening on this particular thread. Your mod on this thread is bias and an asslicker to some monikers, most especially Thesupernerd. Thesupernerd is few of his likes are the only ones who can insult and bully others on this thread because of opposite opinions and the mod will never ban them even for a minute. You just call the mod to order and if possible replace him with a new mod who is upright and not bias.

You guys wanna use logic and diplomacy to deal with a man-child who doesn't understand any of that language. When a man wants to be treated like a dog , I'd glàdly indulge him , if he has succeeded at his home with such insufferable attitude the streets should put him right. Look at that puppy looking face with god like ego😂. Yes a dog, even a trained dog behaves better than that guy. You don't play gentle with people who obviously possess demons in their souls. You'd make them understand why men came to settle for peace in history was because we are all wild by default and it is on the reason for order and growth we choose peace. But if one extra chromosome looking creature fails to realize this ,it is the society (this thread) that he chooses to associate with that should put an end to what he has failed to learn from his house. When you've put diplocamy aside and you are ready to throw caution to the wind with that imp then that's how to deal with the demon in his head.

It's not news to many of us here . He is just good at one thing and that's football. He is very poor at many other things one that's quite obvious is his interactions with humans. Genuinely speaking he needs help only if he recognizes this. I believe this must be some form of trauma he suffered growing up. Poor soul . Brilliant chap.

Lawag3:
Dame THESUPERNERD is so insufferable.

Brilliant mind brilliant takes but deeply flawed as a human being.

One thing for sure. We will qualify for the world cup and get to the semifinals.
People enjoy when Goliath fall. I did enjoy that of South Africa for sure.

Another thing I noticed is Awoniyi's success is largely built or instilled through his faith. I sense his religious beliefs and discipline have helped sustain his career. Talent wise, he is not upto Denis Bonaventure, Isaac Success and kelechi Iheanacho. But all this three suffered from some lack of discipline at one point or the other in their careers and that really affected them. For instance it was said that kelechi clowned too much and he wasn't serious and so Rohr dropped him from AFCON 2019 squad in favour of raw and hungry Osimhen. It's no surprise that Awoniyi''s discipline has sustained him as the only Nigerian striker still in the ÉPL despite his injuries and cameo role at Forrest. He had delivered Forest in his first season and continues to build on that .

Kog45:
Frank Onyeka and Taiwo Awoniyi go enjoy retirement just like Seyi Olofinjana is enjoying now,Frank and Awoniyi sabi say dey come from homes dey must cater for

Once again you nailed it. Someone is gonna come sizing you up and hating on you for this. Somebody bitter.

NasirIbnLaAhad:
‎

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‎If you ask me, Edafe actually said some things that needed saying. You see, Nigerians just don't like to hear the truth. Especially when it's presented so plainly as a matter of fact without polishing and soft landings. The only problem here is that he actually mixed up a lot of his claims with so much factual errors that it's now easy for everybody to just wave the whole thing off. Which is annoying, because a) he's mostly correct with his arguments but b) making blatant factual errors also makes him a part of the problem as well, because we should be educating people on the FACTS, not making up nonsense.
‎
‎Okay, for instance, Edafe said FIFA rankings started in 1994 and that the top five spots back then belonged to the five regional champions -- which is hilariously wrong. FIFA rankings actually kicked off in December 1992. And yes, Nigeria did hit 5th in April 1994 after winning AFCON, but the other four teams in that top five were Brazil, Germany, Norway and Switzerland. First, Argentina were the 1993 Copa America defending champions and not Brazil. Secondly, Norway and Switzerland had never won any regional trophy in their lives. They were just in form at the time. I'm surprised no one in that room thought to fact check him on this and it showed that none of them bothered to do their due diligence and make proper research before recording the video.
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‎It's these kind of schoolboy gaffes that make people stop listening no matter how strong the spine of your argument is. Once someone catches you fumbling something this easy to check, they start wondering what else you got wrong.
‎
‎Also our 2013 AFCON win was anything but luck. Calling that win luck isn't just wrong, it's disrespectful to Stephen Keshi's memory and to every player who fought for that trophy. I recall nobody gave Nigeria a chance in hell going into that tournament. Keshi built a squad around home-based boys. Home based! Let that sink in. Meanwhile Ivory Coast rolled in with their "golden generation" and were clear favourites, having reached the final just last year in Equatorial Guinea-Gabon. And yet Nigeria beat them 2-1 in the quarters. Keshi himself said the boys showed character, that when he played for Nigeria he had to fight for everything and that's exactly what they did that day. Even Enyeama admitted they weren't the "golden generation" type of talent, but they had a bond most teams would kill for. How is that luck? Edafe is the same person talking about how the biggest teams in the World had a culture during their moments of dominance so how did he miss the fact that Nigeria at the 2013 AFCON had a culture defined by cocunut head, iron teeth, physical, never say die football?

‎These are the blunders that make him sound ridiculous, but like I said earlier, the man wasn't entirely talking nonsense.
‎
‎Point one: Nigerians are arrogant, easily satisfied, and terrible at long-term planning. That's a cold brutal fact and anyone that disagrees is too far up his own arse not to see it. One AFCON win, one decent friendly result against a European side, and suddenly we're acting like world beaters. We have no plan, no building, no structure, nothing at all except vibes. 2026 World Cup qualifiers, we were drawn with Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Benin and South Africa, with nine African slots up for grabs, and we still couldn't secure automatic qualification. A country that made three straight World Cups between '94 and '98 couldn't get through a group with minnows and a war-torn nation in it. We had all the time in the World to get a new coach and draw up a blueprint to not just qualify but compete at the actual tournament and yet we didn't do jack.
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‎Point two: our current players are indeed overhyped. I wouldn't go as far as calling them "shit" as Edafe did, that's too harsh. Osimhen, Lookman, Iwobi are genuinely gifted footballers. But we as fans rate them 8s and 9s when on the pitch they're really just 5s and 6s. There's a real gap between how good we think they are and what they actually produce. And the bigger issue in my own opinion, which I will add to Edafe's argument there is: work ethic and mentality.
‎
‎Remember the training boycott right before the World Cup playoff, over unpaid allowances, days before a must-win match? The DR Congo collapse? Nigeria up early, Osimhen goes off injured, and the whole team falls apart and loses on penalties. Once Osimhen left the pitch, that was that. Then there's Troost-Ekong hosting a charity match back home while qualifiers were still live. Lol. And then some people will get their knickers in a twist when these players are rightly called out for their poor decision making?
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‎Come on.
‎
‎Anyway, long story short, Edafe might have spewed a few nonsensical statements here and there, but overall, he's not wrong. It's just sad that both him and his staff can't bother to do some actual research so they don't actually come across sounding like they don't know what they're saying.

By many, you mean Englishmen ?

Mujtahida:
I just watched a replay clip of Argentina Vs England 86 game.

Many people hate Maradonna for that 'hand of God' goal.

😀😀😀 That's quite a cheeky move. I like it. I was just laughing as I watched it.

My final four prediction
France should win
Argentina places fourth.

Congratulations nwabali, there's nothing wroñg in going back if the way forward wasn't guaranteed. Wish you all the best.

Papi85:
𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚‼️

Nigerian international goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali is on the verge of re-signing with Chippa United.

Story by Sinethemba Makonco (@Makonco_M).✍️

I feel this was what really let them down. Because they know France has twice the firepower of USA to deal withthem if they tried playing an open game

Odunayaw:
Paraguay seems to have been traumatized by the attacking football of the US

They are playing Egypt. Egypt is rather the team in unfamiliar territory. Like Algeria, like Egypt. Argentina is gonna maul them in 90 minutes.

Lawag3:
Argentina are not winning their next match not after this this extra time will have a toll on them

All fairytale must come to an end. This is sadly the end of the journey for Cape Verde. This will inspire them .

Tone!
tone!!
tone!!!
Watch your tone!

TheSuperNerd:
It is the typical responses of try-hards like you to run into crying narratives after your nonsensical points to belittle Nigeria's WC history have been knocked down so comprehensively with holistic facts. Crawl back into your hole abeg.

Yeah. Stoickhov golden boot winner.

AndSunGorilla:
Which Cinderella story? Bulgaria that prevented the France with Cantona and co from going to the world cup. They had at least one of the best players in the world in Stoickhov at that time.

I think you should rather rest. Cos you've successfully conflated and twisted the whole thing to create perfect narrative for u. Typical you.

TheSuperNerd:
Bulgaria had one of the most charismatic and most talented European footballers of his generation in Hristo Stoichkov of Barcelona and a fine bunch of other ballers in Letchkov and Balakov. It was their Golden Generation. The best they had ever assembled and it was their 6th WC appearance.

And They did not disappear after US 1994. They returned in France 1998.

So kindly rest again your failed attempt at belittling what the Nigerian 1994 set did or what an African debutant like Cape Verde has achieved for themselves coz you are clearly forcing it.

Facts are facts. Keep it holistic and not narrowed like your forced watered-down views.

Exactly, Morocco did it in Qatar 22, should Morocco now meet France in the quarter finals of this world cup and defeat them, thats gonna be a STRONG STATEMENT in football. That seals the every adjective to describe Morocco as Africa's greatest world cup team.

Papi85:
you forgot to mention Denmark in Euro 92. A team that failed to qualify for the competition but were called to fill in a gap left by one of the qualified nations that withdrew and ended up winning the competition

You need to understand what we call Cinderella stories of football. The Bulgaria side of 94' was an example of that. Beating Bulgaria in our opening game was the turning point for Bulgarian football history who up until then have never won a world cup match having participated four (not exactly sure) times before . What they had was a Cinderella story that saw them beat Greece and shocked the world beating Argentina in the final group game. That run saw them reach the semi finals. I'm sure you know there are a host óf teams that have pulled out this sort of stories in football only to disappear after such feat. Greece in Euro 2004, Checzolvakia in Euro 96, Costarica in WC 14', etc. This I believe is more akin to Cape Verde. So nothing extraordinary in Bulgaria of 94 . Again this is no false impression or narratives . This is whole substance. Gracias.

TheSuperNerd:
Well, Cape Verde have done well for themselves. They have 3 draws and 2 of those came against former World Champions in Spain and Uruguay. Are you going to water that down too??

This is not false impression but just simple facts. If you were being completely honest with the stats, you wont put down Iceland and raise France as a comparison when there was literally a powerful Bulgarian team in 1994 that Nigeria did it against.

The false impression here is you slyly not being holistic with the facts. Finito.

you should know when certain stats are built to create a false impression. "3" is enough based on the number of times we have qualífied to describe us 2 goal lead monster. 3 is enough to describe Cape Verde as an undefeatable monster team in the world cup based the number of times theyve appeared in the world cup, up to this moment before their game against Argentina. When you play enough games at the world cup, you are bound to squander a 2 goal lead like Argentina at some point. You are bound to lose at the Maracana stadium by 7-1 in a semifinal match. You are bound to lose to a debutant like Senegal as a defending champion. And this is all football.

For now you are still crawling between making appearances and advancing group stages.

Maybe you'd say we are not Senegal, but the point is, Senegal shouldn't be our yardstick. Argentina, Brazil and France should be our yardstick for success.

TheSuperNerd:
You thought you were making a point only for this @emboldened to totally slap it away. So 3 times is not enough time to show we have that trait at the World Cup, especially considering how many times we have been there.

You mention Iceland as if they were not an interesting problem back then in Europe but slyly left out Bulgaria in 1994 that reached the WC semifinals.

Next please.

What's special about giving up a 2 goal lead in a game of 90 minutes. Whether in world cup or any where , it can happen to any team. How many times has Nigeria enjoyed a two goal lead in her world cup history. Its only 3 times we did that. Argentina at the last world cup finals lost a two goal lead ,only to win on penalties.
Iceland being the last team under rohr in 2018. Where we won by 2 nil. Iceland is not in the quality and pedigree of a french side.

Bro, 🤣 😂. The pain can be indescribable. 2021 AFCON . Tunisia 1 vs 0 Nigeria. After winning all our group stage games. Eguavone voted best coach in the group stage. Then we lost to a covid ravaged Tunisian side that finished as 3rd best team in the first knockout game of the competition. That pain I felt 😂😂

JohnBullMySon:
There's this special kind of pain that comes when you're the first to be elimnated in the knockouts

Almost feels like you left in the group stages

Im betting on SA,
Senegal ( hopefully they have found the resurgence)
CIV
Egypt to qualify to the next round.

Algeria, DRC ,Cabo Verde, Morocco and Ghana will wave good-bye

TheSuperNerd:
Confirmed Round of 32 Fixtures (Updated)...

Germany v Paraguay

France v Sweden

SA v Canada

Netherlands v Morocco

USA v Bosnia-Herzegovina

Brazil v Japan

CIV v Norway

Mexico v Ecuador

Argentina v Cape Verde

Australia v Egypt

I think it's time we embrace this truth, that DRC has a strong squad.
Well, they equally held Portugal to a 1all draw. I'm sure the Portuguese would be asking how did they play out a draw with DRC. DRC lost by a lone goal to Columbia, that was my first time I watched DRC clearly get dominated.

olavoice:
How did this DRC team deny us from qualifying for the World Cup.