₦airaland Forum

wtf? Obinna on, Kalu off, Yakubu stays, Osaze and Martins on the bench? Amodu!!! wtf?

deflection made the goal.
yakubu is useless, should not be playing.

Damn, Mikel is doing a great job (apart from losing possesion from time to time). His passes are cutting open the Egyptian defence. So get off him.

Taiwo is also doing great. Goes forward at times, but when he manages to return he is without fault and the best defender,

You really must open your eyes!

Not Enyeama's fault, defenders messes up that one.

My five:
1. Kalusha Bwalya
2. Roger Milla
3. Michael Essien
4. Jay Jay Okocha
5. Didier Drogba

Ayite is apparently wrong. Unless there is a case of mistaken identities Obilale is fine and recovering at a hospital in South Africa. It could be that the Togo players don't have access to information.

http://goal.com/en/news/815/african-nations-cup/2010/01/09/1735487/breaking-news-togo-goalkeeper-kodjovi-obilale-to-undergo-surgery-

Simple: They transported him to South Africa, because South Africa has some of the best hospitals in Africa and even in the world. If he was in critical shape it was the ONLY thing to do.

Some websites have breaking news that Obilale is not dead but in critical condition in a South African hospital.

South Africa is having a camp of local players, so I guess all they would have to do is quickly relocate with their local players, who were being tested for WC 2010. A golden opportunity for them in tragic circumstances,

Found on Zambianfootball.net:
Reliable sources have told zambianfootball.net the game played behind closed doors was very competitive and played at a very high tempo -’physical and fast’ with both team using all their best available players in the match.

Coach Herve Renard fielded Kennedy Mweene in goal, Joseph Musonda and Emmanuel Mbola as full backs and experimented with Stophilla Sunzu at the heart of the defence with Chintu Kampamba as first revealed by Zambianfootball.net this morning.

Rookie defender Thomas Nyirenda was slotted in the midfied defensive role alongside Rainford Kalaba and Felix Katongo to complete the man power in the engine room.

In form James Chamanga, Jacob Mulenga and Chris Katongo played as the strikers in Renard’s favoured 4-3-3 formation.

The Nigerians were at full strength.

Renard’s eye is now on the Chipolopolo’s friendly international against World Cup finalist South Korea on Saturday.

I believe Michael Essien would be the correct answer

If anyone from the u17 squad should be called up it should be Sani Emmanuel, who is without any doubt the closest to being the declared age.

Utaka? As in John or Peter? John hasn't been playing much, but I still keep wondering why Peter Utaka has yet to play for the Eagles? Since 2007 he has scored 68 goals in 94 games for his clubs. Maybe not in big clubs, but why not try him out?

The following players should not be in the squad:
Danny Shittu, Nwankwo Kanu, Michael Eneramo and at least one of these four defensive midfielders: Dickson Etuhu, Sani Kaita, Yusuf Ayila, Oluwaseyi Olofinjana.

Dele Adeleye and the sole creative midfielder Femi Ajilore should be in the squad.

Apart from that we really need to try out midfielders. Maybe some of the younger players to choose from: Lukman Haruna or Rabiu Ibrahim,  Dammit,  not a lot to choose from,

Eneramo ahead of Obasi? Nigerian football politics suck.

Ajilore and Adefemi are out

Nwaneri is in

We officially have no player in the squad that plays as a midfielder for his club

Sweet, that means we have:
4 goalkeepers
8 defenders
5 defensive midfielders
0 midfielders
7 strikers


Interesting selection by the chief,

It may be the way the article is written, but I think Aiyegbeni and Ayila are part of the 20. I started counting and with Eneramo that makes 18. The article speaks of 20.

Eneramo is in, again, dammit,

I hope Yakubu and Obasi make it.

Damn, Taiwo suspect at the back? You really must watch more Ligue 1 football, he is the best tackling LB in the world.

Damn, Taye Taiwo is the best LB in France by far, he is excellent in defence and great at positioning, you really must not watch a lot of Ligue 1 games. That said he has been slightly off form this season, but he won the title of Best LB two years running.

Well,

Taiwo plays in a position that hardly ever gets the recognition it deserves. That said Taiwo has excelled in his position and is without any doubt the best left-back in France and arguably one of the best in the world. He has however been taken back a bit (he doesn't make as many runs as he used to), but is still a class player and treated as such in France (best LB in France for 2 years running). Maybe he hasn't made stardom, but is widely respected. All that he is lacking is being bought up by a top European team.

The problem with Mikel is that he was molded into something else. He started as a creative midfielder and Chelsea has molded him into the glamourless role of DM (due to a trend in Europe to make African players DMs). That took out most of the creativity out of his game and built on his defensive and destructive abilities. Unless he moves higher up into midfield and gets a more Zidane-like role he will never be treated with the same respect. If he continues to be a DM he will be regarded highly, but never treated as a magician of football. At the moment his only hope to change the way he is perceived is the Nigerian national team.

There is hope,  just look at Essien and how he suddenly became the king of Chelsea,  when Essien plays Chelsea is the best team in the world. When he doesn't - they suck. He will definitely be in contention for Footballer of the Year in 2009/2010.

He actually makes me want to back every team playing against France and keep my fingers crossed for them flopping at the group.

minsk: If Osaze Odemwingie is 38 he is the youngest and fastest 38-year old I have ever seen

Another reason I know your lying: He played youth football in Kamaz and is well remembered there.

As to other posters: Some of you are ridiculous. I can understand some players being up to 5 years older then officially stated (i.e. Okocha), but none of these players is anywhere near 40-45,

we have an easy draw, so actually 1/4 final would be doable easily. england can be beat and the group almost expects us to qualify.

I read this in a Polish newspaper:
http://mundial.wp.pl/kat,1019539,title,Pobili-ojca-Aogo-nie-zagra-dla-Niemiec,wid,11740005,wiadomosc.html?

- My father has lived in Germany for 30 years. He is the most cheerful person in the world. But after this attack he fell apart into tears. - said Aogo. - We all have German passports, but tend to be treated badly because of the colour of our skin - said the black football player, whose parents come from Nigeria. Samuel Aogo states that he would have never been beaten up, if his skin colour was lighter.

After these events Aogo is very close the resigning from playing for the German national team. (, )

- I should play for a country with which I feel an emotional bond - said the young striker.

(first time I hear he is a striker, )

His father got beat up in front of the Turkish Embassy for no apparent reason by German policemen. He is now saying he has lost faith in Germany and would prefer to represent the country of his parents. To sum the article up,

and he now wants to represent Nigeria,

http://www.weltfussball.de/presseschau/bundesliga/_n1373466_dennis-aogo-papa-hat-aerger-mit-der-polizei-sport-hsv-fussball-bundesliga/

Actually they peaked last season. This season so far they have dropped from the peak.

He was definitely the best in season 2008/2009.

But this year so far he hasn't been all that. The award this year so far so definietly go to Didier Drogba. He has been phenomenal!

Where is Martins? Mikel? Taiwo?

What team is this exactly?

p.s.Odemwingie is in my opinion on par with Ribery.

Concerning Taiwo:
Yeah,  and all the soccer pundits in France are idiots,  and so are the clubs for rating him the second most expensive LB in the world,

Abidal is ok, but nothing special and is lacking in defence. Gael Clichy is top-class, but nowhere as good in creativity on the left.

Taye is an excellent tackler and please watch the French league for confirmation.

Another thing: Taye has a killer shot, but he has shown at times that he can also curl and place shots instead of just 'beating' the ball in. If you want a 'Stoichkov' type goal please see the second goal on the link below. Another thing that his power shots are killer and no one in the world can replicate them with any semblance of precision. ALso notice that Marseille employs a tactic where Taiwo lambasts the shots straight at the keeper and the shots are so strong that the keeper is unable to do anything but parry, so strikers just pounce on the dropped ball, Loads of goals are scored that way in the French premier leagie.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xle920Ctq8o

And I'm sorry, but a left back which is left-footed will always excel over a right-footed one. He will also never train his foot to be good enough to even up the discrepancies.

komekn: It's not me thats overrating him. He has been voted the best left back 2 years running in France (France Football), has been the best left back in Africa for 2 years running (CAF) and has been on several lists of the best left backs in the world. A lot of people think he is the best LB in the world since Roberto Carlos.

Osaze is great, but he has nowhere near as good a foot as Taiwo in long range efforts. He may hit on goal once in a while, but Taiwo hits more often than not.

Taiwo has the same flaws as Carlos in that he can sometimes forget about defending. But still everyone rates Carlos as one of the best.