₦airaland Forum

Subzero047:
Ejuke, Cska player of the month

JohnBullMySon:
If there's one thing I know about the American people, it is the strength they have to carry out activism and voice their beliefs and concerns. See the way they coordinated their protest, with everyone involved. If NBBF is not careful with how they handle this, the guys might join in solidarity. If they like they should be stubborn and invite other players, no one cares. As long as they cannot deny what the girls said, they are at fault, whatever they are saying.

Many guys in NBBF and NFF are clueless, seriously. They came in there because of connections or bribery. Imagine Pinnick telling players that they don't need a coach, that they have slept in a 5 star hotel and eaten a five star meal, so NFF has tried for them, as if he's talking to villagers. That guy is so dumb.

chrisooblog:
Onuachu to Atletico Madrid rumours reports say it could happen in January next year. Ndidi to Manchester United rumours also gathering momentum.

lloydtruth:
Dem don start again.

lloydtruth:
Dem don start again.

zuchyblink:
The earlier we sack Rohr the better for us

joelsteron:
I will pick this chidera ejuke ahead of all eagles right wingers (Kalu, Musa, Lookman) anyday, anytime. The guy is a beast. I stand to be corrected.

chrisooblog:
Shoutout Supernerd for a very thorough and deeply analytic playback of the individual player performances in the match.

TheSuperNerd:
Ejuke: Finally Stamping his Authority in Russia. Plus a New Super Eagles Front 3 looms.

As already reported here, Chidera Ejuke was crowned the CSKA POTM for September.

But do you recall he was also crowned CSKA POTM for July-August?

Well, that's the full story. Ejuke is a Back-to-back CSKA Player of the Month Winner and obviously the Number 1 fan favorite of the Moscow Club.

The Wing Wizard of Moscow is coming into his own in the land of the Kremlin.


On the back of Ejuke's strongly convincing showings for Club and Country, he looks like a lock for the LW position which suggests that a possible attacking trio line-up of Chidera Ejuke, Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze (The ChiViSa/The ECO) could be in the offing.

Will the "ECO" be a "bank" we can rely on for goals currencies going forward?

Time will tell. 21/22 season will reveal more...

elyte89:
With rohr @ d helms of affair and his grand son simon..I doubt if dt front three will ever happen

andrewbaba44:
Wetin be dem don start ?

The ndidi own is confirmed

Players are LINKED to clubs everyday and everytime so what’s wrong for a naija player to be linked ,or you don’t want them to move

Subzero047:
Who confirmed it?

zuchyblink:
The earlier we sack Rohr the better for us

Parrot69:
I think we should be really be worried about the play-off matches cos the remaining matches btw Cape Verde & Liberia isn’t much of a headache to worry about. Bare injuries, We’re topping that group with minimum of 6points.
However, greatest worry lies in the playoffs in the remaining last 10.
A review of teams that topped their group will give a hint on how prepared they are to sacrifice their all for it.
Could you imagine Both Presidents of DRC and Madagascar were in the stadium of their respective countries to watch their National teams play, this is a boost to the morale of those players who never failed to deliver.
Now coming back home, what have we been doing?

andrewbaba44:
Man united are interested in a January move and the news is legit

Maybe you are expecting me to say I confirmed it because I work with fabrizio Romano

TheSuperNerd:
Wild Beasts of CAR 0-2 Super Eagles of Nigeria: Redemption Completed, Revenge Achieved, But the Rohr Virus remains.

Aribo, My MOTM
Osimhen needs to be more clinical in the GWG, gets his 8th goal in 14 caps though.
Ejuke's a game changer and Highly Creative Magician.
Awaziem's long range passing Vision on show again.
Balogun was on a Mission and achieved it. MOTM contender but Aribo edges for me.
Oyibo Wall gets their redemption.
Rohr Virus suppressed today by the Anti-retrovirals - ARTs (Today the ART was The Raised Performance level of the lads).


First of all, I wanna say Congratulations (not a Big one bcoz we ought to be dispatching teams like CAR anytime, anyday) on our well deserved Victory.
A Victory that restores Order in the WCQ group and on the continent. Power is not changing hands.... the CAR win in lagos was a huge flux for CAR but was also a reminder of the depth of Rohr's tactical deficiencies.




Joe Aribo, My MOTM

MOTM performance in my books. There was no one better. His best game in a good while in the GWG. A far cry from his soulless display 3 days ago.
This is the Aribo I wanna see constantly in the Super Eagles, yet his performance could be even better than we saw. Yes, He is that talented.

He is still not the Genuine Playmaker I seek as there were moments where I felt he could have taken a more forward passing or forward driven decision rather than hold on to the ball or look to go sideways but you will be untruthful if you don't admit that he really stepped up to the plate today. Really grew into control of the middle as the game matured.

He started the game a bit slowly but he indeed had a big hand in creating the freekick chance that Iheanacho should have done better from.

It was an Aribo lines-breaking pass (yes, he delivered that today) to the feet of Osimhen who held up the ball well and turned to draw the foul that created our first real chance of the game. After that, Aribo faded for a while but he came back stronger towards the end of the first half.

His midfield influence became more apparent towards the final 15 mins of the first half. He was winning aerial battles effortlessly and really throwing himself into duels in a bid to win the ball back and drive forward.

His industry paid off as he was on hand to pick up the loose ball from a freekick which he instantly fed into Ekong's path who centred well for Osimhen to finish emphatically! That was an Aribo Pre-assist. His decision making in that instant was vital to seeing us take the game further away from the CARians.

He took it up a good notch in the second half with his passing and quick decision making in certain instances of play. One of such saw him brilliantly set up Osimhen with a ball over the top of the defence. We should be talking about an Aribo assist had Osimhen decided against using his weaker foot to execute that chance.

Aribo's workrate was obviously on show and he contributed to Defensive phases when needed. Not like we needed to defend much anyway. We were hardly troubled by the CAR attack and Midfield.
T'was a complete Dominant performance and a strong part of such was down to the Massively improved display and Quality of Joseph Ayodele Aribo and his improved synergy with Frank Onyeka.

The duo worked tirelessly to control the middle game.

Give the man his thumbs-up and props. He deserves it today.

Do we still need midfield reinforcements? Oh yes we still do. The perfection of Midfield balance is still needed.

But Aribo was the man today. Played like a true Midfield lieutenant. Hopefully he keeps this up and lives up to a good measure of the Weight of expectations that normally accompanies the Nigerian #10 Jersey.



Victor Osimhen

Worked hard, pressed hard, was frustrated a bit in the early parts of the first half due to little service but he eventually bagged the goal he sought to cement our victory.

He should have had a second had he been a bit calmer to make a better decision on which foot to use. He had all the time in the world to change weight and use his right foot to side-foot home his brace (which would have thrown more light on the brilliant Aribo pass over the top to set that up. It would counted a truly brilliant Aribo Assist as well) but somehow, he just squandered.

I almost broke my screen. Lol... for real, I screamed, "Victoorrrrrrrrr!!!! Why??!!!"

Unlike the Monster Machine to miss from there but I hope he listens to whatever it was that Iheanacho told him after that chance wasted.

Iheanacho ran over to Osimhen immediately after that goal line clearance by the CAR defender, held his hands on Osimhen's chest and muttered some words of calm and encouragement.

Osimhen will do well to pick up whatever Nacho told him in addition to his own retrospection because Iheanacho himself is unarguably the best/deadliest finisher of chances among Nigerian footballers in world football today.

He was also set up by Ejuke's beautiful piece of mesmerising play through the middle which saw him beat about 3 players before feeding Osimhen. Osimhen should have at least shot on target. His shooting still needs work no doubt as he allowed the inconsistent supply of service kinda get to him but he's gonna get there.

He remains the Monster Machine and worked hard as usual for the team. Even had a clearance to his name from a CAR corner.

In all, A strong shift from the Super Eagles First Choice Number 9 who now has 14 goals Involvement in 14 caps (8 goals + 6 assists).



The Oyibo Wall (Balogun and Ekong)

Leon Balogun and William Troost Ekong were much better today alongside Chidozie Collins Awaziem in a 3 man Defensive set-up.


Leon

Balogun in particular had a really fantastic game. He was a man on a mission. A mission to right his wrong done in Lagos 3 days earlier. It was a performance worthy of Total redemption indeed.

Fearless getting forward, much quicker in his reactions, carried the ball forward imperiously when needed and one of such forward drives won the freekick from which we created the chance that got us our second goal.

His decision to also linger in the box with us still in possession after a ball from a setpiece/throw-in got initially repelled, paid off. He finished brilliantly with the touch of an experienced forward.

Ekong

Ekong put no foot wrong today as well. Marvellous in the center of the back three. Communicated superbly with Balogun and Awaziem.

Was on hand to cover up for a late Bonke Innocent slip-up which would have been dangerous and seen our lead halved. Ekong effortlessly killed off the danger with fantastic recovery for his teammate.

Bagged an assist today off an intelligent pre-assist pass by Aribo.

Solid in all aspects of the game today. And was also decent getting into forward positions.



Summary:

The Oyibo Wall redeemed themselves so much today that they had a hand in the two goals scored. 1 goal + 1 assist. A fantastic day for the famed Oyibo Wall.



Chidozie Collins Awaziem

A masterful display on the right side of the team's 3 man defence today. Always in control of his area and it is no longer a hidden fact that he is indeed the best long ball passer across the entire backline of the team defence.
No one on the team sends it long best like Eagle-eyed Awaziem.

He has a knack for this. Earlier in the season while he still balled for Boavista, he showed us all his fantastic ability to spot a run from deep or from afar off to deliver brilliant accurately timed and weighted long ball passes.

Even against Lesotho away from home, he showed this ability to quickly capitalise on passing gaps that can be exploited via long aerial balls when he found Osimhen from the right. A long pass Osimhen controlled to feed Chukwueze who converted with aplomb.



Frank Onyeka

Delivers another really Solid and Calm display at the base of the Super Eagles Midfield. That's the second game in a row as DM he has done this.

Today, he won most of his duels, tackled and intercepted as expected and gave the CAR Midfield very little time on the ball.
Also picked his short passes right. Was never in a rush to play. An epitome of Calm and Firm today in the middle.

Ladies and gentlemen, like I had always envisaged before the lad's debut for the team, in Frank Onyeka we have Ndidi's genuine cover.

Onyeka is better served as our DM in the absence or unavailability of Ndidi. A good option off the bench or from the start in the DM position.



Chidera Ejuke

22 mins+ of action off the bench yet he completed about 15 purposeful dribbles that led to a shot on target, a shot blocked and a fine chance created for Osimhen which was wasted.

Those who criticise that moment he had skipped past about 3 players with Osimhen to his right, saying he could have passed the ball do not observe well.

Firstly, Osimhen was in an offside position and only got back onside with Ejuke already closed in upon by two more markers which resulted in a shot that was blocked away and deflected off his head for a goal kick.

Secondly, Ejuke could also have been using Osimhen as a beautiful decoy to go for goal himself. Intelligent Wingers do that often.

So Ejuke was in no wrong to go it alone in that very moment. Even Osimhen applauded his daring effort.

Ejuke's press resistance quality was also on show today as he was literally unstoppable when he held the ball. It was just difficult getting the ball off him.

Commanding, creative and Dazzling showing from the Wing Wizard of Moscow.


Kelechi Iheanacho

To be honest, did little while on the pitch but did have a go from an early freekick won by Osimhen.
Tried to connect forward passes to Osimhen and the Wing men a few times but it didn't exactly come off.

Played a lot deeper into the middle as well so he could not exactly exert much influence.

Definitely has had much better days in the GWG than today's showing. A quiet shift from the Seniorman.



Ahmed Musa

Finally got his 100th cap officially in the GWG. Offered some hope rays in the early stages of the first half especially with that beautifully weighted pass from deep into the right wing that found Moses Simon setting him on the move into a dangerous position to square for Osimhen.
The Squared pass didn't come off eventually as the CAR LB caught up with Simon and blocked it off for a corner.

Involved in a few passing moves in the middle and attempted build up plays but generally capped a quiet shift as well.



Moses Simon

A display that saw him come in and out of the game in terms of influence from his right wingback role. One minute, he is causing a few problems down the wings but another minute, he is probably nowhere to be found.
Some of our fine passing buildup plays ended at his feet as he was easily marked out by more than two CAR players at some moments he get the ball.

He did connected beautifully though in the early stages with a Musa diagonal pass from deep but probably should have done better getting that cross in for the waiting Osimhen.
His backpass on the right wing to Awaziem after winning and holding on to the ball also contributed to the first goal.

Like already said, he was in and out of the game. Mixed showing in terms of game presence.

Not as quiet as Nacho and Musa were but also not as influential.

A decent shift overall.



Jamilu Collins

Decent in his position. Didn't have much to do in Defensive phases as we rendered CAR useless in their attacking phases. We didn't offer them much time or chance on the ball.
Collins did just enough to keep our defensive shape when we attacked.

A decent shift from the Fullback playing Wingback today.



Kenneth Omeruo (Sub in):

Came in for the highly Impressive Leon Balogun who left the pitch with a knock and did enough in his 15mins + 3mins added time of action to see off the game and secure the result.




Bonke Innocent (Sub in):

Came on for a Quiet Kelechi Iheanacho to lock up shop for good and help secure the final result.

He did have one or two moments of major duel action though. He stepped hard into a tackle after seeing the manner in which his Midfield comrade, Onyeka was taken down.
In that moment, Bonke did show his man marking/destroying quality as he did vs Cape Verde.

Gave away the ball at a point late into the game (87-88 mins) when he miscontrolled a pass but Ekong did well to cover for his mistake.



Maduka Okoye (GK)

The Sparta man returned between the sticks and bagged a cleansheet. Was virtually on holidays. Was not tested at all as we were in complete control and the Super Eagles were determined not to be caught out or undone by any sneaky CAR attacking move.







Inference:

In Conclusion, we only truly began penetrating the CAR defence after the first goal by Balogun on 29 mins off the ingenious long ball of Awaziem.

We had little to no creative breakthroughs before our first goal.

Aribo, although didn't deliver the expected Genuine Playmaker performance, he still gave us good enough control in the middle (alongside Onyeka's calm, composed, and solid display at DM) with his passing recycling, workrate, strength in ground & aerial duels and quick thinking in two key moments of the game that got us the second goal and would have gotten us the third.
A strong showing in all by the lad in Jersey #10. He really stepped up in key moments when needed and gave us presence in the middle game.

Long balls were still our best ways of cracking CAR today and it paid off. Every other chance we got was due to CAR trying to push a little forward in search of an Equaliser which was never gonna come anyway.

The long balls didn't work in the first game because they kept things really compact, were tactically alert and rendered the attempts useless. They came prepared and we also didn't have our best long ball passer on show in Awaziem.

Awaziem was just too good in Douala today, completed most of his long ball passes and his knack for spotting runs and passing gaps with his long range vision and quick thinking is something folks here need to give him more credit for often. A brilliant player, he is. Underrated by many.


We still didn't create much through the middle but we did just enough and had moments of penetrative attacking phases most especially via:

1. Aribo's absolutely delightful over-the-top pass to Osimhen which was squandered.

2. Musa's diagonal over-the-top pass to Moses Simon in the first half which opened up the CAR defence for a while before they recovered to kill the chance of a Simon Centre into Osimhen's path.

3. And Ejuke's penetrative dribbling runs through the middle and flanks of the CAR defence like a Knife through butter. One of such through the middle set up Osimhen nicely which was not duly utilised.



The players got the job done in the end, and we must understand that this team can do much better than they showed over these two legs.

Yes we won but CAR is not on the level of Egypt, Ghana or Guinea and these teams aren't even among the best 5 teams in Africa today. We have to be better. Rohr's tactical limitations remain. It's a virus we live with for now.

Going forward, let's see how much that "Virus" stays suppressed or rears its head again.

Another international window await us in November.

Back to Club Football.

andrewbaba44:
I have been worried about the playoff before this stage started ,but I think some people are less bothered

elyte89:
Like d idiom will say,when we get to d bridge, we will know aw to cross it

My own sha b say ,make we no face Ghana, I hate it when we play those guys.. Deir morale is always over 150percent when dey face us

Sportilitica:
God bless you for this analysis which I can say was not biased.
I have a question for you though. Since we defeated Algeria in 2018 till now, can you compare the progress of both teams please?

minfelix:
Highest if we qualify we will face any of this options
Nig vs CIV/CMR
Nig vs Egypt
Nig vs Mali
Nig vs Tan/Ben rep
Nig vs Gha/SA
This is where we need to bring bqck the spirit of 2018 world cup qualifiers.

but like seriously game changers and senior men like Mikel, ighalo, V.Moses, Onazi, Ideye(against Zambia away) helped us cruise through that tough group, can our younger and newbies do this for us
Osimhen, chukwueze, Ejuke, iheanahcho,okoye,onyeka, aribo etc....can dey do it against those tough opponents H/A?
Can Skipo Musa, Balogun, ekong, iheanahcho, Experienced Ndidi, Iwobi help guide the young guys? Time will tell

chrisooblog:
Onuachu to Atletico Madrid rumours reports say it could happen in January next year. Ndidi to Manchester United rumours also gathering momentum.

jihday:
lol

Parrot69:
I think we should be really be worried about the play-off matches cos the remaining matches btw Cape Verde & Liberia isn’t much of a headache to worry about. Bare injuries, We’re topping that group with minimum of 6points.
However, greatest worry lies in the playoffs in the remaining last 10.
A review of teams that topped their group will give a hint on how prepared they are to sacrifice their all for it.
Could you imagine Both Presidents of DRC and Madagascar were in the stadium of their respective countries to watch their National teams play, this is a boost to the morale of those players who never failed to deliver.
Now coming back home, what have we been doing?