Nicho118:
For your team not to score an open goal against the worse Ghana team in recent years for 180minutes, then the coach is not good enough

Angelfrost:
Stephen Keshi (God rest his soul) is the only decent Indigenous coach this nation has ever had...!

Eguaveon is not even qualified to coach Division 2 team in Nigeria .

Cmanforall:


How?

Oh I get it now...
Was confusing with Keshi


Let NFF organize a local coach to breed local Super Eagles, and then fix a match between the Portuguese selected team amd the locally sourced super eagles.

Let's pick the National team from there.
It can be 2 legs...home and away(abroad) match

SmartyPants:
By now it is no news to any Nigerian sports fan, that Augustin Eguavoen and his entire team have been relieved of their duties at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National team.

Most Nigerians are happy with this development, with some claiming that his immediate predecessor, Gernot Rohr would have delivered better results. However, a simple analysis of events will clearly demonstrate that Eguavoen did a fine enough job given the circumstances.

I will attempt to undertake this analysis by demonstrating, first that Eguavoen has a better record than one might realize, and secondly by comparing the performance of his Super Eagles with that of Afcon winners, Senegal, and runners-up Egypt.

When Gernot Rohr was sacked a few weeks to the Afcon, knowledgeable sportspersons decried the move, citing the difficulty any new coach would face in setting up the team to play to his own patterns. In analyzing Eguavoen, therefore, it must first be understood that the new boss was operating under extreme pressure, with little to no time to work with the players, play friendly games, and so forth. He was thrust immediately into the challenge of the Afcon and the subsequent challenge of world cup qualifying.

In this sense, Eguavoen eventually became a victim of his own success.

Few Nigerians, or football fans anywhere, would have expected Nigeria to defeat Egypt, talkless of the ease with which it was done. Egypt would go on to be the eventual tournament runners up, slaving out draw after draw. Interestingly, Senegal, the eventual winners, adopted a similar approach in getting to the final, barely managing 9 goals in open play in the entire tournament. For some perspective, vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun scored 8 goals on his own. This fact will be shown to be relevant subsequently.

For now, the point is that, after entering the tournament with very low expectations, coach Eguavoen immediately delighted and raised the expectations of Nigerians by leading the team to three successive wins, while playing some exciting football.

And then came the shock round-of-16 exit at the hands of Tunisia. The Tunisians had studied the Nigerian game plan which was rather simple: pass it to the wingers and let them dribble. The Tunisians set up defensively and effectively contained the threat of the most dangerous nigerian winger, Moses Simon, relying, themselves, on a largely ineffective strategy of counter-attacking.

On the whole, the game appeared set for extra time - barring the intervention of the sublime, or the ridiculous. As it turned out, it was a ridiculous error from fine-boy Maduka Okoye whose poor attempt at saving a speculative long-range drive led to the only goal of the game. This goal was also the first and only goal Nigeria conceded in open play at the Afcon.

I suspect most people would agree with me that there is not much a coach can do about a goal-keeping error. Except, perhaps, play another keeper. So Nigerians began to clamor for the changing of Maduka Okoye. Apparently, Francis Uzoho of some unmemorable club side in Cyprus, or Enyimba's second-choice goalkeeper, John Noble, would be much better options than the pretty boy who is on loan to Sparta Rotterdam from Watford. I admit I was one of those.

So began the qualifying playoff games. Nigerians were prepared to forget the Afcon failure since the prospect of the world cup loomed and Ghana surely would be dispatched easily. Pretty boy Maduka claimed to be ill, though, there are many of us who believe his malaise was/is merely one of discontentment at the abuse he suffered at the hands of irate Nigerians.

The not quite-as-pretty Francis Uzoho, then, to the satisfaction of most Nigerians, was left to reclaim the spot that was once his. It is important to point out that Francis Uzoho was once a highly rated goalkeeper plying his trade in the Spanish top flight.

Eguavoen's team went to Ghana, ostensibly, set up to play for a draw so as to leverage the home advantage in the return leg in Abuja. The game, an ugly 0 - 0 draw played out accordingly. Nigerians, who always expect to win, were disappointed and left grumbling. The coach should have used Ademola Lookman some said. Etebo should have started becasue Bonke was useless others chimed. Moses Simon should be dropped, yet another group chorused.

At the press conference before the game in Abuja, one sports journalist asked Moses Simon whether the coach should yeild to calls to play Ademola Lookman since he (Moses Simon) had been caged for since the Tunisia game. Eguavoen, appears, now, to have listened to all of these voices. In the second leg in Abuja, he dropped Moses Simon for the first time, starting new boy Ademola Lookman in his place, along with Ogenekaro Etebo in place of Innocent Bonke, and Dennis Emmanuel on the right flank. The court of public opinion had their way, and the results? Predictable.

Ademola Lookman looked unable to cope with the physicality of the opponents, and was ineffective. Etebo lacked match fitness and kept giving the ball away. He was also nowhere to be found when Thomas Partey of Ghana fired off a speculative shot from 5 yards out of the
Nigerian box. That Partey shot was eerily similar to the one Youssef Msakni scored just a few months earlier, to end Nigeria's world cup hopes.

The lanky Francis Uzoho couldn't get down early enough to save the tame shot that sqeezed it's way under his huge frame and into the corner of the net. Apparently, the problem wasn't Maduka's fine face after all. This time, though, unlike in Garoua two months ago, there was an immediate response. Ademola Lookman was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded after a VAR review.

All the Super Eagles needed to do was score, and we expected that they would. After all the Ghanaians came to joke around right? Wrong! While Nigeria had the upper hand in terms of possession, there was simply no penetrative edge to it all. And so, the sorrow of Garoua became the agony of Abuja.

All of this is now water under the bridge.

Eguavoen and his team have all been sacked by Amaju Pinnick, the NFF don. Interestingly, Pinnick, who hired both Eguavoen and his predecessor Rohr, has now sacked both while he himself remains securely ensconced within the NFF seat of power. Logically, if all the people you hired failed to do a job well then at the very least, it is clear that you are not fit for the role of hiring people for that job. Amaju Pinnick, if he were honorable, should have resigned by now, for overseeing, arguably, the worst Nigerian footballing disaster of the past 20 years!

But that is now beside the point. The real question is, did Augustine Eguavoen really fail to deliver? Let's examine his record.

Of 6 competitive games, Eguvoen's eagles won 3, lost 1, and drew 2. That is a decent record at any level.

And it wasn't as though this team was playing slouches either. The one defeat came to Tunisia, who are going to the world cup after convincingly dispatching West African heavyweights, Mali. The two draws came in fiercely contested ties with arch-rivals Ghana.

This is a decent record for any coach. Much more so for one who has had as little time as Eguavoen has had while being under as much pressure as he has been, from the media and higher-ups in the NFF who have always tried to dictate tactics to him.

Now, to buttress the point, consider the good fortunes of Senegal. Like Nigeria, Senegal played out their world cup qualifying games with an overall draw, conceding once in Cairo, and scoring once in Dakar. Both times by way of an own goal. Their good fortune was winning the resultant penalty shootout. Senegal are also the current Afcon winners, but their displays were boring and intrepid throughout the tournament, relying on the same defense-first strategy Eguavoen employed in the world cup qualifying games.

Their performances were certainly not better than anything Nigeria played. And what of Afcon runners up Egypt? They played through extra-time 4 times, going to penalties 3 of those 4 occasions, and repeating that trend by going to penalties with Senegal in the world cup play offs.

Of the top African teams, objectively analyzed, it is clear that Nigeria under Eguavoen has not performed unexpectedly poorly. Gone are the days of struggling to draw or defeat relative minnows like Cape Verde, or conceding 4 goals in 2 minutes against the likes of Sierra Leone. Eguavoen was on the right path with the Eagles, and given the little time he has had, should have been allowed another year or two at the helm of affairs.

Today, unfortunately, thanks to the grandstanding of Amaju Pinnick and the ever so forgetful Nigerian media, his competent run at the helm of affairs will be wrongly remembered as a calamitous reign of sorrow.

engroke:
I disagree with you, the Nationla team is not where u come to experiment or hope to improve your CV, Eguavoen failed and he knows it all this grandstanding should just stop.


He was aware if the task ahead and should have rejected the job if he knew he wont be able to cope with the pressure that comes with it. The moment you agree to take a job, u agree to all liabilities and assets.


Before his appointment, he was the technical director and knows much about the players and the team but he lacks the tactical depth to achieve anything with the team even if he had the whole year to prepare.


As for Rohr, he was not overly poor as he was on course to fulfill his mandate, he qualified us for the world cup in a group that had both Cameroon and Algeria( cameroon were the African champions while Algeria were the number 1 african side then).


Eguavoen understood the task at hand and he couldn't achieve it not to even say that the only top team he defeated in his six games sojourn was EGYPT. NFF should as a matter of urgency look for a coach capable of giving us what we want Thanks

SmartyPants:
By now it is no news to any Nigerian sports fan, that Augustin Eguavoen and his entire team have been relieved of their duties at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National team.

Most Nigerians are happy with this development, with some claiming that his immediate predecessor, Gernot Rohr would have delivered better results. However, a simple analysis of events will clearly demonstrate that Eguavoen did a fine enough job given the circumstances.

I will attempt to undertake this analysis by demonstrating, first that Eguavoen has a better record than one might realize, and secondly by comparing the performance of his Super Eagles with that of Afcon winners, Senegal, and runners-up Egypt.

When Gernot Rohr was sacked a few weeks to the Afcon, knowledgeable sportspersons decried the move, citing the difficulty any new coach would face in setting up the team to play to his own patterns. In analyzing Eguavoen, therefore, it must first be understood that the new boss was operating under extreme pressure, with little to no time to work with the players, play friendly games, and so forth. He was thrust immediately into the challenge of the Afcon and the subsequent challenge of world cup qualifying.

In this sense, Eguavoen eventually became a victim of his own success.

Few Nigerians, or football fans anywhere, would have expected Nigeria to defeat Egypt, talkless of the ease with which it was done. Egypt would go on to be the eventual tournament runners up, slaving out draw after draw. Interestingly, Senegal, the eventual winners, adopted a similar approach in getting to the final, barely managing 9 goals in open play in the entire tournament. For some perspective, vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun scored 8 goals on his own. This fact will be shown to be relevant subsequently.

For now, the point is that, after entering the tournament with very low expectations, coach Eguavoen immediately delighted and raised the expectations of Nigerians by leading the team to three successive wins, while playing some exciting football.

And then came the shock round-of-16 exit at the hands of Tunisia. The Tunisians had studied the Nigerian game plan which was rather simple: pass it to the wingers and let them dribble. The Tunisians set up defensively and effectively contained the threat of the most dangerous nigerian winger, Moses Simon, relying, themselves, on a largely ineffective strategy of counter-attacking.

On the whole, the game appeared set for extra time - barring the intervention of the sublime, or the ridiculous. As it turned out, it was a ridiculous error from fine-boy Maduka Okoye whose poor attempt at saving a speculative long-range drive led to the only goal of the game. This goal was also the first and only goal Nigeria conceded in open play at the Afcon.

I suspect most people would agree with me that there is not much a coach can do about a goal-keeping error. Except, perhaps, play another keeper. So Nigerians began to clamor for the changing of Maduka Okoye. Apparently, Francis Uzoho of some unmemorable club side in Cyprus, or Enyimba's second-choice goalkeeper, John Noble, would be much better options than the pretty boy who is on loan to Sparta Rotterdam from Watford. I admit I was one of those.

So began the qualifying playoff games. Nigerians were prepared to forget the Afcon failure since the prospect of the world cup loomed and Ghana surely would be dispatched easily. Pretty boy Maduka claimed to be ill, though, there are many of us who believe his malaise was/is merely one of discontentment at the abuse he suffered at the hands of irate Nigerians.

The not quite-as-pretty Francis Uzoho, then, to the satisfaction of most Nigerians, was left to reclaim the spot that was once his. It is important to point out that Francis Uzoho was once a highly rated goalkeeper plying his trade in the Spanish top flight.

Eguavoen's team went to Ghana, ostensibly, set up to play for a draw so as to leverage the home advantage in the return leg in Abuja. The game, an ugly 0 - 0 draw played out accordingly. Nigerians, who always expect to win, were disappointed and left grumbling. The coach should have used Ademola Lookman some said. Etebo should have started becasue Bonke was useless others chimed. Moses Simon should be dropped, yet another group chorused.

At the press conference before the game in Abuja, one sports journalist asked Moses Simon whether the coach should yeild to calls to play Ademola Lookman since he (Moses Simon) had been caged for since the Tunisia game. Eguavoen, appears, now, to have listened to all of these voices. In the second leg in Abuja, he dropped Moses Simon for the first time, starting new boy Ademola Lookman in his place, along with Ogenekaro Etebo in place of Innocent Bonke, and Dennis Emmanuel on the right flank. The court of public opinion had their way, and the results? Predictable.

Ademola Lookman looked unable to cope with the physicality of the opponents, and was ineffective. Etebo lacked match fitness and kept giving the ball away. He was also nowhere to be found when Thomas Partey of Ghana fired off a speculative shot from 5 yards out of the
Nigerian box. That Partey shot was eerily similar to the one Youssef Msakni scored just a few months earlier, to end Nigeria's world cup hopes.

The lanky Francis Uzoho couldn't get down early enough to save the tame shot that sqeezed it's way under his huge frame and into the corner of the net. Apparently, the problem wasn't Maduka's fine face after all. This time, though, unlike in Garoua two months ago, there was an immediate response. Ademola Lookman was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded after a VAR review.

All the Super Eagles needed to do was score, and we expected that they would. After all the Ghanaians came to joke around right? Wrong! While Nigeria had the upper hand in terms of possession, there was simply no penetrative edge to it all. And so, the sorrow of Garoua became the agony of Abuja.

All of this is now water under the bridge.

Eguavoen and his team have all been sacked by Amaju Pinnick, the NFF don. Interestingly, Pinnick, who hired both Eguavoen and his predecessor Rohr, has now sacked both while he himself remains securely ensconced within the NFF seat of power. Logically, if all the people you hired failed to do a job well then at the very least, it is clear that you are not fit for the role of hiring people for that job. Amaju Pinnick, if he were honorable, should have resigned by now, for overseeing, arguably, the worst Nigerian footballing disaster of the past 20 years!

But that is now beside the point. The real question is, did Augustine Eguavoen really fail to deliver? Let's examine his record.

Of 6 competitive games, Eguvoen's eagles won 3, lost 1, and drew 2. That is a decent record at any level.

And it wasn't as though this team was playing slouches either. The one defeat came to Tunisia, who are going to the world cup after convincingly dispatching West African heavyweights, Mali. The two draws came in fiercely contested ties with arch-rivals Ghana.

This is a decent record for any coach. Much more so for one who has had as little time as Eguavoen has had while being under as much pressure as he has been, from the media and higher-ups in the NFF who have always tried to dictate tactics to him.

Now, to buttress the point, consider the good fortunes of Senegal. Like Nigeria, Senegal played out their world cup qualifying games with an overall draw, conceding once in Cairo, and scoring once in Dakar. Both times by way of an own goal. Their good fortune was winning the resultant penalty shootout. Senegal are also the current Afcon winners, but their displays were boring and intrepid throughout the tournament, relying on the same defense-first strategy Eguavoen employed in the world cup qualifying games.

Their performances were certainly not better than anything Nigeria played. And what of Afcon runners up Egypt? They played through extra-time 4 times, going to penalties 3 of those 4 occasions, and repeating that trend by going to penalties with Senegal in the world cup play offs.

Of the top African teams, objectively analyzed, it is clear that Nigeria under Eguavoen has not performed unexpectedly poorly. Gone are the days of struggling to draw or defeat relative minnows like Cape Verde, or conceding 4 goals in 2 minutes against the likes of Sierra Leone. Eguavoen was on the right path with the Eagles, and given the little time he has had, should have been allowed another year or two at the helm of affairs.

Today, unfortunately, thanks to the grandstanding of Amaju Pinnick and the ever so forgetful Nigerian media, his competent run at the helm of affairs will be wrongly remembered as a calamitous reign of sorrow.

Softmirror:


FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT WINNING END OF STORY. IF YOU LIKE HAVE 90% BALL POSSESSION, 50% SHOT AT GOAL AGAINST YOUR OPPONENT. AS LONG AS YOU ARE TRAILING YOUR OPPONENT BY A LONE GOAL, YOU ARE A LOSER. THAT'S WHY TILL TOMORROW, COUNTRIES SUCH AS BELGIUM, NETHERLANDS AND IF NOT OF RECENT SPAIN BEING ABLE TO TRANSFORM THE EFFORTS TO WINNING A WORLD CUP, THEY WOULD ALSO HAVE BEEN A GOOD FOR NOTHING. THERE IS NOTHING MORE TO FOOTBALL THAN THE SCORE LINE AT THE END OF THE DAY. NOTHING MORE. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. A COACH WILL ONLY EARN RESPECT AS LONG AS HIS TEAM WINS AND CONTINUES TO WIN.

SmartyPants:
By now it is no news to any Nigerian sports fan, that Augustin Eguavoen and his entire team have been relieved of their duties at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National team.

Most Nigerians are happy with this development, with some claiming that his immediate predecessor, Gernot Rohr would have delivered better results. However, a simple analysis of events will clearly demonstrate that Eguavoen did a fine enough job given the circumstances.

I will attempt to undertake this analysis by demonstrating, first that Eguavoen has a better record than one might realize, and secondly by comparing the performance of his Super Eagles with that of Afcon winners, Senegal, and runners-up Egypt.

When Gernot Rohr was sacked a few weeks to the Afcon, knowledgeable sportspersons decried the move, citing the difficulty any new coach would face in setting up the team to play to his own patterns. In analyzing Eguavoen, therefore, it must first be understood that the new boss was operating under extreme pressure, with little to no time to work with the players, play friendly games, and so forth. He was thrust immediately into the challenge of the Afcon and the subsequent challenge of world cup qualifying.

In this sense, Eguavoen eventually became a victim of his own success.

Few Nigerians, or football fans anywhere, would have expected Nigeria to defeat Egypt, talkless of the ease with which it was done. Egypt would go on to be the eventual tournament runners up, slaving out draw after draw. Interestingly, Senegal, the eventual winners, adopted a similar approach in getting to the final, barely managing 9 goals in open play in the entire tournament. For some perspective, vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun scored 8 goals on his own. This fact will be shown to be relevant subsequently.

For now, the point is that, after entering the tournament with very low expectations, coach Eguavoen immediately delighted and raised the expectations of Nigerians by leading the team to three successive wins, while playing some exciting football.

And then came the shock round-of-16 exit at the hands of Tunisia. The Tunisians had studied the Nigerian game plan which was rather simple: pass it to the wingers and let them dribble. The Tunisians set up defensively and effectively contained the threat of the most dangerous nigerian winger, Moses Simon, relying, themselves, on a largely ineffective strategy of counter-attacking.

On the whole, the game appeared set for extra time - barring the intervention of the sublime, or the ridiculous. As it turned out, it was a ridiculous error from fine-boy Maduka Okoye whose poor attempt at saving a speculative long-range drive led to the only goal of the game. This goal was also the first and only goal Nigeria conceded in open play at the Afcon.

I suspect most people would agree with me that there is not much a coach can do about a goal-keeping error. Except, perhaps, play another keeper. So Nigerians began to clamor for the changing of Maduka Okoye. Apparently, Francis Uzoho of some unmemorable club side in Cyprus, or Enyimba's second-choice goalkeeper, John Noble, would be much better options than the pretty boy who is on loan to Sparta Rotterdam from Watford. I admit I was one of those.

So began the qualifying playoff games. Nigerians were prepared to forget the Afcon failure since the prospect of the world cup loomed and Ghana surely would be dispatched easily. Pretty boy Maduka claimed to be ill, though, there are many of us who believe his malaise was/is merely one of discontentment at the abuse he suffered at the hands of irate Nigerians.

The not quite-as-pretty Francis Uzoho, then, to the satisfaction of most Nigerians, was left to reclaim the spot that was once his. It is important to point out that Francis Uzoho was once a highly rated goalkeeper plying his trade in the Spanish top flight.

Eguavoen's team went to Ghana, ostensibly, set up to play for a draw so as to leverage the home advantage in the return leg in Abuja. The game, an ugly 0 - 0 draw played out accordingly. Nigerians, who always expect to win, were disappointed and left grumbling. The coach should have used Ademola Lookman some said. Etebo should have started becasue Bonke was useless others chimed. Moses Simon should be dropped, yet another group chorused.

At the press conference before the game in Abuja, one sports journalist asked Moses Simon whether the coach should yeild to calls to play Ademola Lookman since he (Moses Simon) had been caged for since the Tunisia game. Eguavoen, appears, now, to have listened to all of these voices. In the second leg in Abuja, he dropped Moses Simon for the first time, starting new boy Ademola Lookman in his place, along with Ogenekaro Etebo in place of Innocent Bonke, and Dennis Emmanuel on the right flank. The court of public opinion had their way, and the results? Predictable.

Ademola Lookman looked unable to cope with the physicality of the opponents, and was ineffective. Etebo lacked match fitness and kept giving the ball away. He was also nowhere to be found when Thomas Partey of Ghana fired off a speculative shot from 5 yards out of the
Nigerian box. That Partey shot was eerily similar to the one Youssef Msakni scored just a few months earlier, to end Nigeria's world cup hopes.

The lanky Francis Uzoho couldn't get down early enough to save the tame shot that sqeezed it's way under his huge frame and into the corner of the net. Apparently, the problem wasn't Maduka's fine face after all. This time, though, unlike in Garoua two months ago, there was an immediate response. Ademola Lookman was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded after a VAR review.

All the Super Eagles needed to do was score, and we expected that they would. After all the Ghanaians came to joke around right? Wrong! While Nigeria had the upper hand in terms of possession, there was simply no penetrative edge to it all. And so, the sorrow of Garoua became the agony of Abuja.

All of this is now water under the bridge.

Eguavoen and his team have all been sacked by Amaju Pinnick, the NFF don. Interestingly, Pinnick, who hired both Eguavoen and his predecessor Rohr, has now sacked both while he himself remains securely ensconced within the NFF seat of power. Logically, if all the people you hired failed to do a job well then at the very least, it is clear that you are not fit for the role of hiring people for that job. Amaju Pinnick, if he were honorable, should have resigned by now, for overseeing, arguably, the worst Nigerian footballing disaster of the past 20 years!

But that is now beside the point. The real question is, did Augustine Eguavoen really fail to deliver? Let's examine his record.

Of 6 competitive games, Eguvoen's eagles won 3, lost 1, and drew 2. That is a decent record at any level.

And it wasn't as though this team was playing slouches either. The one defeat came to Tunisia, who are going to the world cup after convincingly dispatching West African heavyweights, Mali. The two draws came in fiercely contested ties with arch-rivals Ghana.

This is a decent record for any coach. Much more so for one who has had as little time as Eguavoen has had while being under as much pressure as he has been, from the media and higher-ups in the NFF who have always tried to dictate tactics to him.

Now, to buttress the point, consider the good fortunes of Senegal. Like Nigeria, Senegal played out their world cup qualifying games with an overall draw, conceding once in Cairo, and scoring once in Dakar. Both times by way of an own goal. Their good fortune was winning the resultant penalty shootout. Senegal are also the current Afcon winners, but their displays were boring and intrepid throughout the tournament, relying on the same defense-first strategy Eguavoen employed in the world cup qualifying games.

Their performances were certainly not better than anything Nigeria played. And what of Afcon runners up Egypt? They played through extra-time 4 times, going to penalties 3 of those 4 occasions, and repeating that trend by going to penalties with Senegal in the world cup play offs.

Of the top African teams, objectively analyzed, it is clear that Nigeria under Eguavoen has not performed unexpectedly poorly. Gone are the days of struggling to draw or defeat relative minnows like Cape Verde, or conceding 4 goals in 2 minutes against the likes of Sierra Leone. Eguavoen was on the right path with the Eagles, and given the little time he has had, should have been allowed another year or two at the helm of affairs.

Today, unfortunately, thanks to the grandstanding of Amaju Pinnick and the ever so forgetful Nigerian media, his competent run at the helm of affairs will be wrongly remembered as a calamitous reign of sorrow.

SmartyPants:
By now it is no news to any Nigerian sports fan, that Augustin Eguavoen and his entire team have been relieved of their duties at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National team.

Most Nigerians are happy with this development, with some claiming that his immediate predecessor, Gernot Rohr would have delivered better results. However, a simple analysis of events will clearly demonstrate that Eguavoen did a fine enough job given the circumstances.

I will attempt to undertake this analysis by demonstrating, first that Eguavoen has a better record than one might realize, and secondly by comparing the performance of his Super Eagles with that of Afcon winners, Senegal, and runners-up Egypt.

When Gernot Rohr was sacked a few weeks to the Afcon, knowledgeable sportspersons decried the move, citing the difficulty any new coach would face in setting up the team to play to his own patterns. In analyzing Eguavoen, therefore, it must first be understood that the new boss was operating under extreme pressure, with little to no time to work with the players, play friendly games, and so forth. He was thrust immediately into the challenge of the Afcon and the subsequent challenge of world cup qualifying.

In this sense, Eguavoen eventually became a victim of his own success.

Few Nigerians, or football fans anywhere, would have expected Nigeria to defeat Egypt, talkless of the ease with which it was done. Egypt would go on to be the eventual tournament runners up, slaving out draw after draw. Interestingly, Senegal, the eventual winners, adopted a similar approach in getting to the final, barely managing 9 goals in open play in the entire tournament. For some perspective, vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun scored 8 goals on his own. This fact will be shown to be relevant subsequently.

For now, the point is that, after entering the tournament with very low expectations, coach Eguavoen immediately delighted and raised the expectations of Nigerians by leading the team to three successive wins, while playing some exciting football.

And then came the shock round-of-16 exit at the hands of Tunisia. The Tunisians had studied the Nigerian game plan which was rather simple: pass it to the wingers and let them dribble. The Tunisians set up defensively and effectively contained the threat of the most dangerous nigerian winger, Moses Simon, relying, themselves, on a largely ineffective strategy of counter-attacking.

On the whole, the game appeared set for extra time - barring the intervention of the sublime, or the ridiculous. As it turned out, it was a ridiculous error from fine-boy Maduka Okoye whose poor attempt at saving a speculative long-range drive led to the only goal of the game. This goal was also the first and only goal Nigeria conceded in open play at the Afcon.

I suspect most people would agree with me that there is not much a coach can do about a goal-keeping error. Except, perhaps, play another keeper. So Nigerians began to clamor for the changing of Maduka Okoye. Apparently, Francis Uzoho of some unmemorable club side in Cyprus, or Enyimba's second-choice goalkeeper, John Noble, would be much better options than the pretty boy who is on loan to Sparta Rotterdam from Watford. I admit I was one of those.

So began the qualifying playoff games. Nigerians were prepared to forget the Afcon failure since the prospect of the world cup loomed and Ghana surely would be dispatched easily. Pretty boy Maduka claimed to be ill, though, there are many of us who believe his malaise was/is merely one of discontentment at the abuse he suffered at the hands of irate Nigerians.

The not quite-as-pretty Francis Uzoho, then, to the satisfaction of most Nigerians, was left to reclaim the spot that was once his. It is important to point out that Francis Uzoho was once a highly rated goalkeeper plying his trade in the Spanish top flight.

Eguavoen's team went to Ghana, ostensibly, set up to play for a draw so as to leverage the home advantage in the return leg in Abuja. The game, an ugly 0 - 0 draw played out accordingly. Nigerians, who always expect to win, were disappointed and left grumbling. The coach should have used Ademola Lookman some said. Etebo should have started becasue Bonke was useless others chimed. Moses Simon should be dropped, yet another group chorused.

At the press conference before the game in Abuja, one sports journalist asked Moses Simon whether the coach should yeild to calls to play Ademola Lookman since he (Moses Simon) had been caged for since the Tunisia game. Eguavoen, appears, now, to have listened to all of these voices. In the second leg in Abuja, he dropped Moses Simon for the first time, starting new boy Ademola Lookman in his place, along with Ogenekaro Etebo in place of Innocent Bonke, and Dennis Emmanuel on the right flank. The court of public opinion had their way, and the results? Predictable.

Ademola Lookman looked unable to cope with the physicality of the opponents, and was ineffective. Etebo lacked match fitness and kept giving the ball away. He was also nowhere to be found when Thomas Partey of Ghana fired off a speculative shot from 5 yards out of the
Nigerian box. That Partey shot was eerily similar to the one Youssef Msakni scored just a few months earlier, to end Nigeria's world cup hopes.

The lanky Francis Uzoho couldn't get down early enough to save the tame shot that sqeezed it's way under his huge frame and into the corner of the net. Apparently, the problem wasn't Maduka's fine face after all. This time, though, unlike in Garoua two months ago, there was an immediate response. Ademola Lookman was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded after a VAR review.

All the Super Eagles needed to do was score, and we expected that they would. After all the Ghanaians came to joke around right? Wrong! While Nigeria had the upper hand in terms of possession, there was simply no penetrative edge to it all. And so, the sorrow of Garoua became the agony of Abuja.

All of this is now water under the bridge.

Eguavoen and his team have all been sacked by Amaju Pinnick, the NFF don. Interestingly, Pinnick, who hired both Eguavoen and his predecessor Rohr, has now sacked both while he himself remains securely ensconced within the NFF seat of power. Logically, if all the people you hired failed to do a job well then at the very least, it is clear that you are not fit for the role of hiring people for that job. Amaju Pinnick, if he were honorable, should have resigned by now, for overseeing, arguably, the worst Nigerian footballing disaster of the past 20 years!

But that is now beside the point. The real question is, did Augustine Eguavoen really fail to deliver? Let's examine his record.

Of 6 competitive games, Eguvoen's eagles won 3, lost 1, and drew 2. That is a decent record at any level.

And it wasn't as though this team was playing slouches either. The one defeat came to Tunisia, who are going to the world cup after convincingly dispatching West African heavyweights, Mali. The two draws came in fiercely contested ties with arch-rivals Ghana.

This is a decent record for any coach. Much more so for one who has had as little time as Eguavoen has had while being under as much pressure as he has been, from the media and higher-ups in the NFF who have always tried to dictate tactics to him.

Now, to buttress the point, consider the good fortunes of Senegal. Like Nigeria, Senegal played out their world cup qualifying games with an overall draw, conceding once in Cairo, and scoring once in Dakar. Both times by way of an own goal. Their good fortune was winning the resultant penalty shootout. Senegal are also the current Afcon winners, but their displays were boring and intrepid throughout the tournament, relying on the same defense-first strategy Eguavoen employed in the world cup qualifying games.

Their performances were certainly not better than anything Nigeria played. And what of Afcon runners up Egypt? They played through extra-time 4 times, going to penalties 3 of those 4 occasions, and repeating that trend by going to penalties with Senegal in the world cup play offs.

Of the top African teams, objectively analyzed, it is clear that Nigeria under Eguavoen has not performed unexpectedly poorly. Gone are the days of struggling to draw or defeat relative minnows like Cape Verde, or conceding 4 goals in 2 minutes against the likes of Sierra Leone. Eguavoen was on the right path with the Eagles, and given the little time he has had, should have been allowed another year or two at the helm of affairs.

Today, unfortunately, thanks to the grandstanding of Amaju Pinnick and the ever so forgetful Nigerian media, his competent run at the helm of affairs will be wrongly remembered as a calamitous reign of sorrow.

SmartyPants:


Engineer, are you saying Rohr's 4 - 4 vs Sierra Leone at home was a good result? What of his inability to defeat Cape Verde? The last 4 - 5 games of Rohr's tenure were terrible to watch with unacceptable results! Let's not rewrite history here.

SmartyPants:
By now it is no news to any Nigerian sports fan, that Augustin Eguavoen and his entire team have been relieved of their duties at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian National team.

Most Nigerians are happy with this development, with some claiming that his immediate predecessor, Gernot Rohr would have delivered better results. However, a simple analysis of events will clearly demonstrate that Eguavoen did a fine enough job given the circumstances.

I will attempt to undertake this analysis by demonstrating, first that Eguavoen has a better record than one might realize, and secondly by comparing the performance of his Super Eagles with that of Afcon winners, Senegal, and runners-up Egypt.

When Gernot Rohr was sacked a few weeks to the Afcon, knowledgeable sportspersons decried the move, citing the difficulty any new coach would face in setting up the team to play to his own patterns. In analyzing Eguavoen, therefore, it must first be understood that the new boss was operating under extreme pressure, with little to no time to work with the players, play friendly games, and so forth. He was thrust immediately into the challenge of the Afcon and the subsequent challenge of world cup qualifying.

In this sense, Eguavoen eventually became a victim of his own success.

Few Nigerians, or football fans anywhere, would have expected Nigeria to defeat Egypt, talkless of the ease with which it was done. Egypt would go on to be the eventual tournament runners up, slaving out draw after draw. Interestingly, Senegal, the eventual winners, adopted a similar approach in getting to the final, barely managing 9 goals in open play in the entire tournament. For some perspective, vincent Aboubakar of Cameroun scored 8 goals on his own. This fact will be shown to be relevant subsequently.

For now, the point is that, after entering the tournament with very low expectations, coach Eguavoen immediately delighted and raised the expectations of Nigerians by leading the team to three successive wins, while playing some exciting football.

And then came the shock round-of-16 exit at the hands of Tunisia. The Tunisians had studied the Nigerian game plan which was rather simple: pass it to the wingers and let them dribble. The Tunisians set up defensively and effectively contained the threat of the most dangerous nigerian winger, Moses Simon, relying, themselves, on a largely ineffective strategy of counter-attacking.

On the whole, the game appeared set for extra time - barring the intervention of the sublime, or the ridiculous. As it turned out, it was a ridiculous error from fine-boy Maduka Okoye whose poor attempt at saving a speculative long-range drive led to the only goal of the game. This goal was also the first and only goal Nigeria conceded in open play at the Afcon.

I suspect most people would agree with me that there is not much a coach can do about a goal-keeping error. Except, perhaps, play another keeper. So Nigerians began to clamor for the changing of Maduka Okoye. Apparently, Francis Uzoho of some unmemorable club side in Cyprus, or Enyimba's second-choice goalkeeper, John Noble, would be much better options than the pretty boy who is on loan to Sparta Rotterdam from Watford. I admit I was one of those.

So began the qualifying playoff games. Nigerians were prepared to forget the Afcon failure since the prospect of the world cup loomed and Ghana surely would be dispatched easily. Pretty boy Maduka claimed to be ill, though, there are many of us who believe his malaise was/is merely one of discontentment at the abuse he suffered at the hands of irate Nigerians.

The not quite-as-pretty Francis Uzoho, then, to the satisfaction of most Nigerians, was left to reclaim the spot that was once his. It is important to point out that Francis Uzoho was once a highly rated goalkeeper plying his trade in the Spanish top flight.

Eguavoen's team went to Ghana, ostensibly, set up to play for a draw so as to leverage the home advantage in the return leg in Abuja. The game, an ugly 0 - 0 draw played out accordingly. Nigerians, who always expect to win, were disappointed and left grumbling. The coach should have used Ademola Lookman some said. Etebo should have started becasue Bonke was useless others chimed. Moses Simon should be dropped, yet another group chorused.

At the press conference before the game in Abuja, one sports journalist asked Moses Simon whether the coach should yeild to calls to play Ademola Lookman since he (Moses Simon) had been caged for since the Tunisia game. Eguavoen, appears, now, to have listened to all of these voices. In the second leg in Abuja, he dropped Moses Simon for the first time, starting new boy Ademola Lookman in his place, along with Ogenekaro Etebo in place of Innocent Bonke, and Dennis Emmanuel on the right flank. The court of public opinion had their way, and the results? Predictable.

Ademola Lookman looked unable to cope with the physicality of the opponents, and was ineffective. Etebo lacked match fitness and kept giving the ball away. He was also nowhere to be found when Thomas Partey of Ghana fired off a speculative shot from 5 yards out of the
Nigerian box. That Partey shot was eerily similar to the one Youssef Msakni scored just a few months earlier, to end Nigeria's world cup hopes.

The lanky Francis Uzoho couldn't get down early enough to save the tame shot that sqeezed it's way under his huge frame and into the corner of the net. Apparently, the problem wasn't Maduka's fine face after all. This time, though, unlike in Garoua two months ago, there was an immediate response. Ademola Lookman was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded after a VAR review.

All the Super Eagles needed to do was score, and we expected that they would. After all the Ghanaians came to joke around right? Wrong! While Nigeria had the upper hand in terms of possession, there was simply no penetrative edge to it all. And so, the sorrow of Garoua became the agony of Abuja.

All of this is now water under the bridge.

Eguavoen and his team have all been sacked by Amaju Pinnick, the NFF don. Interestingly, Pinnick, who hired both Eguavoen and his predecessor Rohr, has now sacked both while he himself remains securely ensconced within the NFF seat of power. Logically, if all the people you hired failed to do a job well then at the very least, it is clear that you are not fit for the role of hiring people for that job. Amaju Pinnick, if he were honorable, should have resigned by now, for overseeing, arguably, the worst Nigerian footballing disaster of the past 20 years!

But that is now beside the point. The real question is, did Augustine Eguavoen really fail to deliver? Let's examine his record.

Of 6 competitive games, Eguvoen's eagles won 3, lost 1, and drew 2. That is a decent record at any level.

And it wasn't as though this team was playing slouches either. The one defeat came to Tunisia, who are going to the world cup after convincingly dispatching West African heavyweights, Mali. The two draws came in fiercely contested ties with arch-rivals Ghana.

This is a decent record for any coach. Much more so for one who has had as little time as Eguavoen has had while being under as much pressure as he has been, from the media and higher-ups in the NFF who have always tried to dictate tactics to him.

Now, to buttress the point, consider the good fortunes of Senegal. Like Nigeria, Senegal played out their world cup qualifying games with an overall draw, conceding once in Cairo, and scoring once in Dakar. Both times by way of an own goal. Their good fortune was winning the resultant penalty shootout. Senegal are also the current Afcon winners, but their displays were boring and intrepid throughout the tournament, relying on the same defense-first strategy Eguavoen employed in the world cup qualifying games.

Their performances were certainly not better than anything Nigeria played. And what of Afcon runners up Egypt? They played through extra-time 4 times, going to penalties 3 of those 4 occasions, and repeating that trend by going to penalties with Senegal in the world cup play offs.

Of the top African teams, objectively analyzed, it is clear that Nigeria under Eguavoen has not performed unexpectedly poorly. Gone are the days of struggling to draw or defeat relative minnows like Cape Verde, or conceding 4 goals in 2 minutes against the likes of Sierra Leone. Eguavoen was on the right path with the Eagles, and given the little time he has had, should have been allowed another year or two at the helm of affairs.

Today, unfortunately, thanks to the grandstanding of Amaju Pinnick and the ever so forgetful Nigerian media, his competent run at the helm of affairs will be wrongly remembered as a calamitous reign of sorrow.

angelEmade:

Go to school you no gree.
We are talking about football or football analysis? And mind you everything in life is not about winning...same applies to football if not ur papa suppose be dangote by now. But he is not, going by your mentality of winning, will you agree that ur papa na loser? Even Messi and Ronaldo lost many games. In their prime, put them in the same team, they still won't win all games.
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Ode, does that now means Ronaldo and Messi are poor players? That is the analysis we are talking about but you are just as daft as whatever gave birth to you

BRIMBRAM:


What the guy is saying translates to why coaches are fired as soon as the start losing no matter how much the have put into a team to winning in the past. Take a look at Chelsea, the coach that won the championship league for them got his ass fired the moment the started lossing. Man United have been firing coaches for not winning, 90% of coaches get fired ones the team stops performing. There is nothing more to football than winning, nothing more. When Scolari won the world cup as Brazil's coach he was a hero but when the same Scolari coached Brazil and the lost by 7 goal to 1 against Germany at the world cup, no amount of analysis could save his ass. If not for the victories at the champions league by Liverpool. The coach would have been fired. But please is your dad analyst or a billionaire?

BRIMBRAM:


What the guy is saying translates to why coaches are fired as soon as the start losing no matter how much the have put into a team to winning in the past. Take a look at Chelsea, the coach that won the championship league for them got his ass fired the moment the started lossing. Man United have been firing coaches for not winning, 90% of coaches get fired ones the team stops performing. There is nothing more to football than winning, nothing more. When Scolari won the world cup as Brazil's coach he was a hero but when the same Scolari coached Brazil and the lost by 7 goal to 1 against Germany at the world cup, no amount of analysis could save his ass. If not for the victories at the champions league by Liverpool. The coach would have been fired. But please is your dad analyst or a billionaire?

angelEmade:

Foolish daft mind.

Softmirror:


AngelEmade

BUT ON A SERIOUS POINT AS FAR AS COACHING IS CONCERN IT IS ALL ABOUT WINNING. NOBODY CARES, ONCE THE TEAM YOU ARE COACHING START LOSING, ESPECIALLY HEAVY LOSSES, CHIKAINAN, NAH SACK LETTER. ZIDANE SEF COLLECT SACK LETTER AND WAS BEING MOCKED DESPITE ALL HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS REAL MADRID COACH.

BRIMBRAM:



Did you watch Saudi Arabia Argentina match?

Abeg ignore that guy, you have said all that matters.

BRIMBRAM:


Well Saudi Arabia just won Argentina. I hope you can see that football is ball about winning. All the football analysis was against Saudi Arabia in favor of Argentina. That is what that guy was simply telling you.

Oga analyst, if Argentina endsnot qualifing from that group do you think that football analysts in Argentina will advice that the coach should not be fired? That he should be retained?

angelEmade:

And now in the end, can you now see that the football analysis were right? Everyone fell to their place and we could see how superior Argentina is to Saudi Arabia. If this were to be champions league with a second leg, we both know Saudi stands no chance.
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So according to your stupid opinion Argentina should have fired their coach after the Saudi loss.
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Now you get the point. Football analysis is not about one sudden win, nor one sudden loss it is a comprehensive use of football markers.

angelEmade:

Now in the end, who is the one that qualified and who is the one at the bottom of the table?? Can you now see that one lucky stupid win doesn't mean you are good? Football analytics goes beyond winnings...because you can beat your father doesn't make you older than him.
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Kid! Don't put your mouth for ball again. You know next to nothing!

BRIMBRAM:


Why did you cowardly waited till when the qualified before responding? Lol you are funny and shouldn't be taken seriously lol.
Please tell us what Eguavoen has achieved as a coach. Do you even know who the Saudi Coach is and his achievements
? Mr football analysts who couldn't confidently say a word since Nov 22 that I made my post. Na now you get liver .

YOU BE FAKE ANALYST.

. I ASK AGAIN WHAT HAS EGUAVOEN ACHIEVED? HE WAS THE ONE THAT COST US THE MATCH AGAINST ITALY IN THE U S A 94 WORLD CUP BECAUSE OF HIS DEFENSIVE BLUNDER.