₦airaland Forum

terzurum5:
I just saw this on the front page and decided to share it here....

This great show of sportsmanship as exemplified by the two world best is worth emulating by all football loving fans( even those of us who have made this thread a reality).

See The Moment Cristiano Ronaldo's Son Met Lionel Messi At The Best FIFA Awards

www.nairaland.com/attachments/6149688_armedrobbers_jpege0fa6098788c2228ced8cb8c48f50fd1

www.nairaland.com/attachments/6149689_bokoharam_jpeg1ecadee4558719dfadd33e93d302de12
www.nairaland.com/attachments/6149690_sidi_jpegda4815e66a916339bc1309a50e752ded

I do watch c Ronaldo training the kid on daily basis.. Trying to mold him to be a great football...

Greatest exposure I can say . It will spark up some light in his brain... Kudos to Ronaldo

Icon4s:
Goke7 and realpoacher's posts just sparked some thing off my mind.

Can we do an x-ray of reasons for our failures in our last 5 participations?

Best way to solving a problem is actually to get to the root of the problem.

We as fans will not play for the Super Eagles in Russia. We are not part of the coaching crew. But we can make our own contributions by profiling the reasons for our 5 previous failures to go beyond the second round of the world cup.

As I have always said here, do not underestimate the contributions we make here. They go very far.
To be honest , some times, I feel Rohr and his crew get some things from here because we have seen things play out severally after we discuss them here.
Plus I know a couple of officials visit here. Eg Amuneke's U17 media officer and Siasia's late U23 media officer.

Most of us here know the history of Super Eagles participation and performances better than Rohr. So he may just learn a thing or two from us.

I expect opinions and counter opinions. All the same we can keep the discussion or arguments constructive.

To discuss this issue I need enough elders in the house as we may need to go back in time to address issues even from 1990 when Westerhof took over.
The younger generation too can equally contribute as a lot of those old games are available on YouTube.

enomakos, Kog45, forgiveness, tbaba1234, TheGoodJoe, Goldfish80, Michael2, Joseph1013, joebie, komekn, safarigirl, mujtahida, terzurum5, icon79, do4luv14, omanbala1, Chriskel, Chrisoblog, Orkpekyandega, Humility017, elyte89, Dedebanky85, soetanoreoluwa and many others.

It must not be in any order. Discuss any one you followed from 2014 to 1994.

Smile.. I could remember 1994,1996, koreajapan2002 Then our failure that made me lost slight interest in eagles 2006 , then 2010.and finally 2014...

I will talk about it soon...

Icon4s:
Goke7 and realpoacher's posts just sparked some thing off my mind.

Can we do an x-ray of reasons for our failures in our last 5 participations?

Best way to solving a problem is actually to get to the root of the problem.

We as fans will not play for the Super Eagles in Russia. We are not part of the coaching crew. But we can make our own contributions by profiling the reasons for our 5 previous failures to go beyond the second round of the world cup.

As I have always said here, do not underestimate the contributions we make here. They go very far.
To be honest , some times, I feel Rohr and his crew get some things from here because we have seen things play out severally after we discuss them here.
Plus I know a couple of officials visit here. Eg Amuneke's U17 media officer and Siasia's late U23 media officer.

Most of us here know the history of Super Eagles participation and performances better than Rohr. So he may just learn a thing or two from us.

I expect opinions and counter opinions. All the same we can keep the discussion or arguments constructive.

To discuss this issue I need enough elders in the house as we may need to go back in time to address issues even from 1990 when Westerhof took over.
The younger generation too can equally contribute as a lot of those old games are available on YouTube.

enomakos, Kog45, forgiveness, tbaba1234, TheGoodJoe, Goldfish80, Michael2, Joseph1013, joebie, komekn, safarigirl, mujtahida, terzurum5, icon79, do4luv14, omanbala1, Chriskel, Chrisoblog, Orkpekyandega, Humility017, elyte89, Dedebanky85, soetanoreoluwa and many others.

It must not be in any order. Discuss any one you followed from 2014 to 1994.

If may start, let me state the problem I feel the 94 set had.

1. The coach and the whole crew was inexperienced.
They got as far as their experience could carry.

2. The team did not have back-up wingers. It was Amuneke and Finidi standing towers above the rest. Take them out and the Eagles wings were clipped. The Italian technical crew identified Amokachi and Amuneke as two of the key supplier of balls to Yekini and they also scored goals themselves. The other two suppliers were Finidi and Oliseh. They tactically injured Amokachi and Amuneke and Yekini was left stranded.

3. This 3rd point is connected to the first. That team is set up to play attacking football. Just like Arsenal, they don't know how else to play rather than attack. Westerhorf decided to choke up the midfield rather than making at least one like for line substitution for Amuneke or Amokachi. I mean Victor Ikpeba was on the bench. The team became immobile.

4. Oliseh made the wrong choice of trying to disposses Roberto Baggio of the ball rather than a "clear throway".

Rohr reveals recipe for Nigeria's qualifying success

https://africanfootball.com/bp_images/2017/10/Gernot_Rohr.jpg
Gernot Rohr

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr says they have a good mix between youth and experience in the Super Eagles squad hence they managed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals.

The Super Eagles booked their place in next year's finals which will be hosted by Russia after winning their qualifying group with youngsters Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho playing an instrumental role.


Iwobi, a 21-year-old forward who plays for English giants Arsenal FC, scored a crucial goal against Zambia which helped the Nigeria win Group B last month.

Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, 21, also scored for the Super Eagles against Zambia and Cameroon during Nigeria's successful qualifying campaign.


''It's thanks to the quality of the players. There are some at a very high level. We found the right mix, the good mix between youth and experience," Rohr told L'Equipe.

''A group was formed about fifteen months ago, to which we decided to integrate a lot of young people.


''Players who are already in big clubs for some, like Alex Iwobi (Arsenal), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City) and others," the German tactician continued.

''With these new and some old, we built a team that led the way, which was very effective during the playoffs.''


Nigeria will take on Algeria away in their final Group B match on 10 November 2017, before facing Argentina in an international friendly match in Russia four days later.

http://africanfootball.com/news/732677/Rohr-reveals-recipe-for-Nigerias-qualifying-success

Nigeria coach: We are aiming for the semifinals in Russia 2018

https://africanfootball.com/bp_images/2017/10/N17JGKA0565w.jpg
Zunis Stopilla of Zambia challenges Obi Mikel of Nigeria during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match between Nigeria and Zambia on 07 October 2017 at Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, Nigeria ©Kabiru Abubakar/BackpagePix

by Graeme Jackson

Tuesday Oct 24, 2017. 09:30
Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has revealed that his team is aiming to reach the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup.


Having secured their place at the finals in Russia with a game to spare earlier this month, the Super Eagles have already begun looking ahead to the global tournament.

Nigeria have advanced into the last 16 of the World Cup on three previous occasions, including in 2014 when they were beaten 2-0 by France.


“They [Nigeria] are already out of the group stage to go to the round of 16, especially in 2014 when they faced the French team,” Rohr told French sports newspaper L'Equipe.


“We will try to do as well. Unfortunately, here, the ambitions are a little more excessive: the team must reach at least the semifinals.

“We have the ambition of the leaders to manage, even if I get along very well with the president [Amaju Pinnick], who came to get me.

“There are many people at the Federation (NFF). As in all African countries, it's never easy. But for now, it's going very well.”


Nigeria will wrap up their qualification campaign with a match away to Algeria on November 10, before facing World Cup hosts Russia in a friendly four days later.

http://africanfootball.com/news/732686/Nigeria-coach-We-are-aiming-for-the-semifinals-in-Russia-2018

Icon4s:
If may start, let me state the problem I feel the 94 set had.

1. The coach and the whole crew was inexperienced.
They got as far as their experience could carry.

2. The team did not have back-up wingers. It was Amuneke and Finidi standing towers above the rest. Take them out and the Eagles wings were clipped. The Italian technical crew identified Amokachi and Amuneke as two of the key supplier of balls to Yekini and they also scored goals themselves. The other two suppliers were Finidi and Oliseh. They tactically injured Amokachi and Amuneke and Yekini was left stranded.

3. This 3rd point is connected to the first. That team is set up to play attacking football. Just like Arsenal, they don't know how else to play rather than attack. Westerhorf decided to choke up the midfield rather than making at least one like for line substitution for Amuneke or Amokachi. I mean Victor Ikpeba was on the bench. The team became immobile.

4. Oliseh made the wrong choice of trying to disposses Roberto Baggio of the ball rather than a "clear throway".

we can still excuse the 94 team due to their inexperience, for a first timer, the Eagles did well. What we should carefully analyze is the failure of the 98, 2002 and 2010 teams. Seeing okocha posting a pic of him and messi claiming two world best made me more angry cos i recently watch the higlights of Nig vs denmark 98 world cup match where okocha was entertaining the world and denmark was almost spelling Nigeria. Okocha with ball most of the time was ballooning most of our chances away.

people think okocha was cool but am sorry that player was one of those who was never hungry for a good performance at the world cup. he think only about money first. Reason at a time he started selecting which match to play which cost us a place at the 2006 world cup.

Orkpekyandega:
I think I must have quoted the wrong person or at the wrong time. My sincere apology Sir.

Nah, no need for that. My apologies too for snapping

realpoacher:
Please tell them o! It's obvious many of them will make terrible coaches. Imagine changing 60% of your team who qualified you for the world cup. To them every new player is to be played as if SE is a training ground. SMH!

I bet if these guys were to coach Man U, Dortmund, or Chelsea, they will change the whole squad after their loses last weekend.

Imagine fa, everyday change this person, bring this player, I will remove this person and replace him with this person... Bla bla bla... Inexperience, ignorance and short memory in full display.

You all should remember 1998- Peter Rufai, 2002- Opabunmi, Ogbeche, 2014- Uchebo, and Co!

Make una carry una shortsightedness comot from our SE body because whether you like it or not 80-90% of this qualifying squad members will make the world cup.

To be forewarned is to be fore hand!

I rest my case

I'm sure most of the people calling for the inclusion of new players are aware that Rohr will stick to a large chunk of the players who were with him since he took over..

One thing we must understand is that national team football us different from club football.. If a player is performing well at his club it doesn't mean he will do the same with the national team...Of course,they would be given their chance, but its important for the team to blend in well instead of undergoing changes all the time..

Goke7:
Sorry if I can start, number 1 problem:
In 1998, 2002, 2010 world cups, we did not go with the coaches who qualified us for the world cups then. It took the Grace of God for keshi to make the last world cup. So our major problem is that we Nigerians, journalists, so called analysts who only play football with their mouths and fans in general always claim to know better than the coach. In 1998, we claim that phillip troussier was not good enough, in 2002, amodu and keshi were not good enough we said, 2010, amodu was not good enough as far we were concerned. if we posted good performances then, our claims would have been justified but the bad performances of the team proved we were wrong in our judgement.

Already some folks think rohr is not good enough, if he were black, rohr would have been sacked by now.

i agreed with you

Icon4s:
Goke7 and realpoacher's posts just sparked some thing off my mind.

Can we do an x-ray of reasons for our failures in our last 5 participations?

Best way to solving a problem is actually to get to the root of the problem.

We as fans will not play for the Super Eagles in Russia. We are not part of the coaching crew. But we can make our own contributions by profiling the reasons for our 5 previous failures to go beyond the second round of the world cup.

As I have always said here, do not underestimate the contributions we make here. They go very far.
To be honest , some times, I feel Rohr and his crew get some things from here because we have seen things play out severally after we discuss them here.
Plus I know a couple of officials visit here. Eg Amuneke's U17 media officer and Siasia's late U23 media officer.

Most of us here know the history of Super Eagles participation and performances better than Rohr. So he may just learn a thing or two from us.

I expect opinions and counter opinions. All the same we can keep the discussion or arguments constructive.

To discuss this issue I need enough elders in the house as we may need to go back in time to address issues even from 1990 when Westerhof took over.
The younger generation too can equally contribute as a lot of those old games are available on YouTube.

enomakos, Kog45, forgiveness, tbaba1234, TheGoodJoe, Goldfish80, Michael2, Joseph1013, joebie, komekn, safarigirl, mujtahida, terzurum5, icon79, do4luv14, omanbala1, Chriskel, Chrisoblog, Orkpekyandega, Humility017, elyte89, Dedebanky85, soetanoreoluwa and many others.

It must not be in any order. Discuss any one you followed from 2014 to 1994.

the change of coaches what responsible for our bad performance at the France 98, Korea/ Japan 2002 and 2010 world cup,a new sets of coaches were appointed and came with new sets of players

It is a shame the late amodu shauibu never hads the chances to take Nigeria to the world cup even when he qualified us twice

In reply to Sir Icon4s comment, I will start with 2002.


I don't really know what happened in 2002, against Sweden in the first half we were easily better, if I remember well we went ahead, we were ahead in the first half but somehow our defence collapsed. I think it was just the resignation of most of the players that even if they win, England and Argentina would still qualify. Let me stop there.



2010

Kaita.

1) POOR MAN-MANAGEMENT- I still think to this very day that Lars was the most tactically-astute manager we have ever had but his man-management skills were not so high. I mean Kaita's conduct was close to ridiculous and at some point in those games you would see some players playing entirely out of sync, not because of bad tactics but because they feel they are the boss. Yakubu was guilty, Obasi to a lesser degree.


2) INJURIES- Yakubu was never supposed to be the first choice striker, it was Uche but what happened happened and he wasn't part of the team. People only remember Kaita's incidence against Greece but even after Kaita was dismissed, we still created enough chances to win that game. Countless counters that Yakubu slowed down, he was running like he ate eba that morning. There was one miss, I can't remember how but Yakubu was one-on-one with the keeper, I mean the greek gk's position wasn't great, he should have scored but he hit it straight at the keeper, ok the ball bounced out to Obasi, hardly 6yards from the goal with the GK out and no defender in sight but Obasi just lost his cool and hit it straight away. The game against Argentina also had chances for us, the game against South Korea too. In fact against SK it was like Spain vs Albania, we were by far the better side, even Kanu had a solid game. One of their goals came from a set piece because we lost our two main leftbacks to injuries(INJURIES AGAIN) and we had to play Rabiu who was right-footed, so when the cross came in, he wanted to use his right instead of his left and the ball went past to the guy that scored, heartbreaking really.

3) LUCK- let's be honest, Yakubu has over a 100 Epl goals, he wouldn't have that much goals if he missed chances like that. I mean I can count the ones against Greece as missed chances but that baffling moment against South Korea still haunts my dream every now and then.

Finally I think some forces were at work. Like I pointed out we were better than South Korea, now that same South Korea were better than Uruguay and lost in extra time, if we go with it that way then we would have been far better than Uruguay and we would have defeated them, that would have set up a QF against Ghana in the first world cup on African soil. We met Ghana in the Afcon of that year and if not for incredible misses from Martins we would have won, we were better so that was a rematch I so much wanted to see but it all came crashing down when Yakubu missed. Had it been we managed to tie down Lars Largeback, we would have gotten to the semifinals in 2014, now on to the last one.


2014

Uchebo

1) TEAM SELECTION- When you have a bench that will easily lose to Lithuania in a world cup, sorry but you are not going anywhere. 23 man squad, we remove the first XI and on the bench we have the elders of my clan( Ameobi and Uchebo), a very very slow player(Reuben), one rookie that has no business in the world cup(Uzoenyi) and some other players that should not even be mentioned. Then you come into the first XI and you are baffled how Mikel managed to play all the games, he was the worst player in the world cup that year or atleast should easily make it into the tourney's worst XI. Babatunde was okay but could we have done better than Babatunde? YES. Till this very day I still do not understand what happened.


2) TOO MUCH PLAYER POWER- Mikel was the one telling our coach who to sub in, he probably also tells him what food to eat. Our players were busy requesting for money when we had a match to prosecute, the players were the owners of that team.

3) LUCK- let us be sincere, our first XI was solid, very very solid, some teams can go through a 7-game tourney without losing any player to injury and still win. We lost Babatunde to an injury and Moses stepped in, Babatunde was not missed. It was sheer hardluck that we lost Onazi of all people, I was wishing we lost Mikel not Onazi, these are the luck aspects of the game. The goal we conceeded was also a lucky goal. Enyeama would probably pluck that ball out of the sky 9times out of 10, unfortunately that day was the day he didn't and Yobo completed it with a trademark OG. We had luck too, we could have lost to Bosnia but we deserved the win though.

We should also point out here that the draw was no good to us. We could have met Switzerland but we ended up with France, a France team that scored the highest number of goals in the group stage.


I do not wish to say much about 1998 and 1994, I wasn't up to 10 for either tournament

Icon4s:
Goke7 and realpoacher's posts just sparked some thing off my mind.

Can we do an x-ray of reasons for our failures in our last 5 participations?

Best way to solving a problem is actually to get to the root of the problem.

We as fans will not play for the Super Eagles in Russia. We are not part of the coaching crew. But we can make our own contributions by profiling the reasons for our 5 previous failures to go beyond the second round of the world cup.

As I have always said here, do not underestimate the contributions we make here. They go very far.
To be honest , some times, I feel Rohr and his crew get some things from here because we have seen things play out severally after we discuss them here.
Plus I know a couple of officials visit here. Eg Amuneke's U17 media officer and Siasia's late U23 media officer.

Most of us here know the history of Super Eagles participation and performances better than Rohr. So he may just learn a thing or two from us.

I expect opinions and counter opinions. All the same we can keep the discussion or arguments constructive.

To discuss this issue I need enough elders in the house as we may need to go back in time to address issues even from 1990 when Westerhof took over.
The younger generation too can equally contribute as a lot of those old games are available on YouTube.

enomakos, Kog45, forgiveness, tbaba1234, TheGoodJoe, Goldfish80, Michael2, Joseph1013, joebie, komekn, safarigirl, mujtahida, terzurum5, icon79, do4luv14, omanbala1, Chriskel, Chrisoblog, Orkpekyandega, Humility017, elyte89, Dedebanky85, soetanoreoluwa and many others.

It must not be in any order. Discuss any one you followed from 2014 to 1994.

Friends, Countrymen, Nairalanders!!!
Lemme start from 94. We had a very strong squad that came through the group stages fairly easily. Played a 3-0 over Bulgaria, lost 2-1 to argentina, no thanks to Claudio Caniggia. Then went ahead to beat greece2-0. Disunity was one of the main problems of this team at the round of 16. Harmony is key and the moment they started to phase out Yekini as the poacher, we kinda lost the plot. Problem 2 was that of inexperience. Playing against Italy who had in their fold World footballer of the year Roberto Baggio, we went complacent after a 6th minute goal (please forgive me if i got the minute wrong but I do know it was an early goal by Amuneke). We were playing what I would call champagne football. It was so intoxicating we didnt wanna stop. We kinda rubbed it in the faces of the Italians. But tact won over clouded reasoning. The italians effectively took out Amuneke and Amokachi and that effectively put paid to our sting. Somehow we lost due to bad judgment on the part of Oliseh. Lessons learnt..... 1) harmony is important, 2)objectivity before enjoyment or should i say business before pleasure

France 98.
We had a fairly decent team coached by that big goggled dude Bora Milutinovic. Played a pulsating 3-2 with Spain, beat bulgaria 1-0 and lost scandalously to Paraguay. I guess that was done on purpose to eliminate spain. Then came the march against denmark and the walls came crumbling down. We didnt focus on the game at hand, we were already looking at a quarter final fixture with Brazil. So much showboating on the part of Austin Okocha. It became a one man show in that match. Lessons learnt......1) one game at a time 2) a tree doesnt make a forest

Korea Japan 2002
What can I say? We had just fumbled at the Afcon and the sports minister disbanded the team and in rebuilding, we had some who were labeled sell outs juat because they were not in solidarity with their fellow suspended folks. We lost players like Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George, Celestine Babayaro to mention a few. Going to the worldcup, we went with a coach who frankly shouldnt have been the gaffer in my honest opinion. He was tactically bereft of ideas and always sat through out a game. He took so many green horns to the world cup. EFETOBORE Sodje, Femi Opabunmi and so on. We lacked quality in the middle and the attack. Cohesion was poor. We practically took a brand new team to the world cup hoping for a miracle to happen. Well miracle never did. After a painful 1-0 loss to Argentina in the opening game, an injury to Kanu Nwankwo left the game killed as Nigeria struggled and played a 2-1 loss to Sweden. The lone goal will turn out to be the only goal Nigeria scored in the tournament. Then we played against England and came off with a goal less draw. So where did we go wrong

1) the sports ministry inter(ference)vention was our greatest undoing. This affected the blend in the team we paraded.
2.) Poor scouting of players
3) Poor Coaching skills. If we were to hire a coach, let us hire one with pedigree and not sentiments.
4) Quality is not bought. You either have it, or you dont!

South Africa 2010
After firing a couple of home based coaches, we went to get Lars Lagerback for the world cup. A coach who didnt know his players and didnt know how best to utilize them. Mikel Obi's injury also did not help matters for the world cup as he didnt make the final 23. We still lost to our Arch nemesis Argentina, and lost concentration when it mattered most against Korea i think when Sani Keita did "bruce lee" stuff on an opponent in an off ball incidence. Lets not talk about the Yak miss.
There is not much to say about 2010 world cup other than late preparations. Leasons learnt,... you dont bring in a new coach 3 months to a world cup game. He has nothing to offer.

Brazil 2014
Hmmm.... this one get K-leg! Hqvin won the Afcon in 2013, we went to the confederations cup with almost a different set of players, and then we went to the world cup with virtually a newer set of players simply depending on individual brilliance which wasnt good enough.
Palying a draw against bosnia and a draw against Iran, we went to meet these our perennial foes again! A good fight and we played a massive 3-2. How did we lose in the round of 16? The desire to win! It all came down to who wanted it the most and what are you gonna do to get what you want. Here was where france edged us out.
We know the rest of the story. People like Ameobi, Uchebo, Micheal Babatunde, Ramon azeez etc making the final cut. I dont want to dwell on that because we have a tendency to throw reasoning out of the window and get bias.

Lessons learnt....
1) Build a team of quality from the start and stick with it
2) FA distractions need to be eradicated. Focus is important
3) Tactics..tactics Tactics!

elyte89:
One billion like for dis post.do u knw y I don't take most of our unofficial scout serious here is DT,dey re not ROHR,all what dey say on dis forum,is just for dem to make demselves happy and wyle away time


Rohr av made it clear countless times in his interviews of his recent dt he would consider majorly those who were called up against Cameroon and zambia,barring no injuries to dem,

Peeps here,don't realise d importance of team chemistry and bonding, I just laff when some persons here will suggest an ogu to be dropped for ajagun or ezenwa to b dropped for AIYENUGBA and so on

Compiling of list goes beyond " FOOTBALL REASON",for example let us assume A Mikel obi loses form and its obvious,he would never b dropped for An AJAGUN/ALUKO,even if d later scores 100goals for deir teams respectively.


Mikels presence alone in d team goes beyond his performance on d pitch of play,its present in d team also lift d psyche of d young players around,Mikel is d PSEUDO assistant coach of our team. also some persons mite not b too gud eg echiejile,but if u ask me,God forbid,na Only DEATH fit stop echiejile from been on d plane to Russia,not even bad form.he would b rewarded for his commitment and also being a nucleus of d team who worked tirelessly for us to qualify, though he may not b a starter when d tournament starts,but he's going.

Having said DT,Rohr knows 90 percent of his team going to world cup,we shld only expect a lil change from his defence/striking dept of d team

Well said Bro. Since Rohr knows 80-90% of his squad which roughly amounts to about 17 players there's room for at least five people to break into the team and for me we need one in the GK dept, two defenders and one CF and one wing forward

Mickael2:
In reply to Sir Icon4s comment, I will start with 2002.


I don't really know what happened in 2002, against Sweden in the first half we were easily better, if I remember well we went ahead, we were ahead in the first half but somehow our defence collapsed. I think it was just the resignation of most of the players that even if they win, England and Argentina would still qualify. Let me stop there.



2010

Kaita.

1) POOR MAN-MANAGEMENT- I still think to this very day that Lars was the most tactically-astute manager we have ever had but his man-management skills were not so high. I mean Kaita's conduct was close to ridiculous and at some point in those games you would see some players playing entirely out of sync, not because of bad tactics but because they feel they are the boss. Yakubu was guilty, Obasi to a lesser degree.


2) INJURIES- Yakubu was never supposed to be the first choice striker, it was Uche but what happened happened and he wasn't part of the team. People only remember Kaita's incidence against Greece but even after Kaita was dismissed, we still created enough chances to win that game. Countless counters that Yakubu slowed down, he was running like he ate eba that morning. There was one miss, I can't remember how but Yakubu was one-on-one with the keeper, I mean the greek gk's position wasn't great, he should have scored but he hit it straight at the keeper, ok the ball bounced out to Obasi, hardly 6yards from the goal with the GK out and no defender in sight but Obasi just lost his cool and hit it straight away. The game against Argentina also had chances for us, the game against South Korea too. In fact against SK it was like Spain vs Albania, we were by far the better side, even Kanu had a solid game. One of their goals came from a set piece because we lost our two main leftbacks to injuries(INJURIES AGAIN) and we had to play Rabiu who was right-footed, so when the cross came in, he wanted to use his right instead of his left and the ball went past to the guy that scored, heartbreaking really.

3) LUCK- let's be honest, Yakubu has over a 100 Epl goals, he wouldn't have that much goals if he missed chances like that. I mean I can count the ones against Greece as missed chances but that baffling moment against South Korea still haunts my dream every now and then.

Finally I think some forces were at work. Like I pointed out we were better than South Korea, now that same South Korea were better than Uruguay and lost in extra time, if we go with it that way then we would have been far better than Uruguay and we would have defeated them, that would have set up a QF against Ghana in the first world cup on African soil. We met Ghana in the Afcon of that year and if not for incredible misses from Martins we would have won, we were better so that was a rematch I so much wanted to see but it all came crashing down when Yakubu missed. Had it been we managed to tie down Lars Largeback, we would have gotten to the semifinals in 2014, now on to the last one.


2014

Uchebo

1) TEAM SELECTION- When you have a bench that will easily lose to Lithuania in a world cup, sorry but you are not going anywhere. 23 man squad, we remove the first XI and on the bench we have the elders of my clan( Ameobi and Uchebo), a very very slow player(Reuben), one rookie that has no business in the world cup(Uzoenyi) and some other players that should not even be mentioned. Then you come into the first XI and you are baffled how Mikel managed to play all the games, he was the worst player in the world cup that year or atleast should easily make it into the tourney's worst XI. Babatunde was okay but could we have done better than Babatunde? YES. Till this very day I still do not understand what happened.


2) TOO MUCH PLAYER POWER- Mikel was the one telling our coach who to sub in, he probably also tells him what food to eat. Our players were busy requesting for money when we had a match to prosecute, the players were the owners of that team.

3) LUCK- let us be sincere, our first XI was solid, very very solid, some teams can go through a 7-game tourney without losing any player to injury and still win. We lost Babatunde to an injury and Moses stepped in, Babatunde was not missed. It was sheer hardluck that we lost Onazi of all people, I was wishing we lost Mikel not Onazi, these are the luck aspects of the game. The goal we conceeded was also a lucky goal. Enyeama would probably pluck that ball out of the sky 9times out of 10, unfortunately that day was the day he didn't and Yobo completed it with a trademark OG. We had luck too, we could have lost to Bosnia but we deserved the win though.

We should also point out here that the draw was no good to us. We could have met Switzerland but we ended up with France, a France team that scored the highest number of goals in the group stage.


I do not wish to say much about 1998 and 1994, I wasn't up to 10 for either tournament

you seem unable to do a comprehensive blame game without mentioning Mikel....oh, Mikel was the reason we failed to progress past Round of 16? Not Yobo that was abysmal and even dashed France a complimentary OG....let us blame Mikel.

Can't wait for next year so that you can blame Kelechi....at least Mikel will have someone to inherit the scapegoat tag from him

elyte89:
One billion like for dis post.do u knw y I don't take most of our unofficial scout serious here is DT,dey re not ROHR,all what dey say on dis forum,is just for dem to make demselves happy and wyle away time


Rohr av made it clear countless times in his interviews of his recent dt he would consider majorly those who were called up against Cameroon and zambia,barring no injuries to dem,

Peeps here,don't realise d importance of team chemistry and bonding, I just laff when some persons here will suggest an ogu to be dropped for ajagun or ezenwa to b dropped for AIYENUGBA and so on

Compiling of list goes beyond " FOOTBALL REASON",for example let us assume A Mikel obi loses form and its obvious,he would never b dropped for An AJAGUN/ALUKO,even if d later scores 100goals for deir teams respectively.


Mikels presence alone in d team goes beyond his performance on d pitch of play,its present in d team also lift d psyche of d young players around,Mikel is d PSEUDO assistant coach of our team. also some persons mite not b too gud eg echiejile,but if u ask me,God forbid,na Only DEATH fit stop echiejile from been on d plane to Russia,not even bad form.he would b rewarded for his commitment and also being a nucleus of d team who worked tirelessly for us to qualify, though he may not b a starter when d tournament starts,but he's going.

Having said DT,Rohr knows 90 percent of his team going to world cup,we shld only expect a lil change from his defence/striking dept of d team

I want to address the two @bolded


In other national teams, they pick from the best and inform players and not the other way round.


In Europe, as at the time Ikechuckwu Ezenwa was invited to the National team, Enyeama and Dele Aiyenugba were arguably the best but how the former had been overlooked for years is beyond common sense.

Even in the NPFL, is Ikechuckwu Ezenwa the best goalkeeper? I don't think so. How he managed to get the nod over the best in both continents still baffles me.

Therefore, if Dele Aiyenugba is mentioned here, it's very reasonable because he has been consistent in Europe and he's still eligible for the Super Eagles.

Now, to address your the second @bolded.

Soldier come, soldier go barrack remains. There will be a time Mikel Obi services will no longer be needed if he loose form. In this case, if Aluko, Ajagun or any player do well in Europe, they should be given the chance to prove themselves.

Iu

Mickael2:
In reply to Sir Icon4s comment, I will start with 2002.


I don't really know what happened in 2002, against Sweden in the first half we were easily better, if I remember well we went ahead, we were ahead in the first half but somehow our defence collapsed. I think it was just the resignation of most of the players that even if they win, England and Argentina would still qualify. Let me stop there.



2010

Kaita.

1) POOR MAN-MANAGEMENT- I still think to this very day that Lars was the most tactically-astute manager we have ever had but his man-management skills were not so high. I mean Kaita's conduct was close to ridiculous and at some point in those games you would see some players playing entirely out of sync, not because of bad tactics but because they feel they are the boss. Yakubu was guilty, Obasi to a lesser degree.


2) INJURIES- Yakubu was never supposed to be the first choice striker, it was Uche but what happened happened and he wasn't part of the team. People only remember Kaita's incidence against Greece but even after Kaita was dismissed, we still created enough chances to win that game. Countless counters that Yakubu slowed down, he was running like he ate eba that morning. There was one miss, I can't remember how but Yakubu was one-on-one with the keeper, I mean the greek gk's position wasn't great, he should have scored but he hit it straight at the keeper, ok the ball bounced out to Obasi, hardly 6yards from the goal with the GK out and no defender in sight but Obasi just lost his cool and hit it straight away. The game against Argentina also had chances for us, the game against South Korea too. In fact against SK it was like Spain vs Albania, we were by far the better side, even Kanu had a solid game. One of their goals came from a set piece because we lost our two main leftbacks to injuries(INJURIES AGAIN) and we had to play Rabiu who was right-footed, so when the cross came in, he wanted to use his right instead of his left and the ball went past to the guy that scored, heartbreaking really.

3) LUCK- let's be honest, Yakubu has over a 100 Epl goals, he wouldn't have that much goals if he missed chances like that. I mean I can count the ones against Greece as missed chances but that baffling moment against South Korea still haunts my dream every now and then.

Finally I think some forces were at work. Like I pointed out we were better than South Korea, now that same South Korea were better than Uruguay and lost in extra time, if we go with it that way then we would have been far better than Uruguay and we would have defeated them, that would have set up a QF against Ghana in the first world cup on African soil. We met Ghana in the Afcon of that year and if not for incredible misses from Martins we would have won, we were better so that was a rematch I so much wanted to see but it all came crashing down when Yakubu missed. Had it been we managed to tie down Lars Largeback, we would have gotten to the semifinals in 2014, now on to the last one.


2014

Uchebo

1) TEAM SELECTION- When you have a bench that will easily lose to Lithuania in a world cup, sorry but you are not going anywhere. 23 man squad, we remove the first XI and on the bench we have the elders of my clan( Ameobi and Uchebo), a very very slow player(Reuben), one rookie that has no business in the world cup(Uzoenyi) and some other players that should not even be mentioned. Then you come into the first XI and you are baffled how Mikel managed to play all the games, he was the worst player in the world cup that year or atleast should easily make it into the tourney's worst XI. Babatunde was okay but could we have done better than Babatunde? YES. Till this very day I still do not understand what happened.


2) TOO MUCH PLAYER POWER- Mikel was the one telling our coach who to sub in, he probably also tells him what food to eat. Our players were busy requesting for money when we had a match to prosecute, the players were the owners of that team.

3) LUCK- let us be sincere, our first XI was solid, very very solid, some teams can go through a 7-game tourney without losing any player to injury and still win. We lost Babatunde to an injury and Moses stepped in, Babatunde was not missed. It was sheer hardluck that we lost Onazi of all people, I was wishing we lost Mikel not Onazi, these are the luck aspects of the game. The goal we conceeded was also a lucky goal. Enyeama would probably pluck that ball out of the sky 9times out of 10, unfortunately that day was the day he didn't and Yobo completed it with a trademark OG. We had luck too, we could have lost to Bosnia but we deserved the win though.

We should also point out here that the draw was no good to us. We could have met Switzerland but we ended up with France, a France team that scored the highest number of goals in the group stage.


I do not wish to say much about 1998 and 1994, I wasn't up to 10 for either tournament

Nice analysis

Icon4s:
If may start, let me state the problem I feel the 94 set had.

1. The coach and the whole crew was inexperienced.
They got as far as their experience could carry.

2. The team did not have back-up wingers. It was Amuneke and Finidi standing towers above the rest. Take them out and the Eagles wings were clipped. The Italian technical crew identified Amokachi and Amuneke as two of the key supplier of balls to Yekini and they also scored goals themselves. The other two suppliers were Finidi and Oliseh. They tactically injured Amokachi and Amuneke and Yekini was left stranded.

3. This 3rd point is connected to the first. That team is set up to play attacking football. Just like Arsenal, they don't know how else to play rather than attack. Westerhorf decided to choke up the midfield rather than making at least one like for line substitution for Amuneke or Amokachi. I mean Victor Ikpeba was on the bench. The team became immobile.

4. Oliseh made the wrong choice of trying to disposses Roberto Baggio of the ball rather than a "clear throway".

Lovely Football History Lesson 101...

soetanoreoluwa:
Smile... I posted it cos of you.. Kog45, goldenfish80...
It happens in your era...
Mine was 1994 world cup against Paraguay...

u mean 1998 world cup

Icon4s:
If may start, let me state the problem I feel the 94 set had.

1. The coach and the whole crew was inexperienced.
They got as far as their experience could carry.

2. The team did not have back-up wingers. It was Amuneke and Finidi standing towers above the rest. Take them out and the Eagles wings were clipped. The Italian technical crew identified Amokachi and Amuneke as two of the key supplier of balls to Yekini and they also scored goals themselves. The other two suppliers were Finidi and Oliseh. They tactically injured Amokachi and Amuneke and Yekini was left stranded.

3. This 3rd point is connected to the first. That team is set up to play attacking football. Just like Arsenal, they don't know how else to play rather than attack. Westerhorf decided to choke up the midfield rather than making at least one like for line substitution for Amuneke or Amokachi. I mean Victor Ikpeba was on the bench. The team became immobile.

4. Oliseh made the wrong choice of trying to disposses Roberto Baggio of the ball rather than a "clear throway".

Thanks for this post.I believe it's time for us to discuss how we are going to perform at WC than just being participant.

We have WC references in US 94,France 98,Japan/Korea 2002 WC,South Africa 2010,Brazil 2014.What are our performance in our previous WC and what effect it would have in Russia 2018.

First,US 94 being our first WC and our most successful WC so far,as u said if not for experience the team would have reach semi final or final but nevertheless US 94 is a good memory of Nigeria football.

How did we achieved great success with our US 94 squad is something we should share here.I remember Coach Paul Halmiton was d Eagles coach before d appointment of Clemens Westerhoff in 1989 prior to our last Italian 90 WC qualifications match against Cameroon in Yaounde which we lost by a lone goal scored by Kana Biyik.

The appointment of Westerhoff brought a new era to Nigeria football coz he needed to start all over,groomed a team made of local league, players like Dan Amokachie, Moses Kpakor,Alloy Agu,David Ngodigba,Herbert Anijekwu,Uche Okechuckwu, Dahiru Sadi.

Westerhoff took his team to Algiers 90 by dropping d big guns like Peter Rufai,telling Keshi,Siasia to keep off coz he w not allow any players to be sorting between club and national team to avoid what Keshi did at maroc 88,NFA made sure a private jet flew Keshi in and out playing in afcon and d sametime for Anderlecht in Belgian league.Westerhoff put stop to this and encouraged home based players.

Westerhoff was criticised heavily for taking young ones to Algiers 90,though he nearly paid for it coz we lost d first match to Algeria 5-1 but d team despite d heavy lost went on to reach d final and lost to d same Algeria 1-0.Algiers 90 made our professional players to sit tight.

The solid foundation for US 94 started from Algiers 90 team and moved to Senegal 92 where Nigeria had solid performance losing to Ghana in semi final but Nigerians were happy seen a good team in place.

The Algiers 90 and Senegal 92 fusion gave us a solid team for our WC qualifier with emergence of younger players like Jajay Okocha who was drafted from Mauritius 93 team,Olishe was discovered during qualifying period,Ikpeba too got a call,Efan Ekoku too,long forgotten Wifred Agbonavbare showed up in LA liga with Deportivo LA coruna from nowhere and joined d team.Peter Rufai got a recalled, Mike Emenalo and Chidi Nwanu gatecrashed into d team.

The US 94 team must be a reference point for this team coz d two teams shared a lot of things in common,their foundations are similar.

Icon4s baba let me stop here for now,hope to continue as d discussion progress.

safarigirl:
you seem unable to do a comprehensive blame game without mentioning Mikel....oh, Mikel was the reason we failed to progress past Round of 16? Not Yobo that was abysmal and even dashed France a complimentary OG....let us blame Mikel.

Can't wait for next year so that you can blame Kelechi....at least Mikel will have someone to inherit the scapegoat tag from him

Was Mikel poor in that tournament or not? The question is why did we lose and he was a major reason. For God's sake he was the CMF, the central man in the middle who controls play and he was poor. Simple and short Mikel was poor in the 2014 World Cup.

Yobo had a solid game, I was impressed with his game, he played so well probably because that was his 100th appearance, he scored an OG but that does not mean he was the reason why we lost.

Mickael2:
In reply to Sir Icon4s comment, I will start with 2002.


I don't really know what happened in 2002, against Sweden in the first half we were easily better, if I remember well we went ahead, we were ahead in the first half but somehow our defence collapsed. I think it was just the resignation of most of the players that even if they win, England and Argentina would still qualify. Let me stop there.



2010

Kaita.

1) POOR MAN-MANAGEMENT- I still think to this very day that Lars was the most tactically-astute manager we have ever had but his man-management skills were not so high. I mean Kaita's conduct was close to ridiculous and at some point in those games you would see some players playing entirely out of sync, not because of bad tactics but because they feel they are the boss. Yakubu was guilty, Obasi to a lesser degree.


2) INJURIES- Yakubu was never supposed to be the first choice striker, it was Uche but what happened happened and he wasn't part of the team. People only remember Kaita's incidence against Greece but even after Kaita was dismissed, we still created enough chances to win that game. Countless counters that Yakubu slowed down, he was running like he ate eba that morning. There was one miss, I can't remember how but Yakubu was one-on-one with the keeper, I mean the greek gk's position wasn't great, he should have scored but he hit it straight at the keeper, ok the ball bounced out to Obasi, hardly 6yards from the goal with the GK out and no defender in sight but Obasi just lost his cool and hit it straight away. The game against Argentina also had chances for us, the game against South Korea too. In fact against SK it was like Spain vs Albania, we were by far the better side, even Kanu had a solid game. One of their goals came from a set piece because we lost our two main leftbacks to injuries(INJURIES AGAIN) and we had to play Rabiu who was right-footed, so when the cross came in, he wanted to use his right instead of his left and the ball went past to the guy that scored, heartbreaking really.

3) LUCK- let's be honest, Yakubu has over a 100 Epl goals, he wouldn't have that much goals if he missed chances like that. I mean I can count the ones against Greece as missed chances but that baffling moment against South Korea still haunts my dream every now and then.

Finally I think some forces were at work. Like I pointed out we were better than South Korea, now that same South Korea were better than Uruguay and lost in extra time, if we go with it that way then we would have been far better than Uruguay and we would have defeated them, that would have set up a QF against Ghana in the first world cup on African soil. We met Ghana in the Afcon of that year and if not for incredible misses from Martins we would have won, we were better so that was a rematch I so much wanted to see but it all came crashing down when Yakubu missed. Had it been we managed to tie down Lars Largeback, we would have gotten to the semifinals in 2014, now on to the last one.


2014

Uchebo

1) TEAM SELECTION- When you have a bench that will easily lose to Lithuania in a world cup, sorry but you are not going anywhere. 23 man squad, we remove the first XI and on the bench we have the elders of my clan( Ameobi and Uchebo), a very very slow player(Reuben), one rookie that has no business in the world cup(Uzoenyi) and some other players that should not even be mentioned. Then you come into the first XI and you are baffled how Mikel managed to play all the games, he was the worst player in the world cup that year or atleast should easily make it into the tourney's worst XI. Babatunde was okay but could we have done better than Babatunde? YES. Till this very day I still do not understand what happened.


2) TOO MUCH PLAYER POWER- Mikel was the one telling our coach who to sub in, he probably also tells him what food to eat. Our players were busy requesting for money when we had a match to prosecute, the players were the owners of that team.

3) LUCK- let us be sincere, our first XI was solid, very very solid, some teams can go through a 7-game tourney without losing any player to injury and still win. We lost Babatunde to an injury and Moses stepped in, Babatunde was not missed. It was sheer hardluck that we lost Onazi of all people, I was wishing we lost Mikel not Onazi, these are the luck aspects of the game. The goal we conceeded was also a lucky goal. Enyeama would probably pluck that ball out of the sky 9times out of 10, unfortunately that day was the day he didn't and Yobo completed it with a trademark OG. We had luck too, we could have lost to Bosnia but we deserved the win though.

We should also point out here that the draw was no good to us. We could have met Switzerland but we ended up with France, a France team that scored the highest number of goals in the group stage.


I do not wish to say much about 1998 and 1994, I wasn't up to 10 for either tournament

Your last sentence explains why you don't see a big deal in Nigeria winning Africa's first Olympic gold in 1996. Hahaha. We don't forget things here.

forgiveness:
First of all, the coach said Akpeyi is his 3rd choice, therefore Akpeyi is out of the equation and Ikechuckwu Ezenwa is now in to compete with the rest.


From what my eyes saw this night, if I am the coach I will bring in Uzoho because he is naturally good.


No 1

Vincent Enyeama

No 2

Daniel Akpeyi

No 3

Francis Uzoho

If NFF are dogmatic about Enyeama not going to the world Cup then


My number one is

Daniel Akpeyi


No 2

Francis Uzoho


No 3


Dele Alampasu

.

Oga you must respect Ezenwa.

What is Alampasu doing there

Ezenwa has proved his doubters wrong

My Pick for the World Cup all things being equal....

Enyeama
Ezenwa
Uzoho

Icon4s:
Your last sentence explains why you don't see a big deal in Nigeria winning Africa's first Olympic gold in 1996. Hahaha. We don't forget things here.

My memory about that tournament was kinda hazy. I think some of the games were played deep into the night because the day we played Argentina, I know I was asleep when my dad and bro started screaming, I thought it was something serious only to realize that it was a football match, if looks could kill someone would be dead by now

terzurum5:
Oga you must respect Ezenwa.

What is Alampasu doing there

Ezenwa has proved his doubters wrong

My Pick for the World Cup all things being equal....

Enyeama
Ezenwa
Uzoho

I don't know but there was a report I heard yesterday on Channels during their sports show. One of the guys said he spoke with Enyeama and he said he had no intentions of coming back etc etc that it was just a media kinda stuff.

Mickael2:
Was Mikel poor in that tournament or not? The question is why did we lose and he was a major reason. For God's sake he was the CMF, the central man in the middle who controls play and he was poor. Simple and short Mikel was poor in the 2010 World Cup.

Yobo had a solid game, I was impressed with his game, he played so well probably because that was his 100th appearance, he scored an OG but that does not mean he was the reason why we lost.

2014 I guess you meant. Mikel was not at the 2010 world cup.

Mickael2:
I don't know but there was a report I heard yesterday on Channels during their sports show. One of the guys said he spoke with Enyeama and he said he had no intentions of coming back etc etc that it was just a media kinda stuff.

I was one of those who clamored for Vincent Enyeama's return. However, if he feels indifferent so be it. I am very much comfortable with what Ezenwa has got to offer. I just hope Ajiboye proves himself a lot in any of the friendlies coupled with the positive feedback we are getting from Uzoho.

Kalapizim:
2014 I guess you meant. Mikel was not at the 2010 world cup.

Yes, 2014, thanks a lot

terzurum5:
I was one of those who clamored for Vincent Enyeama's return. However, if he feels indifferent so be it. I am very much comfortable with what Ezenwa has got to offer. I just hope Ajiboye proves himself a lot in any of the friendlies coupled with the positive feedback we are getting from Uzoho.

Ezenwa? World Cup first choice? Does Agbim ring a bell?

Mickael2:
Was Mikel poor in that tournament or not? The question is why did we lose and he was a major reason. For God's sake he was the CMF, the central man in the middle who controls play and he was poor. Simple and short Mikel was poor in the 2010 World Cup.

Yobo had a solid game, I was impressed with his game, he played so well probably because that was his 100th appearance, he scored an OG but that does not mean he was the reason why we lost.

Mikel did not make 2010 WC due to injury.

Truly 2014 WC Mikel failed to carry d team due to lost of form and d team in general cannot make it to quarter final coz d team wasn't cohesive enough.

Honestly am always surprised anytime we blame our lost to d injury Onazi got during d match.It was glaring d team was struggling right from the first match against Iran,Bosnia match was a saving grace.

Mikel had a low performance but our lost against France wasn't Mikel fault.The two goals we conceded was due to individual errors.

The first error came through Enyeama, he went for a cross and missed d ball giving Pogba d opportunity to nod in.Enyeama doesn't need to come out and he was punished for it by Pogba,after d match Keshi blamed Enyeama.

The second goal was basically Yobo's fault,no pressure at all and Enyeama was already on d ground but on rushing Yobo just tapped d ball in.

Generally d team was poor,d coach,Defence,midfield, attacks.We didn't get it right and d players to carry d team failed woefully, players like Mikel,Emenike,Moses.

Mickael2:
Ezenwa? World Cup first choice? Does Agbim ring a bell?

Let see d young man against Argentina first

soetanoreoluwa:
OPPOSTION WATCH


His Encounters With Nigeria And Other Interesting Facts About New Algeria Coach MadjerRabah Madjer

www.nairaland.com/attachments/6151530_heroa_jpeg46e12f7230ca25bfdf44f13fdf7674ce


Following the appointment of the legendary Rabah Madjer as new coach of the Algerian national team, Completesportsnigeria.com’s JAMES AGBEREBI highlights SIX interesting facts about the 58-year-old, including encounters with Nigeria as both countries get set to meet in a Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier in November…

HE WAS A MEMBER OF ALGERIA TEAM THAT LOST TO NIGERIA IN 1980 AFCON FINAL

Rabah Madjer made his debut for Algeria in 1978 and went on to make his first appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 in Nigeria.

Algeria qualified from a group that had Ghana, Morocco and Guinea, beat Egypt 4-2 on penalties in the semi-final and qualified for their first ever final.

In the final, Madjer was brought on in the second half for Tedj Bensaoula but did little as Algeria were thrashed 3-0 by Nigeria.

HE WON THE 1987 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WITH FC PORTO
FC Porto qualified for the final of the UEFA Champions League (known then as European Champions Cup) for the first time in 1987 and met German giants Bayern Munich.
On parade for FC Porto was Madjer who scored a memorable back-heel goal in the 77th minute to make it 1-1 after Ludwig Kogl had given Bayern the lead on 25 minutes.
With 10 minutes left, Juary scored Porto’s second goal which secured their first-ever UEFA Champions League title.

HE WAS VOTED AFRICAN FOOTBALLER OF THE YEAR IN 1987

Following his contribution to Porto winning the 1987 UEFA Champions League, Madjer was named 1987 African Footballer of the Year.
Madjer finished ahead of Cote d’Ivoire’s Youssouf Fofana (second) and Cameroon’s Francois Oman-Biyik (third).
He became the second Algerian after former national teammate Lakhdar Belloumi (1981) to win the award.

HE WON 1990 AFCON ON HOME SOIL
At the AFCON 1990 in Algiers, Madjer captained the Algerian team that became African champions for the first time in their history.
In the final against Nigeria, Algeria won 1-0 thanks to Cherif Oudjani in the 38th minute.
Madjer’s two goals at the 1990 AFCON were in the 5-1 demolition of Nigeria in the opening game of the tournament.

HE WAS A MEMBER OF ALGERIA’S SQUAD TO THE 1982 AND 1986 FIFA WORLD CUPS
Algeria qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1982 held in Spain with Madjer in the squad.
In the play-off round, Algeria eliminated Nigeria 4-1 on aggregate to qualify alongside Cameroon as Africa’s representatives.
And in the surprise 2-1 group stage win against favourite West Germany, Madjer scored Algeria’s first goal, making him the first man to achieve the feat for Algeria at the World Cup.
Madjer was in the Algeria squad to the FIFA 1986 World Cup held in Mexico.

HE COACHED ALGERIA TO THE MALI 2002 AFCON
After his first spell as Algeria coach from 1993 to 1995, Madjer was re-appointed in 2001.
He led the team to the Mali 2002 AFCON where they lost 1-0 to the Super Eagles in their first group game.
They eventually crashed out in the first round after later drawing with Liberia before losing to host Mali.

https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/interesting-facts-new-madjer/

We may not need to field an entirely new team/bench against the Algerian team because the new Coach will not be ready to loose his first game.
I expect to see a new Algerian team completely different from the their previous showings in the WC qualifying matches so far played.

Our hands go full that day.

Modified