₦airaland Forum

charlesemeka85:
Just watched the highlight of the game and I won’t fault the team or the chelle. From the little I saw SA played nada but just running around with no aim and plan while the pitch didn’t allow our plays to execute free flowing football that they are renowned of

Whenever the NFF start getting involved in politics in world football and Caf the better for our national teams because I see no reason fifa will approve that cucumber farm for a World Cup qualifying game as well as allow Lesotho and Zimbabwe to play their home games in SA that they re in the same group with, the most absurd decision I have ever seen in football

All the blame goes to our football association

Nah we don't practice that kind of politics. It's only the politics that is aimed at sabotaging fellow country men and women for our own benefit. That's our type of politics.

MetalJigsaw:
Please tell us those teams he played. Couldn't beat a lowly ZIM at home, Rwanda home game could have easily ended in a draw. couldn't beat an ordinary SA team in a must win match despite the Europe based stars at his disposal. Is that what you're applauding?

That is pure mediocrity.

Is this set of players that include 2 African bests no deserving of a grade B coach?
Why was Amunike not given a half chance??

Player for player most of these players in our group can't lace the boots od our players so why are we struggling so much against them??

The last 10 minutes of that match was so embarrassing! African local players running rings around our team, pinning us back when the reverse is supposed to be the case.

See Eric Chelle falling for cheap antics from opposing coach to make him angry amd lose focus in the crucial moments od the match. Chai!😥

I swear you are lucky the Nairaland bots now censor posts that are very harsh and scathing. That's all I will say. You are very lucky, because this pile of garbage you posted up there is the exact reason why our football has remained stagnated for years. Because of myopic sentiments like this.

If Chelle's appointment as SE coach pains you so much, knack your head on the floor ten times and go to sleep.

A protest needs to be staged at NFF headquarters. Those vultures need to get lost.

Na this same Lesotho go see us turn to PSG. 🤦🏾‍♀️

Abi we don turn minnows and I no dey aware?

Rockyrascal:
if benin lose to lesotho, & we beat benin & lesotho, & south africa lose to zimbabwe & rwanda, & benin also lose to nigeria & rwanda, we can still qualify.

God abeg 😂😂😂

Goke7:
God bless you o Imagine with all the so called experienced players in there dem no fit predict which side a particular player go run to omo e tire me

I'm telling you. Now that I think of it, with the stage we are in presently in terms of squad depth and efficiency, we've been excellent over the past few games. We have no business defeating a South African side that has worked hard and hustled to where they are now. Then we wey just carry new coach come after years of unseriousness and dilly-dallying and confusion from Peseiro to Finidi will now beat them out of nowhere.

I know football is a game that comes with a lot of surprises and it can favor you on a good day, but in hindsight, we were really pushing our luck with this game.

lbrichman2:
But what if we just somehow qualify??
We won't give up as long as there's a glimmer of hope

At this point, even if we qualify, what are we going to do there? Our team is clearly not prepared. That's if we even have a "team". We just have a squad of very talented players who don't have enough chemistry, and coached by someone who's still figuring his way round the players. Our attack is not well polished. If we somehow get to the mundial, our best chances of progressing will probably be to revert to Peseiro tactics and lock shop at our defense, then try to scrape points through penalties and inshallah.

South Africa players may not have the overall pedigree of the Super Eagles, but what we can learn from our last couple of meetings with them is that together, they are a well oiled machine. Hugo Broos has spent at least 4 years with them and together they've developed a playing style that churns out results. They move with urgency, and play as if they can predict what their teammates will do and where they will move. That's the kind of chemistry we need in the SE. The last time I saw that kind of chemistry in the SE was during the days of Oliseh, Babayaro dem.

At this point, I've made my peace with us possibly not qualifying. In fact I'm not even sure I want us to qualify. The highest we can achieve with this current squad at the level of football we are in now will be Round of 16, and that is if we play haram football. Imagine this squad playing Spain or Portugal. Even Ecuador sef. The only thing we'll benefit from the mundial is that all of us will go to America for vacation and sight-seeing.

That's why Chelle needs to stay. He has the potential. He has the right ideas. What he needs is the liberty to make his own choices + more time with the players to learn and study them well enough to understand their strengths, weaknesses, psychology and tendencies. Then he can use it to his advantage and build the perfect squad. If we're well co-ordinated, with the crop of players we have now, we're at least supposed to be rubbing shoulders with Uruguay, Croatia, England and the likes.

mank1234:
Na hand I use before? Chelle has no blame in this. This qualifier was lost after 4 games. He only came on remedial mission and didn't do badly.

I don't single out players for blame but our previous saviour: Ekong failed us.
Today's game: Remove 2 points from RSA and add 2 to Nigeria's own.
Against Zimbabwe: add 2 points to ours again and see where we would have been.
This is how the table would have looked like without those errors:
RSA 16pts
Nig 15pts

Who started Ekong? Was it not Chelle?

I'm even a bigger advocate for Chelle than you, but I will call out dodgy decision making when I see it. Ekong had no business being in today's starting lineup. Like someone here rightly noted, he lacks the pace or reaction time to keep up with Bafana's attack and that's why he made that blunder. They caught him lacking and he couldn't restrain himself.

That doesn't mean I'm blaming Chelle for our qualification woes. The rightful blame for that goes to NFF, if we want to dive down to the root cause for the confusion and cluelessness surrounding our qualifiers campaign. But today's game, his decisions we're poor. Kudos to him for making the right corrections, but by then the game was lost.

South Africa were full of nerves in the first half. It was Ekong's blunder that gave them the needed confidence and once they got their foots on the gas, they didn't let up for one second. In the second half, their defense suddenly turned into prime Madrid. The same defense we were jesting that we would run circles around.

Baba rest. Ekong cost us the game obviously, but if he had stayed on the bench like he did on Saturday, we for no dey here dey yarn all this pathetic yarns.

Like I said, Chelle stays. We move on to the AFCON.

Diavolo:
The players tried but this is all on Chelle. When I pointed that the first half formation was wrong,some people here said he's the coach and we don't know what we are saying. Although he corrected all his mistakes in the second half,if he had started the right way,then he would instead have used the substitutions to change the game instead of using it to correct his mistakes. I hope going forward he starts thinking properly and stop over complicating things and putting players in wrong positions. That own goal is on him,Moses and lookman should never play at the same time bassey is a Cb not a lb,iwobi isn't a cm.

I have to say I agree. I was skeptical when I saw the starting line-up too and my intuition wasn't wrong.

That being said, Chelle stays. He has the right ideas. His problem so far is timing, but with enough time and familiarity, I'm confident he'll get things right.

Imagine an alternate reality where we didn't start Ekong in this game. 🥲

QueenJazz:
I'm watching all our recent games under Chelle and the biggest flaw I can notice is poor finishing. Our attack is actually very potent in terms of build-up but 9 times of 10, we flop it all once we get to the final third, even with Osimhen present. I can't understand why it's so difficult for us. Other teams appear more clinical and dangerous once they get within the 18 yard box. But for us, it's almost guaranteed that we will miss. That's very poor and it's the biggest aspect of our game that we need to work on seriously.

There's only so many chances you can create without results before you become predictable and the opponent finds a way to just lock shop on you.

I made this comment about 4 hours before kick-off and that's exactly what happened during the last 20 minutes of the game. Good build up, atrocious finishing.

As for me, I know wan hear anything about World Cup again. Na AFCON I dey after.

Throw away the calculators and go home.

BankyGee:
See Uche

I think it's dying minute pressure. Chelle should have started him, Chukwueze and Tolu to be honest.

South Africa actually looked much much worse in the first half. They grew into the game. Especially after Ekong's howler.

I came back to say nobody should blame the referee. He had some dodgy calls against South Africa too. Many in fact.

The script has already been written. Let's look forward towards AFCON.

Issorite. AFCON still dey. Chelle stays no matter what.

Good night everybody.

mank1234:
What's his shirt number?

Use your head. Our creativity in the attack is dead rubber. Or are you blind?

If we don't win this game, it's on Chelle. Honestly.

CHUKWUEZE AND UCHE ARE STILL ON THE FLIPPING BENCH!!!

South Africa busy with the time wasting antics

Meanwhile, what the flying hell is Chelle waiting for to put in Chukwueze and Uche?

Enoughpull:
We need a chukewze in the second half

And Tolu and Uche

Bassey God will bless you ooooooooo

Una wey dey find experience, I hope you have seen the power of experience. Wehdone.

I wanted to say it when I saw the line-up but I know say analysts and specialists go choke for my comments.

Lol. We keep watching.

I have to ask at this point, what do people see in Moses Simon?

Unlimited22:
This field be like Absu Pavilion

What is this?

They know what they are doing. The pitch is disturbing them as well but they don't care. It's obvious they're looking towards a draw.

solonnachi:
No Christantus Uche, no Sam Chuks, no Tolu, no Onyeka.
Chelle is being tactical. Catch South Africa when they get tired with his joker players on the bench

That's what I thought. Or rather that's what I'm hoping he's thinking.

BankyGee:
Looks like 4-3-3

Bassey LB probably.

Wetin be this?

Hmmm. Make we dey watch sha.

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

Preparation continues.

I'm watching all our recent games under Chelle and the biggest flaw I can notice is poor finishing. Our attack is actually very potent in terms of build-up but 9 times of 10, we flop it all once we get to the final third, even with Osimhen present. I can't understand why it's so difficult for us. Other teams appear more clinical and dangerous once they get within the 18 yard box. But for us, it's almost guaranteed that we will miss. That's very poor and it's the biggest aspect of our game that we need to work on seriously.

There's only so many chances you can create without results before you become predictable and the opponent finds a way to just lock shop on you.

BankyGee:
Osimhen factor. I watch football generally, every team, but the only club I support is any club Osimhen plays for, starting from Lille.

That's what I call loyalty and dedication. You try well well. Hats off.

villagereporter:
Na waooo person no fit comments jéjé(ly) for politics section again, fiam na ban you don see so on all sections of nairaland.

Sé dandan ní for me to be zombilise because I refuted a lie dat my presidio of 2013 era was more tolerant and had bad ass economic team than dis present, the more you look d less you see team.

Please all "sportees" should help me appeal to the mod to thread on my post softly ooo, I love dat politics section die naa Super Chicken -since dem no wan be Super Eagles again-dey make me come here.

Anyways CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL as Super Eagles qualif(ied).

E good. Na there be the headquarters for tribalistic nonsense on this forum.

If no be Super Eagles thread and Big Brother Naija, normally nothing even concern me concern this forum again. Na twitter I dey steady.

Goke7:
SA will do everything to win. It's a do-or-die affair for them. Expect more hostilities from them; they may even lock the team inside the hotel to ensure they are late for the game, but this shows they still have this palpable fear of the Eagles. Whether our boys can take advantage of this remains to be seen.

Exactly. A team that is sooooo confident in their abilities, like they've been parroting on Twitter won't need to go through all this hassle to ensure a win. I just want to see a good game today. Whether we make it through or not, it's the universe that wills it.

100naira:
that's what is going to most likely happen, this is not the first time they are doing this

Kai. Production is not trying at all if this happens. Zero creativity.