The purpose of this article is not to chastise the players who represented Nigeria. It is to highlight the lack of collective and personal preparedness. It also should highlight the misguided firing of Shaibu Amodu ... the wasting of $2,000,000 on a 3 month coaching stint for a new coach and the external meddling of a governmental body (the so called "Presidential Task Force").
Anyway about the performance of the Super Eagles - The mistakes made on the field revealed that this team was not a good team ... they did not play well together. The mistakes made were surprising at this level. I shall list some of them.
* Losing the ball in our own half - creating final 3rd situations for the opponent. This happened against Argentina and South Korea ... in both instances the losses resulted in goals. Poor passing in our own half ...
* Selfish play - A constant problem ... which told me that Nigeria was not using video replay as a coaching tool. Osaze, Obasi and Yakubu ... in many cases Martins was a victim (and was a victim of Kaita's foolish foul).
* Kaita's foolish foul - This is still beyond belief. We shall consign him to the Football Manager ...
* Yakubu's miss - Yakubu started ahead of Obafemi Martins, yet he failed to justify his starting spot. Yakubu's game has spoken for itself - I need not say anything.
* Nigeria tied at 2-2 with South Korea and Obafemi Martins misses a 1-on-1 ... at the club level the pressure of the situation could have caused more composure on the part of the player ... his mind was not in the game ...
All that can be said is that this team was very poor. Kanu came in and played as a midfielder - he was in control, though slow he helped us mightily ... we are still dependent on players from the 90s era ... the current crop play very undisciplined soccer. If Obasi or Osaze or Yakubu had made ONE pass instead of shooting we would have had 4 points (a tie against Argentina and a win against South Korea).
Some high points were the play of Kalu Uche, the on field play of Danny Shittu, the ball winning of Lukman Haruna, and some good play by Kanu in his final game ...
However for our group we must be thankful that the best teams qualified, we were one of the worst teams in the tournament.
Much work remains for the Super Eagles and Nigeria (Not missing friendly dates, having a good local league, building up local coaches) ... but this is an article for another day.
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