Former Nigeria international Emeka Amadi has absorbed Super Eagles goalkeeper Francis Uzoho of any blame for Zimbabwe’s goal in Sunday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Rwanda.
Uzoho once again came under heavy criticism after conceding from a long range free-kick in the first half.
The embattled goalkeeper almost gifted Zimbabwe a second goal late in the game after fumbling a cross luckily the error was not punished.
But Amadi has come out to defend Uzoho, posting the goal he conceded would beat any goalkeeper.
“It is the the fault of Francis Uzoho the free-kick was well taken,” the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup silver medal winner said on Brila FM.
“The effort came from a place where no goalkeeper can save it, the ball swerved from in to out so it is hard for a keeper to make a save. So for me that ball can beat any goalkeeper.”
Also Read: 2026 WCQ: ‘We Tried Our Best’ — Zimbabwe Captain Nakamba Reflects On Draw With Super Eagles
After two games played in the qualifiers the Eagles have only garnered two points.
A win for South Africa – on three points – will see them four four points clear of the Eagles.
Up next for Jose Mourinho’s side in the World Cup qualifiers is a home game against South Africa in June 2024.
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38 Comments
Hahahaha…..loudmouthed toni. Come and see ó.
Emmanuel Amunike’s trusted assistant, Emeka Amadi, a former goalkeeping and an active goalkeeping coach has spoken.
Continue to get annoyed because others do not share your warped ignorance-laden reasoning.
Ask 10 GKs the same question and all 10 will tell you neither of the goals conceded vs Lesotho or Zimbabwe was a GK error.
Y’all should bow your heads in shame for trying to scapegoat a GK for drawing against the likes of Lesotho and Zimbabwe in world cup qualifiers.
I repeat, expecting the GK, be it uzoho or anybody else, to be our saviour playing lesotho at home and Zimbabwe on a neutral ground, is an outright total shame. Something definitely has to be wrong somewhere.
Your hate and frustrration needs to be directed to the right quarters.
@Dr Drey………what kind of kain kain did you drink before spewing out this nonsensical comment above???
A GK was beaten from a 40 yards out free kick without any deflection or wind-aided swerve and you open your mouth to say its not his fault? Dr Drey that I know is always spot on in his analysis but this one here is way out of point my brother.
Kindly watch the goal again and tell me what was a number 1 GL out of 200 million population doing in that position at the time of the free kick
I wonder o, even haven set his defenders, you still conceded such a goal…. haba…. it’s just about positioning and if we are talking about positioning at the national level, iyen de wa ga o…..
You dey mind person wey talk say it’s not the job of the coach to teach ball control. Una get time dey reply this old man.
Dimitrievski the vallecano GK was the MVP vs RM in there last la liga meeting 2 weeks ago, Tibo single-handedly won the UCL for RM and was the MVP in that match, I ask you yesterday why can’t our own uzoho rescue the team at least sometimes, do you think we all detest him? See we are all soccer fanatics here and we passionate abt our dear SE, we will surely sing and praise uzoho if he give us what we expect from a NT GK of SE status, I love the fact peseiro try to support and boost his confidence but it’s clear uzoho is not there yet, that Emeka or whatever his name support him didn’t justify nothing. You keep blaming the defenders but you forgot that in our last two matcher uzoho is the least busy GK in both matches, against Lesotho I told you he cause the first corner kick that birth the second one that they score from and ironically happen to be the only two penalties we conceded during the entire 90minutes, this is bcos the defend aren’t that bad, yes u can argue the fact our strikers shd have score more than we conceded but yet what happen to our GK been the hero for once?
Uzoho is just fortunate to have support from a defense line that wasn’t troubled that much. Imagine him facing tougher teams with quality attacking players, don’t you think he would be exposed further. And all this talk about Rorh, he has come and gone. Let him also perform the same magic he did while he was in Nigeria. Looking forward to him winning games for Benin with games to spare. Hopefully he would be hired by Manchester United in the future
Exactly my point, our defence is not that bad our main issue is the GK. We dnt need to sugarcoat anything.
…a former goalkeeper…
Uzoho was beaten for poor positioning… let Emeka Amadi go and sit, he is just pushing tribal sentiments, we are Nigerians and know ourselves.
@Dr.Drey… proffer solutions. What are way forward and solutions that the SE setup require. That is what is needed now… tell us your idea how to improve the team. Speak to team improvements, players for the chop and those we can look at newly.
They are evidently lacking leadership, initiative, fight, bite and tenacity. let us hear your submissions along these lines. We can fight and argue often, but how-to-do is what’s required now.
Hahahaha….they are looking for solutions…LMAOoo.
The number one solution is that those who know no jack about football shout keep their gutters shut, steer clear of the team and let those who are being paid $70,000 per month do their jobs.
A former goalkeeper and active GK coach should go and sit down because the truth doesn’t sit well with you…LMAOoo. Please tell us where Uzoho should have positioned himself since you know more than Emeka Amadi.
All of a sudden the team now lacks leadership…?? What happened to you Kenneth Maldini Omeruo who has been in the team for 10 years…? He’s no longer better than all those whom you called for their forceful retirement from the national team…LMAOoo??? A good solution to that problem would be to go and bring back Yobo and Oliseh out of retirment….LMAOoo and afterwards dig the Late Keshi and Amodu out of their graves for a return to the SE bench…LMAOoo
Nonsense.
They no want solutions…LMAOoo.
Please tell us where Uzoho should have stood prior to the freekick to have prevented it from swerving and changing direction midair.
@Dr.Drey… when you vex finish from the disappointed state your suggested solutions. I know all you have vented is targeted to ex-internationals and folks like me, but I no go vex. As e the pain you na so e the pain me. I may not be a football coach but I know what practical football looks like and I have a canny talent and good eye for spotting footballing gems premised on effectiveness, stamina, confidence and initiative on the pitch.
I shall continue to shout it… Aribo, Sadiq,Bassey and Onyeka are all second-rate lethargic players, all not good enough to wear the jersey of our national team. You mention Umeruo… he is better than Ajayi and Bassey by a mile. He cannot field himself in a match. I shouted the name of Toochukwu Nnadi on this platform right after our U-20 exited the world cup.
Anyone who knows a good footballer will concur to my assertion about the guy… and boom!, Werder Bremen is signing him just couple months later. I also shouted the name of Onuche Ogbelu who is already a first teamer with Esperence of Tunis, I saw his game at the last U-20 AYC and knew something was off that he was left behind and cut from the world cup party.
Someone should advise Uzoho to buy two sets of 5man-dummy training wall and take to matches next time… before a freekick is played he should position them to his sides of the post to help him. Never seen such a lazy tall stick of a goalkepper dive like pregnant grasshopper.
I agree with some of what you have said, but I feel that you are not concentrating on the immediate needs of the SE. We don’t have an acute problem with defence or with the attack. Your argument is about selection choice. You can complain about Bassey’s selection, but Bassey has not made any errors. All the goals against Nigeria in the last 4 games have come from set-pieces mainly outside the 18 yard box. A lot of he blame has been with the goalkeeper. Where we have an immediate problem is with midfield.
The communication line from defence to attack is not functioning mainly because of the formation choice of the coach. Greater responsibility than his skillset is placed on Iwobi. Iwobi cannot dribble or take on a man. He is a passer of the ball, and once his passing channels to the attackers is crowded or blocked off he retreats to a defensive midfield position making him even more isolated from the attackers.
My own solution is that they play Moses Simon as an attacking midfielder. Not only can Simon pass the ball, he can also take on defenders. Formation inflexibility by the coach is why I view him as incompetent. I can understand if he underestimated African football, but when he played the same formation against Portugal, I knew he was either a saboteur or incompetent. After all, being Portuguese he can’t say he was lacking in knowledge about his national team.
The final issue is the tempo at which the SE are playing. It is being dictated from midfield and it not just slow but also lethargic. Too much effort is being placed on maintaining team structure at the expense of speed of counter-attack. When possession is gained rather than counter-attack by moving the ball forward quickly with one-touch passes, the players take the risk-averse route by passing the ball back or taking several touches on the ball slowing the progression of any attack and allowing their opponents time to set their defense. The team also has an obsession with keeping possession of the ball even when it is not doing anything with it. I tell you even if Lesotho were allowed more possession they would have not been able to do anything with the ball.
These failings are all coaching issues, that’s why apart from goalkeeping I don’t blame any players.
I think Nigerians have a negative perception that Igbos only support Igbo, which is a false judgement because all the well meaning Igbos I know are all about Results and not this shallow minded tribalism talks all over the place. Anyone who’s tribal is bound to fail in life because a tribal mind will see no good in greatness and loose out of this greatness due to false judgement. I will not single out any tribe but people who suspect tribalism are mostly the tribal mongers themselves. Let us do away with this disgusting sickness and judge by performance nothing else. Ask the greatest Coaches of the game No1 rule is honesty that is why I always beg NFF to pay Local coaches else they’ll be tempted to do wrong judgment. Has anyone seen a great coach that is dishonest???
Super Eagles played two draws. One at home and another at away and scored just two goals and conceded two goals. Somebody here is busy blaming the goalkeeper for the draws. Your hatred for Uzoho will soon consume all of you. It is Uzoho that refused to score for super eagles. Those channve that super eagles attackers missed are blamed on Uzoho. Ola Aina that was very weak and gave away a cheap foul that led to Zimbabwean goal is exonerated. Leave Uzoho alone please. He’s good and he is doing his best.
If only we can get a technically savvy coach as that of the Falcons at the recent past World Cup at Australia (Waldrum).
Dreadful fear that Eagles of the days of Westerhof send to opponents is what is haunting our Eagles right now. Eagles players lacks confidence.
The way forward? Get a technically savvy coach like Waldrum for instance.
Falcons coach that can not overcome African Coaches at CAF competitions. Nigeria as a nation need overhauling in all capacity. We have seen other African nations use African coaches even Lesotho and Zimbabwe to hurt the Eagles so why then can’t we focus on the best African coaches and pay them well to steer the Giants of Africa to Greatness??? The North Africans always employ and steer the best local coaches why can’t we do same in this most populated African Nation???
I won’t fault Uzoho for the goal because it takes an exceptional goalkeeper to save that ball, and we all know Uzoho is now a shadow of himself so it’s expected that he will concede even before kickoff. I am just refreshing to see the news of Peseiro Sack. I can’t believe Nigerians at the helm of our Football will allow this fraud to continue as a coach in a country he has no business coaching. You don’t even know Vincent Enyeama then what are you doing on that bench??? How can a stranger be coaching us when. He knows nothing about our History????????
Super Eagles played two draws. One at home and another at away and scored just two goals and conceded two goals. Somebody here is busy blaming the goalkeeper for the draws. Your hatred for Uzoho will soon consume all of you. It is Uzoho that refused to score for super eagles. Those channve that super eagles attackers missed are blamed on Uzoho. Ola Aina that was very weak and gave away a cheap foul that led to Zimbabwean goal is exonerated. Leave Uzoho alone please. He’s good and he is doing his best.
People will argue this but the truth has to be said.Sacking Rohr was a great misjudgement!I remember screaming NO!NO!Don’t do it when the rumour was going round,Pinnick was adamant Sunday Dare the architech of the whole pandemonium and Segun Odegbami who won’t stop writing deadly articles in fact he championed the whole disaster with an evil pen.Today we’re broken from the outcome of that shambolic needless decision!
We should learn to treat people right regardless what part of the world they come from.Evil has it’s results as well good.We planted evil and have started harvesting the products.
Rohr would have won away against Zimbabwe with a 3-5-2 formation easy.There’s no way Rohr’s eagles will collect 2 points out of a possible 6 against minnows..He’s very tactical and approach each game with a different tactics making his team less predictable.
Rohr’s last days was just too horrible to carry on with let’s be honest else we will not move on with this stagnation. NFF sacked him rightly but the replacement was expected to be a lesson learnt from Hiring coaches with Zero trophy cabinet, and start looking at exceptional coaches like Renard, Belmandi and Aliou Cisse as examples. I remember even Siasia has better trophy cabinet than Rohr and Peseiro. Now we are loosing I expect us to look at the best coaches in Africa to hire. Ptiso Mosiame was interested in handling our team let us look if he’s available, at this stage in Modern times Nigeria can not be loosing games by chance because it will be a shame that we’ll miss USA hosting the World Cup. NFF giving excuses that ministry is owing the coach so they can not Sack Peseiro will be our biggest political undoing to the nation economically and mentally if Nigeria misses out on USA World Cup.
Rorh’s last days saw him top his group with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Actually, he topped that group from Day 1 to the last day of the series. Even when we lost to CAR at home (thanks to Awoniyi missing an open net yet again), we were still top of the group
That was horrible in the eyes of people who cannot see beyond their nostrils.
People who could not see beyond their hatred for Rohr because he wasn’t picking their fantasy XIs or playing 1994 wing play….LMAOoo.
People who couldn’t not see that NFF were intentionally hell bent on sabotaging him to fail (as the later confessed), cos they knew he would be difficult to sack once he leads the team to the AFCON. I have never seen an employ who has so much belief his employee would succeed, yet fires him
Your siasia that has trophy cabinet using 35 years olds to play U20 tournaments, failed to qualify for AFCON twice and got 2 local league clubs relegated and almost relegated a CAF CL finalist of the previous year before he was sacked by the club….he simply didn’t have 35yr Olds to masquerade as 20 years Olds at senior level
I wish the results we are getting now were as horrible as the ones we were getting under Rohr….LMAOoo
Let me shock you all.
More likely than not, SA will win their next match bs Rwanda and Benin will likely defeat Lesotho. By the end of this international window, South Africa will be leading with 6 points and Benin will be 2nd with 3 points…..LMAOoo
Y’all want Rohr to perform wonders with Benin right, just wait and see for yourselves….LMAOoo.
Anyone of you that values his health should just kiss 2026 world cup good bye from now.
Can you take your time if you know football history to write out Samson Siasia achievements as a coach same way you have just tried to downplay him??? With Siasia we are guaranteed quality football and only loosing on rare occasion to a fellow inform team. It will be sad that the Hate some of you have on him his Blinding the man’s achievements yet your legendary coach that has never won anything serious is still loosing and loosing like there’s no tomorrow with Benin.
Do you have problem understanding english….?
I just wrote up there his history with senior teams where there are no ‘U’ in front of their names and you still asking for history….???
Is the SE a ‘U’ team that I should use ‘U’ medals to rate Siasia when he has been a 2 time SE coach already…?? Someone coached the SE twice and couldn’t qualify for AFCON, he coached JUTH and Bayelsa united and relegated them. He took over heartland of owerri who were 2009 CAF CL finalist after they had suffered to reach the group stages and he finished bottom of the group with just 1 win, while in relegation zzone in the league b4 he was sacked…so what other history do you want to hear.
You want us to rate him for what he did 20 years ago with 35 year Olds playing in u20 tournament….???
If NFF should tell you today that they are going for a white man whole last 3 senior club coaching jobs ended in 3 relegations and 2 non qualifications of national teams, will you give them a pat on the back…???
There’s no need to argue because there are meaningful Nigerians that appreciate the value of Samson Siasia and we remember his achievements as a Coach( double Olympics medalist despite NFF shoddy preparation, u20 Afcon Champion and U20 world silver medalist). All his achievements was under bizarre NFF conditions. Just hang on because he will be back soon!!!
@Greenturf… here you go again with the Rohr hallelujah bleatings. Same Rohr whose team could not beat a minnow in neutral Morocco? Same Rohr who lost his first game at home in Uyo, same Rohr that CAR beat in Lagos? Ok… are the Benin Republic players any inferior to those of Nigerai? Let Rohr wave his magic wand with Benin Republic right now… make we the see.
The fact is the perception of most about Uzoho is that of calamity. And who can blame such stance. Nothing comes from nothing. Uzoho did bring that on himself. He actually made costly errors and such trust is gone.
And such criticism could lead to the break down of his self confidence leading to near falls and more mishaps especially when he isn’t playing at his clubside.
Simply by the latter basis alone, Uzoho shouldn’t be starting games for the Eagles, atleast till he gets his clubside game time sorted out. His inclusion to the team can never be justified most specially when we know that no position needs consistent playing time more than the goalkeeper. And with all due respect, more so,keeper based in Cyprus!
Why don’t we simply put faith in one of the many active goalkeepers since Uzoho had gotten his opportunity but have broken a lot of trust.
As much Uzoho is blamed. Blame must be apportioned to his team mates. They mostly failed to live up to expectations,especially the strikers; with the exception of Iheanacho, Ajayi, Simon , and to some extent Iwobi;most didn’t have good games over the two matches. So they failed as well.
They simply lack the grit and mentality of Ndidi and Osimhen. The pressure and drive was simply missing.
That said,most keep going on the merry ground about the past; it does no good hanging on to the past and keep talking about when and ifs. It doesn’t help us. Rohr happened and so did Eguavoen. Good,bad and the meh.. As much we learn from the past, We focus on the now,going forward.
We got an Afcon to play and definitely difficult catch up in the world cup qualifiers.
My solution. Hard take. Fire Peseiro. Put every resources in getting a remarkable coach. And if one of own falls into this bracket. Why not..
It goes without saying, quality doesn’t come cheap and for me, none of our own based locally is good enough ( I don’t trust their judgement and character); so if we’re going the Nigerian route,it must be ‘ our own’ based out there with the experience and work ethics. Case in point, Stephen Keshi’s exploit with Togo and Mali before he came back to us on a winning note. So we can find one of our own in this trajectory, honing his own currently.
Besides, nothing is stopping us getting an African coach, who is intent and has the credentials to back his skill. The Maghreb nations and heck South Africans got good coaches. Remember, it is about getting the job done and quality. But would our pride let us go that route?!
Second take. Keep Peseiro. And let him do his job and pray he learns. Criticise when necessary and see how things goes.
The options are on the table.
Do we trust the NFF to make any good decision? Your guess is as good as mine.
For me, I remain optimistic.
It’s all I have.
what do you expect an ‘Emeka Amadi’ to say? Damage control.A national team first goal keeper was beaten from almost 40 meters and someone is trying to cover him up.Try that sequence of errors with the Senegalese team and see how if you will smell the reserve bench.The ball sverve, so what is he supposed to do as a goal keeper?. No wonder Amadi never went far with his goalkeeping career both as a goalkeeper and coach
Hahahaha….where did you reach in your own goalkeeping career to talk about things you know no jack about…? LMAOoo.
You sure know more goalkeeping than Emeka Amadi who is a trusted assistant of your much advocated Amunike.
Those acted videos you watch must be giving you a great sense of achievement.
And pls how many of Senegal’s matches have you watched to know that their goalkeepers never conceded long range or swerving goals…LMAOoo….Another huge figment of your imagination. Go and pull out Senegal’s match highlights on the net and see how “invincible” mendy has been yet still commands his shirt.
When I saw Uzoho against Argentina in 2017 I said Nigeria have found a goalkeeper for the next decade at least. Fast forward 6 years later Uzoho has become a liability. No doubt he’s a good goalie between the sticks, but I think his lack of matches at his current club has really affected his sharpness and reflexes.
The Uzoho I saw against Ukraine and Brazil was promising. As a goalkeeper you get better with age. However, if you’re not playing regular club football there’s no two ways to it you will lack match fitness. Like Mr Hush said he needs to get his club football back on track for now before he can start pulling his weight in the National team again.
Looking at the whole thing holistically and realistically without Osimhen, Ndidi and a rejuvenated Chukwueze SuperEagles is in a deep mess. Also we need a reliable and match fit goalkeeper between the sticks. I don’t know if Peseiro is the guy, but gong by his decision making and tactics I’m beginning to question his ability to turn things around.
Obviously, a two weeks training camp before the AFCON might spark something if we have Osimhen back. We have a very slow midfield that can’t play a quick transition link with the attackers and goodness me the crosses from both left backs were horrendous to say the least.
Our next games are against South Africa at home and Benin republic away in June. We now have to do it the hard way. Historically, SuperEagles always show up when their backs are against the wall. If we can’t get a maximum of 6 points from those games we should simply forget about the Mondial. Unless SA drops points along the way and that means we should have our calculators handy every time.
The AFCON will really say a lot about the readiness of this team going forward. I hope they bounce back, but I’m very skeptical about our chances.
Some teams does well at the afcon and fails to continue in that vein,whereas to some after a bad tournament they get their act together and go on the ascendancy.
Meanwhile,the absence of key players was culpable to our poor start in the World Cup playoffs coupled with inept handling of the team especially in selection of players.
Whether we would get it right or not is left to be seen.But whatever happens in the end life will go on.
I shall support the falconet and any Nigerian team that shows purpose.I didn’t see the Zimbabwe game thank God for the extended service in church.
Of course It won’t be the end of the world if they fail to qualify for USA Canada and Mexico 26. But I won’t give up on my SuperEagles just yet. If we can get some things right we have a good team. We just need to fix our goalkeeping problems and work more on the midfield.
Peseiro’s contract ends after the AFCON in Ivory Coast. We still have enough time to get a better coach afterwards even if he wins the AFCON which I will take as a pinch of salt at this point. Hey I will take it if he wins it, but after the AFCON irrespective of our performance SEGOBE.
They can’t sack him now because it’s too close to a major tournament, but they will decide his call ups for the AFCON according to sources. I believe we can bounce back. I really wish I can do without watching the SuperEagles whenever they play, but I’m sorry bro I don’t know why I love this team so much. I can’t afford to miss any televised SuperEagles game irrespective of the outcome. Even if I’m in inside dungeon.
I’m just pissed right now. This is a lesson for everyone here who owns a company, a business, or manages other people… Please before you let go of your current manager or employee for whatever reason, be absolutely sure you have a better or decent replacement, otherwise it’ll be the start of a crumbling empire. Be patient if you don’t have a capable replacement yet. Don’t do wholesale replacements, needs to be gradual and systematic, whether for the managers or the departmental staff (players).
Oh I miss Victor Moses. I miss Mikel, Emenike, Enyeama. Even Musa on his good days will fire and score with a bullet shot straight from the center half when push comes to shove as in the situation yesterday. And he had a telepathic understanding with Ighalo as regarding unlocking stubborn defences with Ighalo often finishing off the move.
What do we have today? A group of talented individuals with clothes b experience but little national team experience, supervised by a very predictable and technically bereft coach.
Of course, with Rohr, diminishing returns was starting to set in the latter part of his tenure, but I’ll pick him over and over again over this one. As @Greenturf said, he was technical and unpredictable with his tactics and almost always rectifies the results in the next match in the event of first blunder. He won’t play 2 consecutive draws. What we have now is a sorry downgrade.
Rather than give us an upgrade or at least like for like with a different philosophy, Pinnick gifted us with someone with a damaged CV and Gusau retained him, all for pecuniary benefits. SMH. Las las, Nigeria has happened to our dear Super Eagles.
And to think we are in a very cheap group. The cheapest of the 9. What excuse do we have?
I dont want to deceive myself, I dont see peserio getting sacked. Why…??
Has he failed to meet any target…??? On what basis will he be sacked…??
We are yet to recover from the previous disaster, we want to incure another one…?
Unless Peserio is as dumb and as desperate as our local guadiolas who would even accept SE jobs without contracts, I am sure Peserio would have some anti-sack bogus payout compensation clauses in his contract.
So once again, will the NFF want to be paying 2 coaches at the same time lkme they were paying Rohr and Peserio up till december last year….LMAOoo???
There is already an excuse for failure for anyone that gets hired now….like they made for Eguafailure the last time when he and his 9 dullards dragged our SE back to 1982.
And who amongst these jobless ones would perform magic between now and afcon and the next qualification window…??
The one that couldn’t reach group stages of CAFCL or the one that was demoted to academy coach and later sacked from zanaco for dragging them down to relegation waters….??? Or the twitter coach who benjonsoned when he saw AFCON qualification failure in the horizon that we will now call for a rescue mission…?
Or is it Eguavoen that will come and repeat what we are now used to him doing…? Since the mantra of the SE now is “let’s do it again”…..LMAOoo.
The gulf in class in our local coaches and players and the rest of Africa was so glaring in the just concluded Africa football league what was won by a 36 year old South African coach.
We should better swallow our pride if we have to, to get good African coaches from other countries if at all the racist in us does not want Europeans any more.
” We should better swallow our pride if we have, to get good African coaches from other countries…”
@ Dr Drey
I couldn’t agree more.
Like I stated in my earlier take, this is an option we should be looking at cause I know definitely , the NFF can never give us international quality coaches. Best they can ever give us are journey men, experimental,semi retired and half baked coaches . Ones they would still owe!
And I would rather stick to Peseiro than go with ‘our own’. They are simply unreliable and lack skills.
So why don’t we look around us. Atleast they understand the terrain, they are mostly diligent with the job, got the ethics and qualified, more so, got ambition to improve and succeed. They have the self belief and work to back it up. Besides, we can atleast afford them.
Imagine the pride they, ( not being specific; Maghreb, South African ..coach) would have in taking charge if the Nigeria Super Eagles.. I assure you,there is no more motivation than that.
But we know the NFF don’t think, even when they do, it is in reverse.
We are in God’s hands.
For me the solution is easy. Leave Peseiro to prosecute the Afcon and sack him if he doesn’t meet his target of reaching the semi-finals.
From how we have performed thus far, I very much doubt that this gaffer will meet his Afcon targets. So my Afcon expectations are rock bottom.
If we are lucky we can make it out of the group but if Peseiro doesn’t tweak his strategy I anticipate another second round heartache. The good thing about this scenario is that it would lead to Peseiro’s sacking and hopefully pave the way for appointing a competent gaffer for subsequent World Cup qualifiers.
It’s just crass to sack Peseiro now. He hasn’t been terrible (he has been underwhelming but not catastrophic thus far). And sacking him will have grave financial ramifications.
For me Peseiro remains reluctantly manageable. Playing 2 deadly strikers upfront flanked by competent wingers can be productive. But insufficiency in defence, lack of midfield creativity and chronic predictability in attack all make for a frustrating and underwhelming Super Eagles outfit.
My gamble is that Peseiro will use extensive training period offered by a tournament environment to address glaring shortcomings of the team.
For me, this team is not awful or abysmal by any stretch. Far from it, they are just rough around certain edges. To repeat myself: address goalkeeping training ; shore up the midfield; and instruct the strikers to be more resourceful and incentive. Then we can be talking about Afcon semi-finals.
For those supporting Uzoho I ask a simple question.If the super eagles were to be their company for example, will they hire an Uzoho as the MD given all his antecedents?
Anyway, away from Uzoho Goffs and Peserio lack of depths, I also think that the NFF did not play the fixture politics well.The fixtures are skewed to favor SA obviously because of the CAF president.
See in sports and piloting, there is what is called human performance.These players are human beings after all, They played 3 matches in one week haba.What is the rush for?.
They played their gruelling matches in the top 5 leagues in the world on Sunday, Flew 7-8 hours immediately to Nigeria, have one or two half training sessions, play the match on Thursday and barely 36 hours after the match, flew 4 hours by road to Rwanda and another 2 hours by road to match venue and the next day play against a team that have rested for four days.
SA played their league matches on Saturday and have a full 8 days before their match with Benin and then a 50 minutes flight to Rwanda to play today.
Besides why must SA have the advantage of knowing our results before playing?
Ideally, after playing Lesotho, we should play Benin next door, just like SA is playing Rwanda next door and don’t need to fly for hours to match venue.Even Zimbabwe played in the same stadium twice.
These are issues that should have interested the NFF from the beginning, but since there is no money to be made they were not interested.
I listened to Ahmed Musa today in Lagos saying that the Foreign born players don’t know what it means to Nigeria when the SE lost a match.Musa is right, The starting line up of the team for the match against Zimbabwe have 5 foreign born players.That is 50% of the team.Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against them, but I can’t see the swagger, flair, supreme skills, swash buck, street wise, fighting spirit,Do or die spirit harassment of previous Nigerian national teams.There is no reason why we should not have blooded at least 3 members of Ladan Bosso under 20 teams in those matches.Senegal gave debut to 3 members of their own under 20 team to the Same tournament in Argentina.Evek Zbabwe gave debut to a 19 years old player.We need to think.
Correction SA play tomorrow. Tuesday, except if you already in Tuesday where you base though.