Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Since Stephen Keshi became Nigeria's coach in 2011 he has used many players. However, there are some of those players that Keshi has repeatedly used or we feel that he will use regularly in the coming months. Below we have provided very brief description of each of those players that we believe are in the coach's main pool. Augustine Ejide – He is perhaps the best of Nigeria’s three goalkeepers at defending crosses. He is no doubt an excellent goalkeeper. It is unfortunate that the coaches have settled for Enyeama ahead of him. It is clear, however, Nigeria will not lose a beat if he plays in substitute of Enyeama. Ejide is sure handed and has played 26 games at 79 minutes per. Vincent Enyeama – Vince is Nigeria’s No.1 and an excellent shot stopper. Controls his goal area and very difficult to beat from distance. He is now the on-field captain of the national team and is more likely to become Nigeria’s first player to appear 100 times for the national team. His appeara...

Recently, news spread world wide about absurd scores in two league games in Nigeria. One ended 79-0 and the other 67-0. What is stunning is that in each game, the score was in single digits at halftime. In the second half, the rate of goal scoring was a goal in less than a minute. Now, think of this: goals may have been scored in less time than it took the team to retrieve the ball from the net and restart., and was there ever a passing miscue? Clearly, match fixing in Nigeria has reached a new high. I use the words new high because match fixing in Nigeria has been ongoing for years with the football authorities vacating their  authority and acting the Ostritch. This time, the world is watching and the clock is ticking, tick tock tick tock. Will the authorities act? If you need a reminder, here are just a few of infamous match fixing issues or cases to which the authorities pushed under the carpet. 1. March 31, 2006: Fanny Amun, NFA (NFF) Secretary General, tells the press: ...

Nigeria’s failure to progress to the medal phase of the Confederations Cup in Brazil last month brought numerous calls for the return of forgotten national team players. As is always the case in Nigeria, there were calls for the return of Osaze Odemwingie, Obinna Nsofor, Obafemi Martins, Kalu Uche, among several other names that were put forward by critics. The surprise was no calls for the return of Augustine Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu!  Jokes aside, there was a reason for criticism. After all, it was obvious that Nigeria struggled to score at the Confederations Cup with the likes of Brown Ideye, Ahmed Musa, Joseph Akpala, Anthony Ujah, and Mohammed Gambo missing several opportunities. The coach can claim that his key striker, Emmanuel Emenike, was out injured but he had the opportunity to recall those old names mentioned above or recall Obafemi Martins or Ikechukwu Uche whom he recently used in games or perhaps groom another capable replacement for Emenike. In an...

Sure, the African Nations Championship (CHAN) does not have the profile of the Cup of African Nations (CAN) but the reality is that the former has remained elusive to Nigeria since the competition began in 2009. The Confederation for African Football (CAF) had introduced the CHAN and restricted it to only players playing for clubs in their respective home countries. It was a response to the increasing use of oversea-professional players in the CAN and the need to increase interest in the locally-based players. Nigeria, in spite of its rich pool of oversea-based players in the national team and the significant migration of its players oversea was still expected to qualify for the CHAN on a regular basis. After all, Nigerian clubs have continued to do reasonably well in continental competitions without most of those oversea-based players. Unfortunately, Nigeria never has reached the finals of the CHAN and had lost, in one year, to the lowly regarded Niger Republic Menas . It was a sour...