Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Nigeria's loss to Uganda in an international friendly on Wednesday was a shocker but in many ways it reminds us of the past. Uganda certainly is Nigeria's bogey team. Surprised? Yes, you may be considering that we have always ranked above Uganda. However, we have consistently found it difficult to beat them whether at home or away. Just a reminder, this defeat is our second home loss to Uganda. Back in 1981, Nigeria led by German coach Gottlieb Goller lost to Uganda 0-1 in an international friendly as Nigeria prepared for the final stage of a World Cup qualifier against Algeria. That loss was even more significant that the Wednesday loss. On that night in Benin, Nigeria had its galaxy of stars called back from the United States and Portugal and looked forward to teaching Uganda a lesson after Nigeria had lost surprisingly to Uganda 1-2 at the semi-final stage of the 1978 Cup of African Nations in Ghana. Instead, even with returnees like Thompson Usiyen, Andrew Atuegbu, and Ch...

Supporters of Nigeria's national team - Super Eagles - are true fan-atics when it comes to supporting their team. They share the belief that the Super Eagles, based on accessibility to top Nigerian football talents, can easily win the World Cup. Though the statement above is delusional, it is easy to understand why this belief exists among the Eagles' fanatics. After all, Nigeria has won regularly at the youth level and, thus, linear thinking leads one to believe that domination at the youth level leads to domination at the senior level. However, the reality is that Nigeria is no more than an average team at the global level and has no pedigree to expect cup winning at the rate it fans may believe or hope. Nevertheless, the reality is also that Nigeria has come a long way to the point where it is now frequently considered among the top teams in Africa. That part is not delusional. It is supported by actual data. What we provide here is data tracking the team's rise si...

Shirt numbers? Why? That may well be the question that immediately comes to mind when you first come across the title of this paper. Guess what? Indeed, shirt numbers matter. If they do not, why is it that several players insist on specific shirt numbers through most of their career? A shirt number does not only serve as an identifier, it may also give an idea as to how a player wants to play, who he wants to model his game after, among other implications. Because of player insistence on wearing a specific number, we have chosen to look at players in recent times (from the late 1970s) to date and locate the most productive and most accomplished players based on shirt numbers. While the top goalkeepers have worn jersey number 1, other players have selected numbers that do not readily identify the positions that they played on the Nigerian national team. For instance, Christian Chukwu, one of Nigeria's most accomplished player was identified with number 12 most of his national...