Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

In this piece I take a look at data on set-peice goals scored by Nigeria in two competitions -- the Cup of African Nations (CAN) and the World Cup. We use the complete World Cup statistics for Nigeria and in the CAN we select the last five tournaments that Nigeria was a participant. The data show remarkable difference between the two competitions. Nigeria has done much better in the percentage of goals scored via set-piece and the percentage conceded via set-piece in the CAN compared to the World Cup. An obvious argument here is that Nigeria faces much better competition in the World Cup and this is demonstrated in the records of games played in the two competitions. The World Cup Nigeria's record of set-piece goals is poor. Nigeria has scored just 20% of its World Cup goals from a set-piece compared to conceding more than half of goals scored by opponents from set-piece. In essence, Nigeria has only conceded 12 goals from open play in the World Cup. This means less than a goa...

One of the goals of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) is to develop youth football and improve the game at the senior national team level. Of course, many could argue that this has been achieved already with faster and better tactical and technical play at the most senior level. However, one of the questions is whether there is a correlation between success at the lower youth level and success at the older levels. In essence, if a country performs well at a youth level, does that performance predict success at the higher level in a few years? In this piece, we explore that question. The result here is exploratory and must be interpreted with extreme caution as it does not meet with strict requirements of scientific study. For instance, we have not looked at team rosters in order to answer the question nor have we controlled for effects of extraneous variables. Instead, we simply compared data on teams that reached the semi-final stages (Top Four) of U17,...

Usually, Nigeria's qualification for the finals of the Cup of African Nations (CAN) is taken for granted. This has been the case since the mid 1970s after Nigeria became a footballing power in the continent. However, Nigeria has only made it to the finals of the tournament once in the last three editions! That is a shocking record considering the country's footballing pedigree. But to reach the 2017 finals may well be more difficult than any qualifiers that Nigeria has been involved in for a long time, at least on paper. The major obstacle is Egypt, a country that has won the CAN more times than any other country. Yet only one of Nigeria or Egypt can be sure to make it. The chances of a second place team making it from the group is a crap shoot. Egypt will be just as desperate as Nigeria to be at the finals of the 2017. Egypt has missed the last three finals! Thus, the only guarantee is a battle to finish between the two. One must acknowledge that even though Egypt is co...