Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Two years ago, Emmanuel Emenike was one of Nigeria's heroes in the improbable Cup of African Nations' triumph. During that competition, his scoring in five consecutive matches tied a Nigerian record. But that was two years ago! He is still Nigeria's top choice for striker. However, he has now played 19 games without scoring a single goal. This drought is far more than any top Nigerian striker has ever endured in a national team shirt. The table below lists the 19 games played by Emenike without getting on the scorers sheet. His drought began against Ethiopia in a World Cup qualifier on November 16, 2013 and has continued. Before that fateful date in 2013, Emenike scored twice in Addis Ababa to win a critical game for Nigeria. So what has happened since? 1.  Emenike has played 1,353 minutes of soccer for the Super Eagles without scoring! 2.  Nigeria has won 14 games but surely not through Emenike's scoring. 3.  Ahmed Musa has scored 5 goals in games played by E...

After the 0-2 loss to Congo DR a few days ago, few expected Nigeria to comprehensively take Cameroon apart by a 3-0 score. However, one must always view this from the proper perspective. Just as Nigeria was not all bad in the Congo game, one must recognize the Cameroon result as just an international friendly against a team that had been on a decline for a while. Nevertheless, Nigeria's play was well organized and the immense impact of Mikel Obi cannot be overstated and Moses Simon had his best game yet for Nigeria. The manager, Sunday Oliseh, certainly must be credited with the controlled play of his team and today he is likely basking in smiles in response to his widely criticized invitation of Sylvester Igbonu. Igbonu was extremely important in the middle with his boundless energy and his commitment on both sides of the ball -- when the Eagles had it and when they did not. In fact, a positive in this game was how often the Eagles won challenges against their opponents and toss...

After a disappointing 0-2 loss to Congo DR on Thursday, Nigeria should be aiming for a measure of respect against Cameroon on Sunday. Unfortunately, Nigeria's week in Belgium for the games against Congo DR and Cameroon has been clouded by the widely publicized verbal battles between Nigeria's new Manager Sunday Oliseh and the team's former captain Vincent Enyeama with the latter announcing a sudden retirement a few days ago. Oliseh has likely alienated a section of Nigerian fans, some of whom are calling for his sack. Reality is Oliseh will remain on his job but now he must win to earn back the trust of Nigerian fans. That task begins v Cameroon after the loss to Congo DR. However, results from Nigeria v Cameroon football matches must certainly be one of the major enigmas in African football. The teams face each other in an international friendly in Belgium. It will be their first meeting in more than a decade. If you walked through the streets of Nigeria to ask abou...

Nigeria has dominated youth soccer in the world and in Africa, in particular, churning out talented youth footballers in a conveyor belt. However, many of these players have failed to continue the same level of productivity at the most senior level. This leads us to three paths of investigation: (1) How soon does Nigeria promote its youth players to the most senior national team (Super Eagles)? and (2) Is there a relationship between time it takes to introduce a youth player at the most senior level and their degree of productivity?  We have asked those two questions in response to the current media outcry to quickly promote recent U17 and U20 players to the full national team (FNT). We decided to look only at data from the last ten years. The last time Nigeria had massive promotion of youth players to the full national team, arguably, was in 2005 when several of them debuted in an international friendly against Benin Republic. In addition, Nigeria has also had a few players w...