Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Every December we will submit The Fan's Annual Report for Nigerian Football based on the team's performance in the calendar year. There are five units graded in this report and the grade from those units inform cumulative grade for Nigerian Football. The units are as follows: 1. Youth Football 2. Women Football 3. Local Professional Football 4. Football Administration 5. The Super Eagles YOUTH FOOTBALL The U23 team was the lone shining light in Nigeria's youth football for the 2016 year. The team had a rough preparation for the Olympic Games but played inspired football on its way to winning the only Olympic bronze medal for all of Nigeria's sporting contingent and saved the country from monumental embarrassment. Both U17 and U20 teams were disappointing. Each failed to reach the African Championship with the U17 team losing to Niger Republic and the U20 eliminated by Sudan. Those were, indeed, shock outcomes considering that Nigeria was the defending World C...

There are several Nigerian national team players, sometimes related, who share last names but few share first and last names. The latter case is rare and it often creates confusion in their historical record. Such confusion is then solved by using a middle name or attaching a I or II to identify each one. It is this latter case that is addressed in this piece. It is not unusual to expect the sharing of first and last names to occur with players named  Mohammed but amazingly there is no Nigerian international with first and last names where one of those names is Mohammed . Surprising, but factual. Instead, we found other names where this sharing occurs. A unique case is where the names Kalu and Uche are used by two players, one has Kalu as last name and the other has  Uche as a last name. Both players are still active. In another case, two players share same first and last names but confusion is avoided only because one of the players -- Mikel Obi -- changed his name fr...

Here are some milestones to watch as the World Cup Qualifiers proceed for Nigeria. Here we go: Gernot Rohr is yet to give a debut to a player in his first three games and remains second among Nigerian coaches not providing a debut to a player in the first three games. Bora Milutinovic did not provide a debut to player in seven matches. Kelechi Iheanacho's streak of four consecutive goals in as many games was stopped when he failed to score against Algeria. Thus, he stays (along with six others) behind the record of goals in five consecutive games currently held by both Emmanuel Emenike and Yakubu Mambo . Nigeria's five consecutive wins is second only to six consecutive wins set under Shuaibu Amodu in 2008. The five consecutive wins is tied with five also achieved under Shuaibu Amodu in 2001. Ahmed Musa's assist in the Algeria game gave him two assists in World Cup qualifying play tied with four other players since 1994. The four are Mikel Obi, John Utaka, Osaz...

Gernot Rohr and Nigeria took all three points against Algeria in a 3-1 win today in Uyo to extend its lead in its World Cup qualifying group. It was the team's third consecutive win in as many games under Rohr. The team clearly is playing at the height of its ability in several areas. Confidence is high and it was important against Algeria as the Algerians were desperate to take something home from the game. However, one must acknowledge that the Nigerian team took its time to settle down and defensively Balogun provided leadership early to energize a group that seemed lethargic and in the middle it was difficult to believe that this was just Etebo's fifth game for Nigeria. He was everywhere especially in the opening half when Nigeria dominated.  Below is how the team's various units did. GOALKEEPER : Akpeyi's state of mind appeared shaky and Nigeria was lucky that Algeria hardly tested him even when opportunities existed.  This performance is no better than a C . ...

With the picture of Algeria's 2014 World Cup performance still etched in our heads, it is understandable that Algeria would be feared by any team. The fact that it took World Champion Germany overtime to overcome Algeria in Brazil tells the story of a team that is quite capable. But is that really the true story of this Algerian team? At the other end is the Nigerian team that has failed to reach the Cup of African Nations finals for two consecutive competitive cycles? The same question asked of the current state of Algeria's team must also be asked of Nigeria. This piece proceeds to address those questions focusing not just on the teams' current state of readiness but it also takes look at plausible psychological indices that may largely determine the result of the game on November 12 in Uyo, Nigeria. The Current State of the Teams There is temptation to compare the two teams by looking at: (1) their current FIFA rankings where Algeria stands tall at No. 3 ...

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, has promoted the idea that his 48-team World Cup is designed to satisfy wishes and hopes of continents like Africa and Asia that have a large number of FIFA membership. Reportedly, Africa is nursing the idea of having 8 teams at the enlarged tournament scheduled for 2026. However, with details of the 48-team tournament becoming clear, the question is how beneficial is this proposed enlarged tournament for CAF and Africa? I think it is a case where CAF must look carefully before accepting the proposal without adjustment. It seems to me that this new format will do more to hurt than help in spite of hopes of increasing Africa's World Cup allocations. ____________________________________________________________ THE PROPOSED FORMAT FOR 48-TEAM WORLD CUP 1. The 48-team World Cup will have an elimination layer of 16 games after continental qualifiers. 2. The World Cup tournament proper will involve 32 teams as has been the case for a...

Here are some achievement milestones that were reached or are close after Nigeria’s game against Zambia. 1       Coach Gernot Rohr became the second Nigerian manager not give a single player a debut in his first two games in charge. The other was Bora Milutinovic who went   seven games without giving any player a debut. Note that Lars Lagerback, after giving one player a debut in his first game, went the   next five games without introducing a new player. 2   Kelechi Iheanacho scored in his fourth consecutive games. If he scores in his next game, he will tie the Nigerian record jointly held by Yakubu Mambo and Emmanuel Emenike. His fourth consecutive game with at least a goal currently has him tied with six players – Segun Odegbami, Obafemi Martins, Sunday Oyarekhua, Paul Hamilton, Rashidi Yekini, and Ikechukwu Uche.       The Nigerian win in Ndola was Nigeria's first win over Zambia on Zambian soil after 8 tries. 3 ...

Manager Gernot Rohr has begun to slowly build his team to represent Nigeria during the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Without the benefit of international friendlies, it appears that Rohr will rely on tactical preparation and not necessarily on a new crop of players to take Nigeria through to the World Cup. Only three of Rohr's current invitees arrive without ever playing for Nigeria's senior team (see Table 1).  With the NFF claiming financial difficulties, Rohr is also unable to engage in a long drawn camp for local players. Instead, he is relying mostly on accomplished internationals based outside the country. However, most of those players cut their teeth playing for either elite or youth clubs in Nigeria. Our focus in this article is to identify each player's last Nigerian club before heading overseas to play professionally. This exercise points to continued importance of home grown players in the process of unearthing talents for Nigeria's national team. The...

Striking options for Nigeria during the upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifying games will be at a premium. In recent times, Nigeria has found it increasingly difficult to distance itself, scoring-wise, from even its weakest opponent ( see Table 1 ). In its last 10 competitive games, Nigeria has scored three goals only once and that was two years ago! This has become, perhaps, Nigeria's most vexing issue. With a World Cup qualifying group of difficult teams, the scoring opportunities will become more scarce. Here, we discuss the options for Nigeria to rectify this problem. Tactical issues Though it is difficult to fully make a claim to tactical choices that Rohr is likely to apply, one may use the Tanzania game to attempt an educated guess. It is likely, that like under Manager Sunday Oliseh's tenure, the set piece will become important in Nigeria's creation of scoring opportunities. Thus, we will discuss the set piece as well as open play scoring options available to Nige...

If you are excited after watching Nigeria’s win over Tanzania by the slimmest of margins, I must say you have a good reason to be. Forget the slim margin. Deeply looking into the match itself, it is clear that the Nigerian team is headed for a good place with a bit of luck added. The win over Tanzania and the recent wins in the European friendlies against Mali and Luxemburg have introduced great expectations. The interest here, however, is in providing my view about the win over Tanzania. My view focuses on examining the team structure, the tactical issues, and then the individual athletes. Team Structure There have been insinuations that the team played in a 4-4-2 formation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The team played from a base 4-3-3 as we had assumed it might be under Gernot Rohr . However, 4-3-3 was just the base. At times, particularly defensively, it morphed into a 4-5-1 but there were difficulties with this as the likes of Victor Moses found it difficult to ...