Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

The truth is that based on Nigeria's seeding for the African qualifiers to the World Cup, Nigeria was never going to have an easy path to the 2018 World Cup. However, of teams in Pot 2, Egypt and Cape Verde received arguably more difficult groups with teams averaging 54.75 and 55.75 FIFA ranking respectively. Nigeria's Group B has an average rank of 57.50. Yes, by reputation the Nigeria's Group B is obviously the most difficult and has been widely labelled the "Group of Death." However, if you take the most current FIFA ranking of teams, it is not the most difficult. Bear in mind that this is perhaps the toughest ever qualifiers for the World Cup involving African teams. Only two of the Top 20 African teams, using FIFA rankings, did not make it to this stage and only two -- Gabon and Libya  --made it! Of the teams, Libya ranks outside the Top 100 in the world. Thus, no group was going to be easy. __________________________________________________________________...

On June 24, the Confederation for African Football (CAF) will conduct its draws for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Africa. We know that the draws depend on the seeding of teams based largely on FIFA's Ranking. Of course, it is a system that put Nigeria outside the Top 10 teams in Africa barely a few weeks ago. Fortunately, Nigeria was placed among the second set of seeded teams based on its performance in its last two international friendlies. Of course, there are many who detest FIFA's Ranking system and for very good reasons. When you have a ranking system that confuses you more than it helps in understanding the relative strength of teams, then you should really worry. FIFA's Ranking system, modified several times over the years, remains a confusing system. Nevertheless, it is a system that will not go away any time soon. Thus, you either learn how to cope with it and face its perils. That is the fact about international football today. In this piece, we take a ...

The passing of Nigeria's top coach Shuaibu Amodu on June 10, 2016 is shocking news. He was, perhaps, Nigeria's best coach at the club level and one of the best at the national team level. Unfortunately, he may also have been the country's most unappreciated. He led Nigeria to two World Cup qualifications (2002 and 2010 World Cups) but was denied opportunity to coach at the global event. His rescue job for the 2002 World Cup was miraculous. Nigeria was virtually out under Johaness Bonfrere when Amodu was called in. He won five straight games to take Nigeria to qualification. The coaches who replaced him at the World Cups in 2002 and 2010 could not take the team beyond the opening rounds on each occasion. In essence, Amodu would not have done any worse. In fact, more likely he would have done better going by his record. At the time of his death in Benin, he was the country's Technical Director. Perhaps, part of the unappreciation was that he never had a stellar playi...

The death of Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, 54, earlier today is the passing of one of Nigeria's greatest players, perhaps Nigeria's greatest managerial achiever, a fighter for football labor, a supreme motivator, and a trailblazer. It is difficult to express in words the service that this man provided to Nigeria and Africa. Below are his stats as Player and Coach as well as links to the last words on this great man. NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER STATS PERIOD:  1981-1994 MOST WON NUMBER:  No. 4 APPEARANCES:  65 GOALS:   8 DEBUT:   July 18, 1981 v Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) in 19 minutes LAST GAME: June 30, 1994 v Greece in 90 minutes CAPTAINED:  29 times CAUTIONED: 6 DISQUALIFIED: 1 ( v Togo July 24, 1983) MINUTES:  Over 4924 minutes for Nigeria HONORS:  Champion: Cup for African Nations 1994                     Runner Up: Cup for African Nations 1984             ...