Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Samson Siasia's recent announcement that he is quitting management of Nigerian football was a surprise to some people especially after he had incredibly taken an emotionally-beaten team to Nigeria's only medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Siasia is arguably Nigeria's most successful age-grade manager. In four national managerial stints, he has placed at the medal stage three times. That is a huge return for any coach. However, in none of those campaigns has he had it easy with the football federation. He had been frustrated every inch of the way and those frustrations have taken their toll. In spite of the whispers about his business dealings, there is no question that Siasia is a man who fights for the welfare of his players. It is his willingness and commitment to fight for his charges, in the face of administrative oppression, that has often put him in harm's way. However, he remained unbowed in several of those occasions and his charges have often played their he...

Nigeria's new manager, Gernot Rohr, now has 23 players to form his first squad as Nigeria readies for a competitive international against Tanzania in Uyo. Though the game is formally designated competitive, it will be used as a friendly but without the ability to use as many as 17 players as usually allowed in international friendlies. That regulatory limitation to substitutions certainly hampers Rohr's plans to get the team ready for the World Cup qualifier against Zambia in October and perhaps it also explains the choice of players that he has in the 23-person list. Of course, the list was likely drawn by his Nigerian assistant, Salisu Yusuf, who has better knowledge of the players but there is little doubt that Rohr set parameters to the invitation list. That squad list as well as a few other decisions give us an idea who Rohr is and how he, perhaps, plans his Nigerian tenure. There is speculation that he plans to recruit personal assistants that include an advisor, fit...

Today, Nigeria was eliminated by Germany from contending for the gold medal in men's Olympic football. However, the Nigerian team has come a long way during this Olympics. From a very late arrival to winning their group and then reaching the semi-final stage was far more than even Nigerians had expected from this team.  Playing against Germany, a team that was disciplined from start to finish, Nigeria had its chances but in the end it was the better team that deservedly moved on to the final. For me, the achilles heel was the inability to create an effective offside trap. It burned Nigeria badly in the opening game against Japan and the Swedes attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to exploit it in the next game. While we may have all forgotten, it was clear that the Germans did not. Early, they sought to exploit the weak areas in that trap. It paid off as the poor reaction time by the central defense created the winning goal after only eight minutes. From then on, it was a mountai...

Obi Mikel, Team Nigeria's skipper, was instrumental to Nigeria overcoming Denmark to move into the medal round of the 2016 Men Olympic Football. This victory was very important. Denmark has been Nigeria's boogie team at least in the minds of many Nigerians. Not many will forget their 4-1 pounding of the Super Eagles at the 1998 World Cup when reaching the quarter final stage had been assumed to be easy. Then just a few months ago, this Denmark Olympic team whipped Nigeria 6-2 after leading 6-0 until the last few minutes during an international tournament in Korea. Thus, today's game was approached with a good dose of trepidation by Nigerians. However, in spite of Nigeria's boycott of training because of delayed payment of allowances and in spite of the trepidation, Nigeria came through in a game that Nigeria probably could have won by a larger margin. At the center of that victory was clearly Mikel Obi who was the game's co-Man of the Match as far as one observed....

Nigerian Football Federation, led by Amaju Pinnick, today announced the signing of Gernot Rohr to manage the Nigerian national team. Pinnick had always made it clear that he preferred a foreigner to manage the Nigerian national team because he feels no local coach is good enough. He, finally, pulled the trigger after several misfirings in recent past. But by making this decision, the anti-foreign coach group is surely sitting on the fence and waiting for the German coach, Rohr, to fail. Such an outcome will test Mr. Pinnick's will to stay in office. Gernot Rohr is a well travelled coach in Africa. He has won very little everywhere he has been in Africa but the reality is that he has never been at a big African job as the one Nigeria now presents. His first tenure managing a national team in Africa was in Gabon where he took Gabon to the brink of a semi-final place at the Nations Cup in 2012. Gabon had won all its group games and was five minutes to a semi-final place before Ma...

Yesterday's 5-4 win over Japan in Nigeria's opening game of the Men Olympic football is a story worth many headlines. The major one being the embarrassing travel plan of the Nigerian team. It made world headline news underlining pitiful circumstances of the country's Olympic preparations. That this U23 team overcame the difficulties of arriving in Brazil barely six hours, as widely reported, before the Japan game is a testimony to their strength of character. In fact, it is arguable that the Nigerian U23 team could have won this game going away if the travel plans had characterized a more serious Olympic preparation. Beyond the travel embarrassment, Nigeria acquitted itself reasonably against Japan to take the three points at stake. Those points are important. However, we learned a few things as well from the game. First, this Nigerian team is going to be unpredictable at the Olympics. The offensive power is clearly evident. Sadiq Umar demonstrated yesterday that h...