Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Nigeria's new players, uninvolved in the country's World Cup qualifying games, sounded the warning that they are about to gate crash the World Cup party with valuable performances against Poland in Wroclaw. That Nigeria won 1-0 demonstrated its ability to compete among the best teams in the world. It was a competent performance in the opponent's den and the final result was no less than Nigeria deserved. The new players -- Joel Obi, Francis Uzoho, and Brian Idowu -- notched up zero appearances during the qualifiers but against Poland they made a strong point to the managers. Their play indicates that it will be a difficult task to send them away from the impending World Cup. But the truth was that besides Joel Obi, the other two started in jittery mode and it would take the second half for them to calm their nerves and show exactly what they are made. Beyond the individual performances, it is important to note that Nigeria's play was steady. Nigeria may not hav...

Two games in March for Nigeria provides an opportunity to separate players currently vying for positions in the team. Two of those positions -- goalkeeping and left back -- are the most hotly contested. In each of those positions, three players compete not only for the starting spot but also for a place in the squad to the World Cup. While the final decisions on this issue may not come until the summer camp, it is quite likely that the international friendlies on March 23 and 27 would go a long way to assist the coaches in making decisions.It is possible that players may begin to separate themselves from the competition based on performance in one or both international friendlies.  In this piece, we take a preliminary look at each player contesting for those positions and evaluate their current chances. Of course, the view shared here is simply my subjective view. However, such a view is based on watching them perform for the national team  and for those players who have ...