2018 ANNUAL REPORT: An Unremarkable Year for Nigerian Soccer

This is the third year of an annual report on Nigeria's soccer but it is also a largely unremarkable year. Nonetheless and like in the previous years, we categorize Nigeria's football into youth football, women football, local elite football, football administration, and the Super Eagles. Each unit is graded in terms of its annual performance. Beyond grading each unit, we delve deeply into the national team to grade its annual performance, unit by unit, before finishing up with recognition of some outstanding performers.

We begin by grading each of the five units already identified above.

Youth Football

Youth football demonstrated some life after horrendous recent years. The U20 team did reasonably well in playing some qualifying games and also reached the final of the WAFU for U20 players recently. The U17 won its WAFU zone for the continental qualifiers. These accomplishments restored hope in the sector but it is far from the great heights of youth football that Nigeria had frequently experienced before recent lean years. Grade C+.

Women Football

The Super Falcons retained their African Championship in Accra but then was inactive most of the year which is a blot against women football in the country. Although, the U20 team participated at the World Cup in France, it was dormant for the rest of the year. In France, the team did not go far, losing to Spain, but it expressed renewed hope after poor outings in recent years. Worse still, the Flamingoes (U17) lost to Cameroon at the African qualifying stage. Although the Falcons are African champions, the poor state of women football in the country leads to a grade of B-.

Local Professional Football

This year's competition was chaotic, ending in the 24th week with 14 weeks left to play. Lobi Stars, leaders at that point were then slated to represent the country at the 2019 African Champions League. The Federation Cup was hurriedly played. These events has forced the decision not to relegate any teams and then to promote four teams from the lower rung, creating 24 teams at the elite level in the upcoming season. This unwieldy number of teams helped force a two-zone league of 12 teams each for the next season. To make matters worse, the fact that only Enyimba out of four representatives at the continental level went beyond the early stages of African competition meant Nigeria lost the private of sending four teams to continental competition. This number has been to cut to two next year. Grade C.

Football Administration

Things have gone from bad to worse. 2018 was full of crises with FIFA threatening to suspend the country following intense internal strife with the Federation's building periodically under security siege, among other problems. Internal squabbles with the Sports Ministry led to starvation of funds and football officials dragged to investigations commission. On the field, a previously banned Kogi United mysteriously was allowed to participate in the Federation Cup without public explanation. Grade C.

Super Eagles

The national team, Super Eagles, did not have a spectacular year. It was at the World Cup but was eliminated at the Group Phase, failing to go into the Round of 16 for the third time in six appearances at a World Cup. It was disappointing. However, the team quickly revived to qualify for the finals of the 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON). Importantly, under Manager Gernot Rohr, the team has increasingly focused on recruiting players who were largely developed outside Nigeria from the youth stage. Grade B.

Here are analysis of team units and their grades:

Goalkeeping: Francis Uzoho emerged as the team's undisputed starter but it is clear that he has to still improve in several areas to gain the confidence of Nigerian fans. His height provides assurance in the air but while his decision making has improved, there are still moments when it has been questionable. His reserves -- Ike Ezenwa and Daniel Akpeyi -- are capable goalkeepers but also have more downsides to them when in goal for Nigeria. Grade B-.

Defense: The defense has not conceded much under Gernot Rohr's tenure it seems but that is not to state that this defense is beyond reproach. The center of the defense can be challenged as was the case in a few games in 2018. At the wide areas, it appears that even Coach Rohr is not satisfied with the personnel in those positions. Since the World Cup, he has found another starter at the left and on the right Shehu Abdullah's position remains contested. Grade B.

Midfield: This may have been Nigeria's most stable unit but that was until the World Cup in Russia. At the World Cup, the decision to go to a  3-5-2 formation forced major changes especially with the team's key players -- Victor Moses and Mikel Obi -- forced to play in much deeper positions that they had been accustomed to in the national team. After the World Cup, Alex Iwobi has emerged as the choice for the advanced position and Samuel Kalu was introduced on the right and Jamilu Collins currently the choice on the wide left in a 3-5-2. Grade B-.

Forwards: The introduction of Ahmed Musa as striker reinvigorated the team and began to present scoring opportunities than had hitherto been rare. His speed clearly is an asset. In addition, the erstwhile disappointing striker Odion Ighalo erupted after the World Cup and this has made this position an asset instead of the dud. Grade B.

Bench: The introduction of new players has begun to solidify the bench and assure that the absence of any starter would not be felt in future games. The team is slowly building the type of bench that has rarely been seen on a Nigerian national squad. Grade B+.

Coaching: Coaching has been disappointing in certain cases and commendable in others. For instance, the World Cup results were disappointing with the team failing to go beyond the group phase. The decision to keep the coaching team in spite of the poor results was the right decision. The crew came from behind to earn a ticket to the AFCON 2019 after Nigeria failed to reach the last two AFCONs. Furthermore, the crew also is slowly building a strong squad of both starters and bench players. Grade B-.

Outlook for 2019: 2019 promises good results for the national team, particularly at the AFCON where Nigeria returns after winning the 2013 version. For the first time in several years, Nigeria will be a favorite, along side Morocco, to win the trophy. The youth team, U17 , is likely to reach the World cup finals and promises to be among the medal state with Coach Manu Garba at the helm. However, the outlook is not all rosy. The female national teams have been largely neglected and other African teams, better prepared, are increasingly becoming better on the field against Nigerian women teams. Nigeria's U20 male team, largely made up of elite league players and possible age cheats, does not inspire confidence.
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OVERALL GRADE FOR NIGERIAN FOOTBALL
With grades of C+, B-, C, C, and B for the Nigerian teams in 2018, the overall grade for Nigeria football is a C+.  Obviously, this is disappointing and the lowest that Nigerian football has earned since these annual reports began in 2016.
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2018 Team Data
The national team had its lowest efficiency score since 2016 when the annual report began. Most of the six losses in the year came in the build up to the World Cup and then two losses at the World Cup. However, the team has recovered since and looks forward to better results in 2019.  the data table appears below.


2018 Individual Data
The individual data are included in the Table below and compares data across the three years of the Annual Report. Ahmed Musa made the most appearances and also led the team in assists with three. Orion Ighalo with a post-World Cup explosion of goals led in 2018 with six goals. William Ekong, playing one less game than Musa, led all players in minutes played with 1035 minutes.

Recognitions
Ahmed Musa is Nigeria's Best Male Player in 2018. He clearly was the most dangerous Nigerian player at the World Cup and has been the leader post World Cup. There really is no close competition based on on-field performance in 2018 playing for a Nigerian team. On the female side, goalkeeper Tocrukwu Oluehi was the impact player for 2018 with  Francisca Ordega a close challenge. Samuel Kalu is one of several new and exciting male players in the national teams. He gets the nod because of his superior exploits at the senior team level. Naming the best team and best coach is difficult. However, Falcons (Female national team) is named best team for winning the African Championship yet again, this feat has not been achieved by any other Nigerian team in recent years. However, that is not enough to crown Falcons' coach Deanery as the coach of the year. He has not improved the Falcons and does not appear to be the difference-making coach that Nigeria may have hoped it hired.  Instead, Manu Garba who is currently building a U17 team that could match any of the previous top U17 teams gets the nod as the best coach. The emerging stars are U20 female goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie and Super Eagles' Alex Iwobi. Nnadozie's exploits at the World Cup clearly makes her more recognizable as a growing female star. Iowa has been in the Super Eagles for a while but his exploits in 2018 has marked out out as a key player for the team.