Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

The reality is that a win over Seychelles was expected even though Nigeria had already qualified and had no real or major stake on this game except pride and respect. Seychelles felt the same way, having been eliminated from contention. What was left to wonder about was whether Nigeria would score enough to set a record in margin of victory over an opponent. As things stood after today, Nigeria could not erase the 1959 record of a 10-1 victory over Dahomey. That record remains standing! Instead, the 3-1 victory was the result of this game against a vastly inferior opponent. In many ways, the result, the game, and the effort were all deeply troubling. Early on, Nigeria huffed and puffed and its players unable to find any meaningful solution to the deep defensive wall put up by the visitors. The Nigerians tried to find the holes with passes but slow possession and inaccuracies defined results. Then they varied that with long passes over the defense but the passes were too long to be...

One of the most difficult African football questions is whether Nigeria is Africa’s Best. This question often arises because of the frequency of Nigeria’s representation of Africa at the World, its performance at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), and the claim that it is a country brimming with talented players. At one time, an Italian journalist made a claim that Nigeria would have long won the World Cup in the 1990s if Giovanni Trappatoni was Nigeria’s coach. Well, let me attempt to answer the question as best as I can. The Population Question There is belief that Nigeria’s population of 208 million and counting, should certainly project it as a dominant footballing country in Africa. After all, every six African one statistically is a Nigerian. With such ratio, one can understand why it often appears that there are significant numbers of upcoming footballers available to the country. Moreover, being dominant at Africa’s youth competitions (U17 and U20) justify the conclusion...