Football Nigeria -- Eagles Etcetera

Nigeria tied Tunisia 1-1 in a CHAN Group game today in far away Rwanda but in many ways the game is a reminder of what to expect when Egypt comes calling for a Nations Cup qualifier in Abuja next March. Of course Egypt is not Tunisia nor is the current Egyptian coach a clone of previous Egyptian coaches. However, North African football appears eerily similar when they play.  Today, you could almost swear that you were watching the 2010 Nations Cup game when Nigeria lost 1-3 to Egypt. Nigeria did better this time because it refused to take the bait and be suckered into a highline defending that Egypt of 2010 exploited with balls over the top after leisurely playing around with the ball in their defense. Tunisia sought the gaps in Nigeria's defense but failed to find them regularly in the opening half but they found other ways to attack. They exploited gaps left by Akas going forward. Upfront, the abundant spaces in the wide positions that Nigeria exploited against Niger Republi...

Nigeria's 4-1 win over Niger Republic in Kigali today provided a gaze into Oliseh and his team for this tournament. While this was not Nigeria's A squad, it is the same coach and same ideas and today those ideas began to come to the fore. The dream of pacy wingers, using Simon and Musa in the A team, exploded today with Okoro and Aggreh pointing the way with explosive runs that constantly troubled Niger's defense. Niger thought it had the problem solved with the high trap after 20 minutes but Nigeria rebounded in the second half. The ball possession, playing from the back and through the middle appear different from Keshi's approach with long balls over the top. For Oliseh, it is working the ball from deep and then finding the gaps wide to the pacy wide players. Against Niger today, it worked like magic. Today, Oliseh showed again that he was not tolerant of mistakes. To replace a player before the half time whistle is not something usual with Nigeria's tea...

This month Nigeria will again participate in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) that will be hosted in Rwanda. This second tier championship for African states is restricted to locally-based players only. In Nigeria's group will be Tunisia, Guinea, and Niger Republic.  The competition was not initially designed for countries like Nigeria. Instead, it was designed for the weaker footballing countries that often are eliminated early in continental competition and, therefore, spend months of football inactivity. This is, particularly, a reason why qualification is regionally-based to provide opportunities for regions with weaker footballing countries to play at the final stages of the competition.  It is based on the above that many question the value of the competition for a country like Nigeria. In fact, several writers suggest that the competition has no value to Nigeria's football. The question is how true is the statement: "has no value to Nigeria'...

Recent reports indicate that Nigeria plans to play two international friendlies before a key Nations Cup qualifier against Egypt next March. Quite often Nigeria, as well as other nations, seek to play international friendlies before a competitive game. The idea is that an international friendly prepares the team for the more important competitive game that follows. However, Nigeria does not always play international friendlies just before participating in a competitive game. This makes one wonder whether or not it makes a difference playing international friendlies before a competitive game. This article explores the question of whether international friendlies before a competitive game makes a difference in the outcome of the competitive game. Method While we will not depend on an ultra scientific test to measure effects of international friendlies on the results of competitive games for Nigeria's Super Eagles, we will in this piece look at a few data. We will inves...

One major question about the Super Eagles under Sunday Oliseh is as follows: Is the team improving or not? Ultimately, that question will be answered by how much progress the team makes in its attempt to qualify for both the 2017 Cup for African Nations (CAN) and the 2018 World Cup. However, we can at least take a look at one area that improvement now appears obvious. That area is in conversion of set pieces. In an earlier article , we discussed Nigeria v opponents' set-piece successes at the CAN and the World Cup. This article is different. It looks at the set-piece data under Coach Oliseh and compares it to similar data, at the same point of development, for the Super Eagles under Adegboye Onigbinde, Christian Chukwu, Augustine Eguavoen, Berti Vogts, Shuaibu Amodu, Lars Lagerback, Samson Siasia, and Stephen Keshi. In essence, it is a comparison of Nigerian coaches since 2002. We wanted to look at the last 15 years but that would have involved covering one coach over two peri...

Nigeria beating Swaziland on Tuesday was anticipated even though Nigeria huffed and puffed through the two-game series in order to unpack a defensive team. What was not anticipated was Coach Oliseh’s bold move to change the team in the midst of a critical series. Also, his decision to suddenly replace three foreign-based players with home based lads. However, Oliseh making those moves made clear his thinking going forward. It also indicated a major shift in his stated positions in the past. Read below: How Oliseh Wants To Play? You cannot play in our attacking line-up if speed is not one of your stronger points            -- Oliseh in July 2015. The quote above obtained from Goal.com indicated Oliseh’s views about characteristics of his attacking players. In previous interviews he made statements that such characteristics should define a Nigerian team, not just attackers. Then in the quote below he praises such characteristics in a N...