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...Read the full article.

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Why do we have govt managing football. Cant we give a rich man like Dangote or a lover of football the autonomy to manage the team. I bet we will do well instead of having beaurecraft messing sports up. When Abiola was sponsoring the swimming team, they were winning all over the place.

All sports should be handle by businesses or business people. like many many aspects of Nigeria life, the govt should be a refree or regulator.

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Kenn

I saw the match as well, and I think your assessment is spot on. We were second best individually and collectively as a team. Our organisation was amateurish compared to the Ivory Coast, who always kept their shape.

People always go on about our individual talents - I did not see any on show today. Wilson Oruma, who ran the show in the first game with his power and commitment was not selected. Instead we started with a lazy midfield of Obi and (it appears) Kanu. Obi is a great talent with the ball, but he can't tackle. Hopefully that side of his game can be developed at Chelsea.

You have hope for the future, 'cos you believe we have a young squad. Well, how young are these guys really? That has always been part of the problem - I don't believe the official ages. The Ivorians looked younger, fitter, and hungrier.

Regards,
Mango

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Our boys have individual talent but as a team they are hopeless. The story of Nigeria in a nutshell.

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I haven't seen much individual talent from our boys in this competition. No one stood out for me.

Mind you, for a player's skills to 'show', he needs to be mentally and physically fit. If you've ever played football, you will understand the importance of youth and fitness. The more tired you are, the less coordinated your thinking, the slower your speed of thought, the heavier your limbs.

Kanu and Okocha are blessed with incredible talent, but advancing age and lack of fitness negates that talent. Another thing - how come Kanu and Okocha are too tired to played 90 minutes at a high energy level when they are supposed to be only 29 and 31 respectively? Players with such skills regularly play until their mid 30's and even longer.

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Exxcuzme,

Yes, we’ve had a running battle with FIFA over our government’s continued interference in football management, but I really do not think the businessmen-sponsorship model, at least in the form you’ve proposed it, is the answer. The kind of autonomy we should be seeking shouldn’t be one where we leave government’s breast to suckle to the breast of different businessmen, depending on who or which group of them is putting forward the money at a particular point in time.

Naturally, there’s a role for businessmen to play and that is from the grassroots to the national clubs level. Government can help by creating such incentives as handing over stadiums and grounds to committed investors with very generous payment terms over time. That way, football clubs will be run like businesses and attract the kind of patronage, marketing and merchandizing ideas that will pay its way. Nigeria is big enough to control the club football business in Africa by pushing for its established teams to become great marketing brands worldwide. You’ll be surprised how easily Rangers, Shooting Stars, Sharks, Mighty Jets, Insurance and so on can attract world-class talent.

But, as for the national team, we do not need to reinvent the wheel for now. Already we have the biggest pool of talents in top clubs in Europe, which today is the Mecca of football. These boys have been exposed to better technical aspects of the game there. Good coaching, dietary controls, lifestyle management and professionalism aren’t new anymore to Africans or Nigerians as these same boys that play in the Nations Cup or World Cup for our countries are the same boys that dazzle us every Saturday or Sunday at Stamford Bridge, Nou Camp, Highbury or Anfield. So, what we need at that level is professional management.

Personally, I care less if our national manager is a foreigner or Nigerian. All I’m interested in is result. Of course, in an ideal world, I’ll prefer a Nigerian. But the more I compare our ex-internationals who’ve taken to coaching and who’re in pole position to get the nod (if left for an indigenous team to manage) with others abroad, the more I see the gap in class. Yet, this is not only in personal ability. It also has a lot to do with national football culture and the kind of investment those in control want to put in it. For instance, as big as we are, why don’t we have a real world-class football coaching institute or at least a well-recognized national coaching programme? And that is where you’re right. We cannot even begin to change things, except we begin to give football the autonomy it deserves in line with best practices worldwide.


CHEERS!



Mango,

I admit that your cynicism over age is well-founded, considering our shoddy history in that regard. But, apart from Okocha, Lawal, Kanu, Ejide and Oruma, I doubt that there’s any player there in our first team that’s above 25. In fact, apart from Yobo who’s 25 and Odemwingie who’s 24, every other player there is 23 and below. That means they still have quite sometime to prove their best in our national shirt. Don’t ask me to prove that these players I’ve mentioned are truly the age they recorded, because I won’t doubt official records until the contrary is proven. Nonetheless, I’m prepare to go as far as saying I watched most of them grow and if they aren’t the age they say they are now, they wouldn’t be far off those ages. In any event, they have sometime to play football and all of them are yet to reach their peak. With sensible club and national team management and guidance, they do have a chance to develop into world-beaters.

And yes, Mourinho will give Mikel all the trouble he needs to be a real world-class player!:wink:

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I beg to differ with regards to Exxcuzme’s suggestion of handing “football management” to businessmen ala Dangote. I don’t think we need to sell this part of our national identity – moreover, football in Nigeria is already controlled by business.

I also disagree with the suggestion that indigenous coaches are not up to the level of foreign coaches. In my humble opinion, Eguaveon can rival a lot of foreign coaches, and I 100% support a Nigerian coach over a foreigner any day. Afterall, so called foreign coaches like Lemerre , Dujkovic , Dumitru , Jorge , Loncarevic did not make it to the semi-finals. While the likes of Eguaveon , Abdoulaye Sarr did. Most of these foreign coaches are in Africa as a last option. No serious nation’s FA will allow them to coach their team. Ever heard of Westerhoff or Bonfere coaching the national team of their respective countries?

Lets face it, Nigeria crashed out because Cote d’Ivoire has a better team. To be honest, while we showed some brilliance in the group stages, we should not have made it past Tunisia – Enyeama solely carried us on his back through that ordeal. I said it earlier immediately after the Tunisia game on another thread that our team did not appear impressive http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/content/view/2398/37/.

We are definitely not lacking in star power , and we definitely have a good coach in Eguaveon. What we should focus on is on our performance as a team. Enyeama should definitely retain his #1 shirt in my opinion. Apart from Taiye Taiwo, the other defenders have a long way to go in proving themselves worthy of a 1st team place. We also have a serious problem in the midfield – Okocha has age and injuries against him, and Oruma is not getting any younger either. Mikel, while phenomenal, cannot carry the midfield on his back alone. Kaita, Odemwingie, Lawal, Yusuf, Obodo, and Utaka have not stepped up to the plate to fill the gap. As far as our forwards go, I believe we are close to being exceptional in that area. Martins, Kanu, Aghahowa, Nsofor and Makinwa are doing okay – unfortunately they are not being supplied with enough balls from the midfield to make a significant impact. This is evident in our lack of goal scoring – if you have a total of 4 chances in a match, you have less chance of scoring vs. if you have a total of 10.

Also, what happened to the classic Nigerian game/tactic of attacking from the flanks/wings? I did not see any replays of the Amokachi/Amunike type blazing across the wings, catching the opponent unawares to provide a perfectly set cross to the likes of Yekini. We tore Italy apart with that tactic in USA ’94.

I bet we will seriously wallop Senegal in the third place encounter. This is the typical Nigerian script, only fighting hard when the chips are down – remember our fantastic and futile last minute goals galore against Zimbabwe and Algeria in our failed bid to qualify for the World Cup????

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I think we presented a rag tag team today. It appeared like there was nothing at stake, judging from the way the players strolled around the field.

Such a physically tasking game needed the likes of Oruma, Aghahowa and Utaka. Makinwa may be physical but I am of the opinion that he had no business being introduced into the game after the way he played in the game before

Well, it's perhaps good that we lost. We ought to know that victory in any thing comes by a spirit of dedication.

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O.K, l'm feeling mischevious enough to draw the wrath of the football lovers.:evil:

What match are you talking about? what was the score? Do they still play the African cup of nations? Does Nigeria still have a football team .

Abeg make una no die O!, na only soccer.



Now watch me run away as my life is obviously in danger..........:D


(Borrowing from the gospel according to Shoko, DeepThough in just joking mode)