Nigeria draw with Tunisia
Posted: 2009-06-20 12:54

Nigeria's Super Eagles got their World Cup campaign back on track with a 0-0 draw against Tunisia on Saturday.

The Super Eagles weathered a storm of heavy pressure from the Carthage Eagles in the early minutes and could have even nicked it in the final minutes but Mike Eneramo arrived too late to convert Osaze Odemwingie's well-crafted low cross.

Vincent Enyeama made a fine save early on, but the Tunisians struggled to break down the composed Nigerian defence.

Their best opportunities came from counterattcks, and two instances, from errors by the two centrebacks.

First Joseph Yobo was caught in possession, and needed to be rescued by his young partner Dele Adeleye. And late on, Adeleye himself was almost embarrassed when his short pass was picked up by a Tunisian forward, and Yobo had to come up with the face-saving tackle.

At the end though, both sides shared the spoils, but it will be the Nigerians who come away the happier.

=SUYA;365617>Wait till the die is cast and we miss out on the WC and you will see how biased this view is.

Wait till the die is cast and we qualify for the WC.

=Enyi;365896>I urge anybody that wants to comment on the match in Tunisia to first of all find out what was the prematch objective of the coach. It is probale that he wanted a draw and therefore mapped out his strategies in this direction. If this is correct, then he should be congratulated. The return leg, will be a different ball game. The Super Eagles need a win. This can only happen if they play an attacking game. Unfortunately, since this millenium, we have not had a team in the mould of the 1980, 1994 and 1996 teams. These relied on stamina and speed. Have we forgotten that the Italian coach at WC 1994 referred to our players as supermen?
We must also conceed that the coach is not solely to blame. The decline of the standard of our footbal is a manifestation of our general lack of well-coordinated strategic planning. We knew in 2006, that the next WC will be in 2010. When was the current coach appointed and when did we start raising a team? How long did it take Westerhoff to raise the 1994 team? He who fails to plan, plans to fail.

Siasia backs Amodu’s tactics

Posted: 2009-06-22 07:02

Flying Eagles coach Samson Siasia has backed Shuaibu Amodu's tactical deployment which earned the Super Eagles a 0-0 draw against Tunisia in their decisive 2010 World Cup qualifier on Saturday at Rades.

Amodu's team stifled the Tunisians for long periods before taking control of the game in the closing stages, as the hosts legs began to give way. And they could have won it if Esperance striker Michael Eneramo had put away a gilt-edged opportunity late in the game.

"I liked the way Amodu played. I would have played the same system too.

"The back four looked very solid. I like the way the four defenders at the back played like a unit and they were very strong which actually helped in curbing the forays of the Tunisians," Siasia said.

He added a caveat however, which focused on John Mikel Obi's deep-lying role, urging the Chelsea midfielder to take on more offensive responsibilities in order to assist the team in creating more goal scoring opportunities.

"The only problem was that Mikel has to move up a little bit more and support the three strikers up front. Besides that, I think they had a good game away to Tunisia.

"The players did their best in the match and did well by salvaging at least a point. But the grey area in the team is that we didn’t create a lot of chances in the game which is very important for scoring goals in any match," Siasia told KickOffNigeria.com in Abuja on Sunday.

He went on to make the bold prediction that Nigeria would be in South Africa for the World Cup as long as the Eagles keep their focus and win their remaining three matches.

"If we can just win the remaining three games we will be home and dry."