i believe that everyone deserves a chance i personnaly like amodu. all nairalanders just consider amodu as your brother, how would u feel when people say he is not good enough. another problem is that why didnt he use some of the players that played in the qualifiers. eneramo,adeleye and sam sodje. the future of nigerian football is great i paid to go and watch them against republic of ireland and those guys were lively and fast. i even met anichebe and yakubu while i was collecting an autograph from anichebe. yakubu was running away from the fans i was like what a proud a** hole. back to my main point, the player nigeria need are victor moses, victor anichebe, kelvin etuhu, nedum onouha, obadeyi of bolton, and there r three players of nigerian descent in tottenham, sone aluko. these guys r strong and fast and they dont lie of ages. because of our socalled footballers no one believes that i am seventeen. i kno most people hate anichebe when i came for holidays in 2008 and i was hyping about anichebe,people were like is this wat u bring from england. my reply was this guy is the next emile heskey. at least i prefer him rather than that unpatriotic agbonlahor. i wish charlton cole was given his chance to play for nigeria. nairalanders am a newcomer take it easy because from your posts there r lotsof area boys in this place.

Nigerians asked Amodu to:

Qualify Nigeria for the World cup. He did.
Try to win the nations cup. He is on course.

Sometimes soccer is not about good play. It is about getting a win.

Many of you are screaming blue murder, but the man has taken us to the nations cup semi-final.

Why don't we just pray for him to finish it up by winning the trophy?

What is the use of being drogba without winning a nations cup trophy? I prefer to be Yakubu, as far as I can win the trophy. That is the point!

I agree that the Team has not been playing well, and amodu is tactically inefficient, but you must all not forget that playing inefficiently and defensively is another strategy to dislodge opponents for success. Italy does that well. Thay do it as long as victory can be carved out. Italy used that type of play to win the World cup in 2006. They were one of the most inefficient teams in that tournament. They improved after each game. It showed after the World cup.
If the eagles had attacked carlessly against Zambia, we would have lost scandalously. They simply kept the rampaging Zambians at bay. That was a defensive type of play. They soaked up pressure and tried to strike back.

I foresee a return of the team that smashed Mozambique against Ghana.

There is no reason for wishing our team failure, as most Nigerians are doing now. This is one of the reasons why I sometimes wish that I aint Nigerian. Imagine the ignorant rant of someone like Darkangel (I hope She/He is not Nigerian). Nigerians kill our team's confidence even before the start of a match. What if an SE player is in Nairaland, and is reading all these badluck wishes from his own countrymen? We make our opponents laugh and rejoice at our strange attitude.

How can you boo your own team and cheer your opponents at home? How can you tell Amodu that no matter how far he goes in the tournament that he will be sacked? How can you tell a coach that sees how his players perform in training what to do?

Nigeria will beat Ghana. We will humiliate them. Mark my words.

If Amodu must go, let him go after he has finished his work. afterall Keshi did not take his star studded Mali team to the Quarter finals.

God bless the Super Eagles.

ochukoccna:

[color=#770077][/color]
I for one have deleted the Super from the Eagles name because they are not yet I have not and dare not call them chickens nor fouls. Never the less I don't think if anyone calls them that I should take the gauntlet to fight them and their families as you have done. Or are you related to these unimpressive bunch of players? Even if yes, keep it civil. Thanks.

Going by your words,

The Camerounian team should be called the "Domitable lions" Were beaten by Gabon and Egypt. Drew with Tunisia and came from behind against Zambia.
The Tunisian team should be called the "Cartheage fowls" Did not win any match against the likes of Gabon and Zambia
The Ghanian team should be called the "Black outs" Lost 3-1 to Ivory coast and has not been playing well, winning by 1-0 and defending till the end. If Togo was around, I guess they may have been eliminated.
The Ivorian team should be called "The rabbits"  Drew with burkina faso and lost to Algeria. They seem to go too fast without winning a trophy.


The Super Eagles Qualified for the World cup without loosing a match. Won two matches and lost one in the group stage. Beat their opponent in the Q/F stage after scoring all the spot kicks, and you still don't think that they are super?  The single fact that they are playing with a technically deficient coach should tell you that they are very mighty.

It is not in doubt that the Eagles are Super. I just don't like people coming to this forum and insulting the only thing that makes me proud of being a Nigerian.

Up super Eagles! Win or lose, I remain a die-hard fan.

What's delaying him from quitting, I hope he quits as soon as possible

DakANGEL:

Ghana wl win

I BIND YOU IN THE NAME OF JESUS !!!

[size=28pt][center]

GHANA MUST (and will) GO !!![/center][/size]

Amodu should be left alone,

Amodu plz no excuse o! We only need u 2 finish of d job in Angola by winning d cup.NFF Should support amodu with either siasia or stephen keshi then d team wil b back 2 dier best

Seanlamzy09:

NFF Should support amodu with either siasia or stephen keshi then d team wil b back 2 dier best.

If Amodu gets Keshi or Siasia assistance,what happens to Amokachi & co?
Why did we suddenly 4get that Amokachi was actually the one
dishing out instructions to the players while Amodu "siddon" look like the modakeke chief?

It should be a clean house.
If anybody is coming to assst Amodu,Amodu shud be demoted to assistant coach.
Matter of fact,this clamour for assistance was on the basis of lack of confidence and trust
in Amodu's 1970's BCC lions of gboko outdated coaching style.
Amodu should be made to learn under a new coach,not the other way round.

Re: I Wanted To Quit After Zambia Victory – Amodu
« #57 on: Yesterday at 09:58:39 PM »


I would like to bring out some issues which many of our so called analyst failed to see.

- Having Europe best players is now a course in disguise
Eever wonder why the west African region of Africa a region where many describe as the power house of African Football where 80% of the High profile players in Africa come from. Yet the last time a country from west Africa won the Nations cup was 16 years ago when Nigeria won it in 1994. Ever since neither of Senegal ( with their failed golden generation) Ghana, Ivory Coast, or Nigeria have lifted Afcon inspite of producing some of the best players in the world.

Ever wondered why the nations cup in recent times have been dominated by countries with strong domestic league where 80% of the team are home based? South Africa in 1996, Egypt in 1998, Tunisia in 2004, Eygpt in 2006 and again in 2008.
Do you see a trend. With the exception of Cameroon every country that have won the nations cup in the last 16 years are countries with strong domestic leagues where 80% of national team players come from the domestic league. The big* countries with 95%-100% Europe based players have all fumbled and wumbled (tm).

The problem is simple to understand. Football is a team sport and it require that players most have played together for a long period of them. The players know each other, off the pitch there still maintain a close friendship which is always important for team spirit and cordination. The advantage you get with this setup is that your national team players are easier to assemble and train for longer period of times without any limitations.

Compare to countries where over 95% of players play abroad were its not always easy to get clubs to release players even for major Tournaments the required 2 weeks rules which require clubs to release a player before every major Tourney is never obeyed and players arriving 3-2 days to a championship is now the norm. In such a sinerio what you have are 11 super star strangers on the pitch. There all come from different style of football. and are required to gel in such a short period of time? No football doesn't work that way. It is a team sport and there is no miracle that any coach can perform which would make 22 players suddenly develop a rhythm after playing together for just 3 days it just doesn't work that way with football. The result is a situation where so called smaller team (small because majority of their players play in their domestic league.) start to upset the Bigger teams.

There was a time in African football where it was an advantage to have Big* players in Europe. This was a time when the profile of african players is not as big as it is now. Were many african players always warmed the bench or where just squared members and most play for smaller European teams (mostly in Belgium and france) Hence players can leave their club for weeks and would not be missed. times have changed friends. African players are now hot cakes and clubs want to hold on to them afor as much as possible. making them less and less available for their national team. Take alook at the trend in this nations cup

Mali: The country with the best mid field in Africa on paper based the number of High profile players who play in their midfield. They didnt even make it past the first round.

Ivory Coast: On paper the best African Country ATM. there were roundly beaten by Algeria a country many of us cant even remember the name of one of their player before the tourney.

Cameroon: Another huge african country with top players playing in many big leagues in europe. there were beaten comprehensively by an Egyptian side largely made up of home best players

Nigeria: Another country that took 100% foreign based players to Afcon was on the ropes for most of their games against Zambia and had to result to penalties to win their game

The facts speaks for themselves friends. The problem of Nigerian team goes beyond just the Coach. Amodu may not be the best coach in the world. But given the situation I think he has done a good job and we should all praise him for that. In other to ever make an impact in Afcon we have to put our house in order and fix our domestic leagues so that we can produce a team largely based on home based players who have time to get to train and know each other. add one of 3 experience players from Europe and you have a killer recipe for Afcon. Blaming the coach is really just trying make him a scape goat for a much more bigger problem.

Many people say that Siasia is the best coach we have, forgeting that on 2 occassions when he took laurels for the nations he used players who have been playing together for over a year. In 2005 he took a bunch of largely unknown players to the u21 tourney and there got a silver. what many didnt know what the fact that Siasia boys had been playing together for clsoe to 2 years preparing for the championship same time happened in the olympic were he took roughly same players and got a silver. What happened when we was drafted to a team in just less then 4 months to the championship? his boys failed. why? lack of consistency.

I end my rather long post with this saying

I player that makes the team great is better than a great player

I just wish our useless NFF could see your post.

Justcash:

Nigerians asked Amodu to:

Qualify Nigeria for the World cup. He did.
Try to win the nations cup. He is on course.

Sometimes soccer is not about good play. It is about getting a win.

Many of you are screaming blue murder, but the man has taken us to the nations cup semi-final.

Why don't we just pray for him to finish it up by winning the trophy?

What is the use of being drogba without winning a nations cup trophy? I prefer to be Yakubu, as far as I can win the trophy. That is the point!

I agree that the Team has not been playing well, and amodu is tactically inefficient, but you must all not forget that playing inefficiently and defensively is another strategy to dislodge opponents for success. Italy does that well. Thay do it  as long as victory can be carved out. Italy used that type of play to win the World cup in 2006. They were one of the most inefficient teams in that tournament. They improved after each game. It showed after the World cup.
If the eagles had attacked carlessly against Zambia, we would have lost scandalously. They simply kept the rampaging Zambians at bay. That was a defensive type of play. They soaked up pressure and tried to strike back.

I foresee a return of the team that smashed Mozambique against Ghana.

There is no reason for wishing our team failure, as most Nigerians are doing now. This is one of the reasons why I sometimes wish that I aint Nigerian. Imagine the ignorant rant of someone like  Darkangel (I hope She/He is not Nigerian). Nigerians kill our team's confidence even before the start of a match. What if an SE player is in Nairaland, and is reading all these badluck wishes from his own countrymen? We make our opponents laugh and rejoice at our strange attitude.

How can you boo your own team and cheer your opponents at home? How can you tell Amodu that no matter how far he goes in the tournament that he will be sacked? How can you tell a coach that sees how his players perform in training what to do?

Nigeria will beat Ghana. We will humiliate them. Mark my words.

If Amodu must go, let him go after he has finished his work. afterall Keshi did not take his star studded Mali team to the Quarter finals.

God bless the Super Eagles.

Thanks @justcash - you're one of the people with a cool head about this issue. Honestly, one of the issues I have against most NLers and indeed most nigerians is that we're just ranting our own pessimistic opinions without giving the man on the hot seat an opportunity to defend himself. Or haven't you read his interviews about all the intrigue that's going on around the team's camp?Honestly, and whether we want to admit it or not, the hard truth is this: When it comes to really controversial issues such as this, we Nigerians tend to be strongly biased - we only see what we want to see, and we are too stubborn to admit that we need to change our negative attitude; in short, football-wise, Nigerians are not emotionally intelligent!.

Amodu has results that any coach in the world (even Capello, Lippi, and even shehata) would kill to have. And you say he must be sacked? for winning without playing attractive football?Isn't the opposite why many of us write off Arsenal? pls be objective - don't play judge,jury and executioner before you go to court

In as much as i have doubts about his technical / tactical efficiency, i think we should all cut him some slack now and try to support him for the duration of the tournament.
Nigerians can be very hard to please at times.
We asked him to qualify for the world cup.HE DID.Without losing a single game.
We asked him to reach the semi-finals of the nations cup.HE DID.Whether he played the comoros islands or sao tome and principle in the quater finals is irrelevant.
What more do we want of him?
People keep saying he struggled to defeat zambia,but they convieniently forget that zambia topped a group that included cameroun and the same tunisia that almost stopped us from qualifying for the world cup. Weak teams dont top groups that include cameroun and tunisia.
The time to sack Amodu has passed.They should have done it after the 2-2 draw with tunisia in abuja.
Although i agree he needs technical assistance,Amodu deserves to take his team to the world cup.
Let him enjoy the fruit of his labour.

Re: I wanted to quit after Zambia's victory. The screening that was conducted, its clear that preferential treatment was used in the selection of players. Players was not choosed on merit or free and fair bases. Why was the U23 players of Olympic not used in this tourney. Ninety per cent of players in Ghanian team which beat us are U20. Its a big shame. Its time we select players on merit and fitness than on past glory. How did they qualify for the world cup. What will our match against Argentina be? If the argentinians go to the nite club on the eve of our match. They will come and give us six zero without training. I think we should step down from the world cup.