O.Y.O

In Nigeria, Ignorance and mediocrity reigns supreme. In a democracy, people get the leaders they deserve.

That GEJ "won the election" is a reflection of the width of decay, the depth of rot and the shallowness of the Nigerian electorates collective mind.

tocdee:

This has got to be the most moronic comment on NL. So you are of the opinion that Barcelona wouldn't have had the better of Arsenal or Real Madrid without the decisions? Wake up. I can assure you that Arsenal is light years away from this Barca team. United is a lot closer and Real is even closer.

Obviously, that's why Man-U performed worse than Arsenal considering the ref was not miffed.
Man-U is closer but lost to Arsenal in the premiership. The difference between Man-U and Arsenal must be light years.  

Never mind, I'll ignore your moronic manners the next time. I should let such guys be, as are not capable of basic structured reasoning.

y'all want to know which of Man-U & Arsenal team played better against Barcelona in UEFA CL 2011? If you really want to know, ask Barcelona players and pitch-side staff. I would suggest you add real madrid to your enquiry and listen to what the blaugrana has to say.

The dispositions and attitudes of each member of the blaugrana (from coach to reserve goalkeeper) says a lot about who threatened Barcelona the most.
Against Arsenal and Real, Barcelona players sought every opportunity to harass or beg the match officials for favors. Deceiving the officials was there hallmark in those two matches. too bad the refs for the Real match 1 and the Arsenal Match 2 were simply not up to the task. Otherwise, Arsenal would have edged a Barca side that needed to win at least 2-0 to qualify; needless to highlight that without the ref's assistance, Barca would not have beaten Arsenal 2-0 or 3-1. I have heard a lot about Arsenal not having a shot at goal but no one seems to note that Barca only had 2 shots at goal throughout the first half - that is before the refs negative impact became more telling.

As for Real, Senor Mourinho obviously had a game plan to undo Barca effectively by absorbing all Barca had to offer for 60 minutes, then pummelling them with fast breaks and counter for the remaining 30minutes. (Kaka was already warming up on the sidelines for the phase 2 of the strategy). again, Barcelona wouldn't have survived, just has they did not survive the Cope del Rey. Some "ignoramus" speak of Real being "negative", was Mohammed Ali being negative when he decided to absorb everything Foreman has to offer, rather than brawl for 90% of the rumble in the jungle fight? Was Ali not effective when he pounced on Foreman at last and knocked him out with a flurry of punches? Was Mourihno's strategy not similar and progressively effective in producing the result he desired?

If either the Ref in charge during the Arsenal match or the Real Match had been in place against Man-U, the outcome would have been a lot more hellish for the red devils.

BTW, the Barcelona players did not have to shift into higher gears against Man-U as they did against Real and Arsenal.
The barcelona players did not have to solicit favours from the referee or go to extra lengths to deceive and win decisions as they did against Real and Arsenal
The Barcelona players did not have to harass the ref by insinuating time wasting against Arsenal even when a barca player had caused the stoppage infringement.

Did any one notice the possession ratio between Barcelona and Man-U. And that's supposed to be the best Man-U can offer?

Man-U fans, be objective or shut up! It could have been worse but Barcelona did not have to go into as high a gear as they did against Arsenal and Real Madrid.
.
Now, Man-U fans, bore me with how your team won in 1994 and i'll remind you we are talking about 2011 CL. Your team was white washed.
Barca for life!!!

chei!!! Constitutional "one chance"

DISAPPROVED for being generally clueless, irresponsibly superstitious, prodigal, generally indecisive, lacking drive and concerted focus,

My wife and I are looking to start a business. She has a passion for infants and being a mother herself, has a lot of thought for nursing mothers especially those holding 8-5 jobs.
Please advise us, what does it take to start & run a creche?

it appears many of the guys posting to this discussion only watch football without understanding football. Were Cannavaro, Makalele, Baresi, Gattuso or Dunga more involved in more percentage of goals for their teams than Mikel for his team? Wether you like Mikel or not, he is a gem. That is why a no nonsense coach like Mourinho to dig deeper at great costs into the gold mines to get him. That is why Ancellotti as kept faith with him. That is why rather than have Essien bench him, coaches have found ways to play them together. That is why he is a Chelsea regular.

Some of you folks seem to know more than The FA, Ancellotti, Guus Hiddink, Grant, Mourinho and FIFA put together; yet you are faceless arm chair commentators like me.

Scoring goals may not be his strong point, but the boy plays important roles for his team(s); things for which he is appreciated.
I don't expect the kind of folks who may be asking next time why Casillas and Van der Saar have not been banging in goals, to understand some of these concepts, but i have done my part in trying to educate them. I have little respect for such folks, that's why i have addressed them in 3rd person throughout this post.

Beware, i am not a Mikel fan, but we need to approach the technical aspects of evaluating teams and footballers more objectively. The collective population of fools posing as football eggheads may not have that capacity however.

PS: some1 insinuated that Mikel is not amongst the top 20 defensive players?! where did he get his stats from?! such ludicrous insinuation!!! Mikel is not a top 20 defensive player and he is a regular for one of the top 10 clubs in the world?!!! i'd better ignore such uneducated posts next time. abeg, make better person yarn.

EzeUche:

Why accept his apology?

Isn't this common of his people? Let the truth be known but the aboki are the bane of Nigeria. No need for us to deny this well known fact.

e.g, Yusuff Mohammed, Turai, IBB etc. I must note however that Mr Garuba Lawal had a distinguished tenure in the super eagles. He is not of such ilk as Sanni Kaita!

What calls for the drama and recitation? If Sanni Kaita had done his job, Messi won't have strode past him to trouble Dele Adeleye and cause the penalty that won the match for Argentina at Holland 2005 U-20 world cup. The same Sanni kaita was culpable in the build up to Angel di maria's goal that won the match for Argentina against Nigeria at the 2010 Olympics. Same Kaita wrestled an Argentinian down in the Nigerian 18yard box in the on-going world cup; that would have led to a penalty. Kaita's strong point is said to be his "ball winning abilities", but he wins the ball in such rash manners that he's lucky to have match officials overlook his brawls. Then after he "wins" the ball, he promptly returns it to the opponent. Of what use is a ball winner/holding midfielder that can not complete passes. His contribution to attack is non-existent as he cannot shoot and can not execute a "through pass".
Such mediocre should not be allowed in a Nigerian Jersey; not after that moment of madness that cost the Super chickens the match vs un-impressive Greece. Needless to mention the ill fated inclusion of mediocre's such as Uwa Echejiele and Obinna Nsofor.

sanni, one of the more noticeable hypocrites

pinto's still their?! i knew that hole way back in d mid 90s. circa 1995.
BTW, add JAZZ STANDARDS-Allen av.

Is it that Nigeria is officially without a leader, or the leader is inapropriately designated? Has the 4th republic produced a 3rd prez or posterity will identify only UMYA-2007-2011? does an acting prez hv full powers of d prez or we r yet endurin a vacuum & comatose presidency?,