[size=15pt]Eagles don’t deserve praise – Osaile[/size]
By Femi Atoyebi
Tuesday, 15 Jun 2010
A member of Association of Veteran Sports Administrators Forum, Martins Osaile, has said that the Super Eagles did not deserve all the praises they have been receiving after losing 1-0 to Argentina in their first match of the ongoing World Cup in South Africa on Saturday.


Osaile said the result was bad enough to send Nigeria out of the competition in the first round of the tournament, adding that a team which desired to do well in a competition never lost its first match.


He said, “In any competition, the first match is always very important. If you lose it, it could spell doom for the team.


“Unfortunately, people are praising the Eagles for losing to Argentina. Some said we played well but I disagree. Goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama saved the team from a heavy loss and apart from his performance; no other player did anything worthy of commendation.


“Argentina presented 11 players just like we did, they beat us and someone said we did well. What matters is the three points which we have lost.”
The boxing promoter warned the Eagles against underrating South Korea and Greece, saying they would be difficult to handle.


“It is also unfortunate that we always depend on permutation in all competitions. This time, it may not work. The match against Greece on Thursday will be a tough one because after losing to North Korea in their first match, they will surely not want to lose again, knowing well that a loss again would mean the end of their aspiration to qualify from the group. Our last match in the group is Korea and if Argentina beats them on Thursday, they will be charged to give it all against Nigeria. That is why I said that we should not celebrate losing a World Cup match.”

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Most teams that lose their first games hardly progress beyond the first round

it is a well known Nigerian trait. This case has been studied in several high-ranking medical and psychological research institutes worldwide. Most Nigerians cannot fault their Super-Chickens Eagles.

Even mature and intelligent Nigerians have taken ill to this debilitating and utterly brain-cell diminishing mental degradation syndrome. Here are the signs
1: Majority of Football-loving Nigerians care a lot about weak statistics, 1-3 good goals in an entire season is enough to get you a starting shirt.
2: Majority of Football-loving Nigerians will tell you that a hard-fought goal-less draw with Guinea Republic deserves a pat on the shoulder (after-all there are no more minnows in Africa)
3: Majority of Football-loving Nigerians will accept a win regardless of the nature of the win (controversial penalty, best losers match, off-side etc)
4: Majority of Football-loving Nigerians remember their players when they played their best and use the past form to make a case for right to be on the SE team
5: Majority of Football-loving Nigerians hate to lose whether they deserve it or not.

No wonder they are praising Largerback for transforming SE losing to argies. I pray we shall be wise.

This too has baffled me how we now celebrate mediocrity. It saddens me that we have now degenerated to the level of the togo's, tunisia's, UAE's who come to the world cup, loss 1 nil and say "atleast we didn't get disgraced". A largely homebased camerounian side, with heart and determination (something the eagles were lacking) defeated an argentine side that had diego maradona and that eventually made it to the finals in 1990 and we are here celebrating "a loss" to an argentine side that struggled to make it to the world cup. onigbinde was deemed a fairlure--guess what? his team also lost to argentina 1-0. in the case of the 1994 squad, you know they played their hearts out even tho they lost to an argentina who had to use two wayo goals on us. mehn, i'm still pissed off but still hopefull we got the chance of qualification facing korea and greece (unlike cameroun who have to play denmark and holland after a loss), bottom line tho, a loss, is a loss and only with defeatist attitude will have one be praising "a loss" when other teams are racking up wins in our face

because they are used to second hand things, they love to settle for second best.

Match Stats
Argentina                                 Nigeria         

20(7) Shots (on Goal) 12(1)
7 Fouls                           8
10 Corner Kicks                   4
0 Offsides                           0
65% Time of Possession           35%
1 Yellow Cards                   1
0 Red Cards                   0
1 Saves                           6


This is not too good for us.

Nigeria verdict:
Surprisingly, given the tactically astute nature of Lars Lagerback, Nigeria failed to demonstrate any real game plan and looked to run out of ideas when they got the ball in the final third. Playing a zonal marking system against a side of Argentina's quality was suicidal and a shaky defence was fortunate not to have conceded more than one goal.


http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=264037&cc=3888&ver=global