mrham03:
well the tactics work in the first half but in the second half the brazilian coach made some alterations, he told the their ryt back to limit his runs forward and made their midfielders cut supplies to naija's attackers. Manu garba should have changed the formation to 4-4-2. Maybe its time one striker sits on the bench.

Icon4s:


I have always been around. Jst that most times i observe and nt comment.
This is the night we have been waiting for. People have been predicting score lines like: Nig 4-0 Brazil, 4-1, 3-0 & the rest.
Personally, i dnt know y bt i dnt rate these boys as high as most peeps here do.
After this night's game i will now know how to place them.
I have watched so many U20 WC and have seen most teams dat won thé previous U17 faulter. I am nt a prophet of doom o. I wish Nigeria wins d cup bt i dnt rate them as favorites. At best for now I c them as Semi final material. After d game against Brazil, I will know whether to improve thé rating or reduce it.

EagleScribes:


You are right. But many of us did not see the tactical error coming at all. If you followed my posts, I gave my reservations immediately I saw the line up.

This was not the tactics we expected. We were undone by the coach

EagleScribes:


They are far ahead of us in terms of technical, tactical and coaching abilities. Awoniyi must be benches by next match

Badosqi:
Thank God this is the first. Now we are back to reality, no more disneyland fairytale.
U20 world cup na another level entirely. Mehn, this brazilians that were supposed to be weak completely outclassed and outplayed us in the second half. No response at all from our team. Keeper contributed a lot to this defeat.

The brazilians really surprised me. I have read so many predictions but these guys showed us why they are 5 times champion.

But no shaking. We must win our next 2 matches and we are back on track.

AIG07:
i was about telling d guy next to me to shift cos my friend de there. Then u came in. All rooms for this Eagles don full o. Everyone is awake

mrham03:
their technical team has been in the business longer. Manu should find the best partnership upfront in the next game, be it awoniyi+isaac or isaac+ yahaya. One must be benched and he should work on the midfielders. They lack stamina

P0intBlank:
The question is no longer are the Flying Eagles good but how good are they? Where do they rank compared to other flying eagles' teams of d past. Have they flattered to deceive or are they the real deal? I don't read too much into friendly results. The reason being friendlies are what they are - friendlies. Hostilities begin June 1. For me that's d litmus test. Beat Brazil, d jinx is broken and d cup is there for taken. See previous results against South American opposition to see why I'm particular about this match.
Mexico 83 Brazil 3-0 Nigeria (Group)
USSR 85 Brazil 2-0 Nigeria (Semis)
Chile 87 Brazil 4-0 Nigeria (Group)
Nigeria 99. Paraguay 2-1 Nigeria (Group)
Holland 2005 Brazil 0-0 Nigeria (Group)
Holland 2005 Argentina 2-1 Nigeria (Finals)
Canada 2007 Chile 4-0 Nigeria (Quarters)
Egypt 2009 Venezuela 1-0 Nigeria (Group)
Turkey 2013 Uruguay 2-1 Nigeria (2nd Rnd)

We've never beaten them in a competitive match at U-20 or at d Senior level. We've lost all 5 matches against them in d world cup. Why do u think we struggle against South American opposition?

EagleScribes:


Here's my submission:

Enaholo should be benched

4-3-3 formation with success flanked by Yahaya and Iheanacho

Sokari, Nwakali and a DM fighter should be used

There should always be a plan B. The field was so small and our boys could not run or express themselves

EagleScribes:


Here's my submission:

Enaholo should be benched

4-3-3 formation with success flanked by Yahaya and Iheanacho

Sokari, Nwakali and a DM fighter should be used

There should always be a plan B. The field was so small and our boys could not run or express themselves

kannymoore:


I disagree.

this side should remain as itis for the next two games.

In hindsight though, Awoniyi should remain on the bench for now. Success must take his place!
Sokari should come in and take up Ihenacho's role.
Ihenacho could stay on the right while Yahaya or Moses simon should claim the left side of the pitch.

That's all.

TheGoodJoe:


I do not see the difference in what he said and what you posted.

We should pick a point man. Drop one, Awoniyi seems the culprit. Then, flank Nacho and Yahaya or Moses.

TheGoodJoe:
First of all, thumbs up to the boys for turning up and fighting.

I see people talking about Coach Manu Garba and his crew being poor in this game. What I feel happened was the sudden in flux of new players. I think it hurt our cohesiveness and understanding. They looked good in trainingtraining but they have not played long together as a team when they met Brazil.

Also, Nacho has trained for almost two years as a striker, the sudden change definitely affected his game. Harsh but I do not think tactics is the problem. If they play together for a while, their understanding will pick up.

kannymoore:


Read through again

He said that the entire central midfield should be changed plus the goalkeeper. I don't subscib to that at all!

Enaholo is far better than Alampasu @ present. He made some good saves though he could have done better with the piledriver goal by the super-sub and that freak goal that went through his legs.

TheGoodJoe:


You agreed that Sokari should return. The only disagreement is Nwakali. Aside from that, the DM fighter could be any of the Ifeanyis.

I still do not see much difference.

kannymoore:


Wrong again.

Isaac success playspredominantly as a centreforward for the team. In today's match, despite the fact that he was the last to arrive camp and he was played off position on the left side of the foward line, he capped his performance with a goal!
Iheanacho has no excuses in that respect!

Also,That "sudden Flux of new players" won us the Caf U-20 trophy and two of the latest players were actually involved in the two goals scored.
Don't forget, iheanacho's strike also hit the crossbar at one point in the game.

Whereas the bulk of the old players didn't really rise to the expectation as we'd hoped.

kannymoore:


And benching the goalkeeper nko? He's not much of a difference ba?

naturalwaves:
Our defence line was too slow
Our goal keeper was calamitous
Our midfielders didn't string enough passes together, none of the midfielders was mobile (Yahaya even tried a bit before he was subbed).
Musa should never overlap if there is no one to cover for him.
If we have another lb, he should be used in place of Mustapha, he was beaten so easily.

Awoniyi should learn how to beat the offside trap and time his runs well, poor finishings from him as well.
Isaac succes played well but didn't get enough balls to feed him
We lost to a tactically superior side...The brazilians knew that our strength lies in fast attacks, so, they made sure we never had that and since there was no space for fast attacks, our midfield was supposed to exchange enough passes and take the ball to them but rather, we resorted into floating high balls knowing fully well that they have very tall players. Manu Garba's undoing was that he didn't have a second tactical approach incase our main tactic fails and that is why I like MOU, he could switch tactics as much as he wants. It was basically the Brazilian coach's intelligence and the lethal boots of the Brazillians that won the match.

TheGoodJoe:
You can switch tactics as much as you want. If your players do not turn up, you can lose.

Remember, Tottenham put five goals past Chelsea this season. The players did not turn up and no tactical switches would help.

I believe we will meet this Brazilian side again in this tournament and beat them. At last, it was errors from the keeper and lack of alertness of the defence that caused us the goals.

Awoniyi's misses also made us lose.

safarigirl:
seriously? The g-mail isn't working
Okay, send me your e-mail AD Nd i'll mail you

TheGoodJoe:
Na wa. What is wrong. This is the World Cup and not the CAF Championship. Note, the time the team spent together in camp preparing for the AYC and the time this team trained with the new players for this game. It is impossible for the scenarios to be the same.
[b]
You can not tell me Messi is better utilised as a midfielder than a striker. Nacho trained as a finisher for two years. No doubt he can play in midfield but you can not get the player we saw with the EDS if he plays in midfield and not attack.[/b]

naturalwaves:

Well......hopefully. Alfa was missed in that midfield cos he holds the ball well and has at least 80% pass accuracy. The Okon of the under-17 too was far better than our left back.