Nigeria vs. Chad: Key Questions for Super Eagles in Kaduna.
Stephen Keshi's men are overwhelming favourites against Les Sao, but a tendency to implode means their sternest test on Saturday may come from within.
The failure of Stephen Keshi’s Super Eaglesto qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations served as a timely reminder of his (and our) mortality. That said, to fail to qualify for two in a row would be truly unprecedented; it is not a record the Big Boss wants on his CV.
His slack-jawed, almost liquid drawl and insouciant demeanour does not lend itself to a man who looks too far ahead, but somewhere in the back of his mind lurks the spectre of Egypt, dancing like a mirage in the desert. By composition of the group, it is virtually impossible to escape the fact that qualification will come down to a duel with the Pharaohs, two rounds of poker with the inscrutable Sphinx led by the experienced Hector Cuper.
Chad will however come into Saturday’s opening qualifier intent on causing an upset. Les Sao cannot realistically expect to qualify; no, the aggregate of their aims is simply to constitute a nuisance, be a stone in the shoe. There will be no fairy-tale for Emmanuel Tregoat’s side – he is no Claude LeRoy, after all. Their game will focus on limiting the potential for damage.
This means the test for the Super Eagles will come from within. Here are three questions that must be addressed if Nigeria is to begin her qualification campaign on a proper footing.
Will Kaduna work for or against us?
The choice of Kaduna has generated a lot of debate, with opinion split on both sides. This writer has expressed the view previously that it actually has its merits, but the scepticism of others is justifiable. The temperatures in the old capital of the Northern region at this time of year are quite high, indeed Goal Nigeria Chief Editor Lolade Adewuyi referred to it as a “furnace belching”.
Allied to that, there are security concerns among the players, a point team captain Vincent Enyeama raised in speaking with the press. While his statement, admitting the players were grudging guests, was a PR no-no (it does not exactly endear the team to the fans), the concerns themselves are not unfounded.
However, the team has to get a handle on this, and prevent it from escalating into full-scale discontent. It would not do for them to wield it as a ready-made excuse, in the event of an unfavourable result – Nigerians would not go for it.
Will Keshi cast off restraint?
There are no morals in football tactics, and rectitude is determined after the fact by results. Still, it remains broadly accepted that reactive, dull football is the preserve of poor to average teams, while proactive, expansive fare is served at the table of top teams. What category Nigeria falls into can be debated endlessly, but what cannot be argued is the expectation from the Nigerian population of the latter.
Of course, they expect to win even more, and that is the term under which stodgy, functional football can be tolerated. This explains why the tide turned so swiftly against Keshi when the wheels started coming off: peel back the sheen of results and what is left is stodgy, un-functional football. The only thing worse than losing is losing while playing badly.
So, will his second stint be different?
Tomorrow may be only his first game back, but it will offer a window into what he is trying to do. The team has struggled for flair in the no. 10 zone, something Keshi has sought to remedy by rolling the dice on Rabiu Ibrahim. Will this be enough to get his team playing attractive football finally, especially against a Chad team that will concentrate on defence?
Can the team handle Mikel absence?
The Chelsea midfielder may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but within Keshi’s team he has played a role that not many can replicate. He is the passer from deep, dictating the tempo of the game and aiding ball retention. There may be doubts about his application, but never about his ability.
Which is why it was surprising to hear Keshi state he does not need Mikel for the game against Chad. This sounds like classic Keshi-speak; he spent over a year insisting Stoke forward Peter Odemwingie was in his plans in 2013, without actually calling him up!
Allowing that he was being honest, this is a huge show of faith in Estoril’s Anderson Esiti. The 21-year-old is very capable, but what this means is that the team could file out against Chad with an unfamiliar midfield. What this means, in terms of performance? Your guess is as good as mine.

olapluto:
Please lets respect our ladies and keep this thread focussed on the super falcons. From the look of things, the girls are probably going to go further than the guys.
If that happens, then they deserve alot more respect. BUT I am still very afraid of Edwin Okon and his self destruct button.

Now I have to take responsibility for my negligence or rather careless and take a break so as to come back to my senses. Am tired of saying sorry for the same mistake.
I am still very sorry.

terzurum5:

Now I have to take responsibility for my negligence or rather careless and take a break so as to come back to my senses. Am tired of saying sorry for the same mistake.
I am still very sorry.

Go n sin no more..

dodobytes:


Go n sin no more..

Amen

FIFA Women’s World Cup: Nigeria starting line-up vs Australia.
The Head Coach of the Super Falcons, Edwin Okon, has released a strong looking starting line-up as the Super Falcons take on Australia women national team in their second Group D game of the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada on Friday night.
Although both sides will be meeting for the first time ever, Australia who are ranked 10th in the world will be aiming to come back into the tournament by taming Nigeria – who are ranked number 33 in the world, but will have a lot of work to do to achieve that because Okon’s ladies are yet to lose any game in their last 10 games – with 40 goals for and eight against.
Below is the starting XI:
Precious Dede, Ohale Osinachi, Onome Ebi, Chukwunonye Joshephine, Asisat Oshoala, Oparanozie Desire, Ayinde Halimatu, Ngozi Okobi, Evelyn Nwabuoku (C), Ordega Francisca, Ngozi Ebere.
africanspotlight.com/2015/06/12/fifa-womens-world-cup-nigeria-starting-line-up-vs-australia/

this right back error hasnt been fixed..Okon!!!

I beliv he heard u coz Njoku's in for Ohale.

dodobytes:
this right back error hasnt been fixed..Okon!!!

To be honest, taking out Oparanozie 4 Nkwocha is a No No!!! Why not Courtney Dike instead? She's younger, vibrant, strong and may be a good joker 4 d side upfront alongside Oshoala and Ordega... Okon na wa o! U gave a spiritual sermon at d prematch press conference instead of really studying the australians. They were better than the Americans in dia 1st game but d individual brilliance of Megan Rapinoe saw The U.S. Through...
Na wa o!

P.s: Dike in for Oshoala? Na wa o! Okon well done o! GOD BLESS NIGERIA...

olapluto:
How to beat Australia:
1. Keep Dede in goal. Most people dont know that Whyte is shyte! She is worse than Dede.
2. Bring in Njoku, drop Chukwunonye and move Ohale to partner Onome Ebi. This should have been done at halftime against Sweden. Its a no brainer. You cannot play 3 at the back and leave the flanks exposed like that. Ohale was doing too much and it backfired.
3. Keep the midfield as it is. Okobi, Ayinde and Nwabuoku really tried. They held the midfield well, though the 3 at the back somehow disrupted things.
4. Start Esther Sunday ahead of Ordega against Australia. Why? Because Australia will be out to attack us, and Esther Sunday's runs and dribbles will be key, with Njoku also pushing forward, Australia will be on the backfoot for most of the match.
5. Make substitutions!!!!! For heaven sake, this is artificial turf, the girls will cramp badly if they all play another 90 minutes. Dike, Ini, and even Nkwocha are all ripe to come in.
6. Zonal marking! I know the coach is naive and thus is adamant on man marking, even when height is not to our advantage. Watch Sweden's first goal and see how Fisher sold Ayinde to get a header. We simply cannot do man marking. Let the players have a zone to mark, so they can attack the ball before it gets to the opponent. This will be key against Wambach of USA when the match comes.
7. Players should try to get at the referee. Often times Nigeria gets bad refereeing because of bad perception, but yesterday, We had only 4 fouls all game, against 14 fouls of Sweden. This is even despite leniency of ref towards Swedes. They got no yellowcards. This must stop! Let our players call attention of refs where needed.
8. Relax and know that Australia cannot beat Nigeria. I mean if you do not lose against Sweden, and put in better performance, you will surely beat Australia

If only...

Australia 2-0 Nigeria I dont know what to say.

When the dust settles, we will pick up for the next match. Few things need to change:
1. Coach is burning down this girls in training. ONLY Nigeria has 2 training sessions in a day. For goodness sake, these are ladies. Even men have limit. It was obvious in the match today. Our gals got tired as early as 20 minutes.
2. Get the starting line up right. Over the past 3 years, Nigeria has been blessed with many good players for all teams. Only the coaches are POOR. extremely poor. There were so many glaring mistakes which the coach adamantly insisted on for the 2nd match.
3. We had no business losing the midfield so early vs Australia. Cecilia Nku should have played and Ayinde dropped.
4. Nkwocha should only play when we're trying to hold on to a lead, not when we need a goal.
5. REST the players for 2 days before the USA game. YES. These girls are good, but the legs didnt carry them today.
6. The defence needs sorting. I suggest removing Onome Ebi for Ohale or even Nnodim. Also, the team needs to learn of the offside rule. Poor.
7. The attack is still deadly...when the legs can carry them.

Well, gaining 1pt in this grp shows sign of progress. Playing against 3 of d top 10 female teams and drawing 1 & losing 2 is nt much of a bad result. Yes, losing 2 bc we lost to the USA right from when our grp opponents were announced.

Atleast dat draw against Sweden will boost our FIFA ranking.

olapluto:
When the dust settles, we will pick up for the next match. Few things need to change:
1. Coach is burning down this girls in training. ONLY Nigeria has 2 training sessions in a day. For goodness sake, these are ladies. Even men have limit. It was obvious in the match today. Our gals got tired as early as 20 minutes.
2. Get the starting line up right. Over the past 3 years, Nigeria has been blessed with many good players for all teams. Only the coaches are POOR. extremely poor. There were so many glaring mistakes which the coach adamantly insisted on for the 2nd match.
3. We had no business losing the midfield so early vs Australia. Cecilia Nku should have played and Ayinde dropped.
4. Nkwocha should only play when we're trying to hold on to a lead, not when we need a goal.
5. REST the players for 2 days before the USA game. YES. These girls are good, but the legs didnt carry them today.
6. The defence needs sorting. I suggest removing Onome Ebi for Ohale or even Nnodim. Also, the team needs to learn of the offside rule. Poor.
7. The attack is still deadly...when the legs can carry them.

Yes, U are right.

Come on USA!

Instead of going to have an ice dip to recover, Okon is letting the falcons watch USA vs Sweden. I will suggest that Okon is sacked before the next match.

olapluto:
Instead of going to have an ice dip to recover, Okon is letting the falcons watch USA vs Sweden. I will suggest that Okon is sacked before the next match.

The Okon guy is one hell of a character. Maybe he wants the ladies to tell him the USA formation

CFCfan:

The Okon guy is one hell of a character. Maybe he wants the ladies to tell him the USA formation

Okon is just a part of the problem. Nigerian society is the major problem. I indicated on this thread that Nigeria will not make it out of the group stage in this tournament. The team never prepared and wrong players were selected. I can say without equivocation that Dede, Ebi, Nwabuoku, Ayinde, Ayila and Nkwocha should not have made the team. There is no doubt that Oparanozie is ridiculously out of shape hence constant tumbling and falling knees over head.

USA looking to draw. They qualify with a draw. Sweden moves to 3rd place, Nigeria will qualify if we can beat USA.

France v Colombia in 31 mins

Wendie Renard, the tallest player in this tournament at 6'2'', starts for France.

Colombia have just created the biggest upset in the history of the women's World Cup. The 28 ranked team beat the 3rd ranked team in the world 2-0!

CFCfan:
Colombia have just created the biggest upset in the history of the women's World Cup. The 28 ranked team beat the 3rd ranked team in the world 2-0!

Wow!

To say I'm shocked will be an understatement. I wish our Falcons could do same against USA but I know that ain't gonna happen

WWC: We Did Not Play to Okon’s Instructions – Falcons.

*.As they insist ‘God of soccer’ did not fail them.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria in spite of their 2-0 loss to a technically sound Australian team on Friday at the Winnipeg Stadium had insisted that God was still with the team.
One of the Super Falcons players who spoke with NationSports confessed that the team did not play to Coach Edwin Okon’s instructions.
“Today was our bad day. I can’t say the God of soccer failed us because we did not do the right thing. Our coach told us that we needed to fight together but we did not,” she said.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match against Sweden, Ngozi Akobi was however of the opinion that the players did not put up the fighting spirit that was synonymous with the team in their opening match against Sweden.
“Only God knows why we were not coordinated, we were so anxious,” she revealed.
There was however a notion that the Nigerian team was more of a spiritual team than other teams. This was captured by some Australian journalists in their tabloid prior to the match against the Coach Edwin Okon led team.
However the Super Falcons Coach who is also known in the tournament as one who believes and associate his victory to God admitted that his team lost to a team that had a technical depth than his team but was also spiritually sound.
In separate interviews with some other players of the team, after their match against Australia, they admitted that the team lacked cohesion this time around which according to them was indeed baffling as they had all come out prepared for the match.
The team’s ace player, Assisat Oshoala who was substituted in the game during the heat of the match told NationSports that: “God did not fail us, I guess it was over confidence on our part. We still have a lot to do to make sure we get the best point, “she said.
The Super Falcons will play their 3rd Group D match against USA on Tuesday in Vancouver.
thenationonlineng.net/new/wwc-we-did-not-play-to-okons-instructions-falcons/

^^
I was also baffled as to why they played so poorly against Australia. They surely underrated the Aussies; now beating the US by a 2-goal margin is almost impossible.

After the match against Australia, I think lots of people just quit on the Falcons, truth be told I kinda gave up too, I decided to just forget the game and move on jare. But being a green-white-green for life I had to ask myself questions and I found myself answering them.

What went wrong against Australia?

• I personally think the girls burnt out in the first 15-20minutes of the game, and as stamina and pace deserted us, the quickness and trickery of the Matilda’s began to show. I can attribute this to the error of fielding the same team without any changes.

• Desire Oparanozie is a good player but in this tournament she hasn’t really come to the party (it happens to the best of players, nothing personal). Against the Matilda’s she was looking very heavy and lost for pace.

• Ohale starting on the right flank was a testament to the fact that we have a coach that is stubborn and needs to upgrade his technical abilities. Why make the same mistake that cost us dearly in our first game? Truth be said, the substitution of Ohale later on in the game, as much as it was welcome, it was needless if the right thing was done initially. That slot could have been used to unleash more firepower against the opposition as we direly needed a goal to get our girls fired up again.

• As our girls tired out, we lost the engine room of the game (midfield), they completely bossed the midfield and it was only a matter of time before we conceded. Dede might not be what she used to be, but I absolve her of any blame for the two goals conceded on the day, her defenders didn’t do her any favours.

• I don’t fault Coach Okon’s substitution on the day;

 Ohale had to leave for Njoku,though it was a wasted substitution but it was needful to shore up the right side of the defence, we were looking fragile there.
 The midfield was lost, we needed to calm it down and regain some form of control,while at the same time looking to go forward.Cecelia Nku and Ohadugha cant give you that.The only player that can give you that on the bench is Perpetua,credit to her there was some form of control when she got on the pitch.
 Desire was a spent force we needed fresh legs to trouble the opposition and in comes Dike,smart move but a little too late.

I know that we have a mountain to climb to get the result against USA, but if I were Okon would I roll over and die? Never!! I would rather go out guns blazing.

So I am gonna be Okon for a moment and come up with what I feel would be my plan to get a result, I would tell my girls that we have a fighting chance, it might be a small window, but we have a chance and we should go for it. Firstly I would allow the girls go and rest, they would surely need it because against the USA, we are going to bring the thunder!!

to be continued…..

How to beat USA
Last time, I posted a few obvious comments on how to beat Australia, the coach wasnt tuned to that frequency, and the result was painful. Now Nigeria has it all to do.
We have to beat USA to qualify. If we beat USA by any margin, we qualify. If we win by 1-0, we qualify as one of the best 3rd placed teams. If we win by 2-0, we finish the group 2nd, irrespective of the score of Sweden vs Australia. If we win by 3-0, we can top the group, if Sweden vs Australia ends up in a draw.
Now, to what I suggest as tactics...Go defensive!
1. We cannot afford to concede. So, first we must improve defensively. Considering that Njoku brought some solidity to our defense against Australia, the coach must build on that. I will suggest that we drop Onome Ebi and play Sarah Nnodim and Josephine Chukwunonye as centre backs. Ebere and Njoku as full backs.
2. Defensive midfield position. Cecilia Nku should come in and the coach should drop Ordega. We need to play a midfield 4 of Cecilia Nku, Nwabuoku, Ayinde and Okobi. With this midfield, the defence will be well screened, and our chances of conceeding goals will be limited to set pieces
3. Set pieces!!!!! Shame that the coach has not addressed this problem. We lack height in the team, and america will want to use Abby Wambach's powerful headers. No problem. This can be solved easily, reduce the chances of set pieces, and switch on. The falcons hardly win the 2nd balls from set pieces. If we are not as tall as they are, we can at least prevent them from latching on to rebounds. Zonal marking around the box but man marking inside the box.
4. Feed Asisat, she will create chances. Okobi is key to this. The coach therefore needs to get Nku or Nwabuoku to play around Okobi at all times. If Okobi can be allowed to pick her passes, then Asisat and Oparanozie will switch on.
5. No red cards! Games like this will die if Nigerian players make silly challenges. Keep the tackles clean and dont give referee the chance to ruin the match.
6. Time for Oparanozie to step up. She is still very influential. Coach needs to bring her fully into the game refreshed.
7. Make use of set pieces. Enough of these rubbish short corners.

nice one olapluto,my submission aint too different from yours.My only issue is that we need goals and as much as we need to keep things tight at the back,we need to give ourselves options upfront too..

We are in need of a win..we need more attacking bite,

I will approach the game knowing I need to win and not concede as that makes the job harder, therefore I will adopt two formations 4-3-3 and 4-2-4.

The defensive line-up will definitely be changed as Njoku will get to start, talk about round peg in a round hole. Ayinde will also be sacrificed in the midfield because I want a firm grip on the midfield and Nwabuoku as the only defensive midfielder doesn’t cut it. Ohadugha or Nku will be included in the mix to firm things up at the center of the park.Nwabuoku will be the anchor person shielding the defence line at all times,while Nku/Ohadugha will be the bulldog,ball winning midfielder

I will have to trust Okobi as the only creative midfielder, as I need tough tacklers in the game. Oshoala and Ordega will have to run the flanks while I will have to go with a new striker this time around (Ini/Dike), reason being Oparanozie doesn’t seem to have the pace or trickery to take on defenders and her first touch has been poor.

I will rather have her come in as a sub deep in the second half when fatigue has set in for the opposing defenders and then she can bully them and her lack of pace would be compensated for by the tired legs of the defenders.

When the momentum is with our team I would encourage them to switch to a 4-2-4 formation where Okobi either pushes to the flank and Oshoala comes into the center, or Okobi pushes straight up into the center. Nwabuoku then steps up into the central midfield role.

This should be the complexion of the team when we are on the attack and pressing for a goal. Notwithstanding Ordega and Oshoala can always interchange depending on where they both find joy.

dodobytes, you will be making a big mistake by dropping Oparanozie. Shes miles ahead of Dike and Ini.

olapluto:
dodobytes, you will be making a big mistake by dropping Oparanozie. Shes miles ahead of Dike and Ini.

I definitely will have her on as a super sub,because she has shown she hasnt got pace to trouble defences and her first touch has been very poor.I would rather take my chances with Dike/Ini.

Live in Vancuover..lets go there!!