Humility017:

mind you...that under 23 team will beat your Martins Chinese team silly...
after all Wolfsburg under 23 team beat Mikel's team in pre-season friendly.

and you know from your self claimed permutations....the English championship is even ahead of the budisliga....

goldfish80:


You're still taking about that friendly game? Look, we must be careful oh otherwise 2002 will repeat itself all over again.

Recall in 2002, we massaged our egos about going to the world cup with the youngest team. Even before the world cup, the team broke the Irish jinx by becoming the first team to defeat Ireland in Dublin for over 20 years if I recall, solid game against Paraguay with the infamous Ogbeche bicycle kick and a couple of other victories against Scotland and one other team.
We basically played the world cup before the world cup. Unfortunately, when the main event came up, we learnt the hard lesson at the mundial.
I mean, we nearly lost 3 games on the spin.

Make no mistake about it, the Argentina game is now in the dust bin of history. I get livid that we still make songs and dance out of the Atlanta 96 fame. We cannot keep stroking ourselves with that result. We must strive to get better thank goodness Gernot Rohr recognised this by not limiting his search within a particular circle.

I laughed when you made reference some pages back about Martins probably holding the team back due to a lack of pace. I laughed because just a fee years back, Martins was rated the top 2-3 fastest player in the world. You could say he's aged and the speed has dropped but I tell you after watching him sprint past 3 defenders in gear 2, to score last week I knew the guy still has it. Also, I must bring to your attention the case of Justin Gatlin.
You do realise this guy, the current world 100 meters champion is 35yr old, a good 2 years older than Martins. This guy can sprint past any teenage athlete you throw his way. This should tell you it's not about age but ability.

If you stick your head out that Victor Moses will outpace a 33yr old Obafemi Martins, you will wake up one morning and discover you're a dead man.

jihday:
and nothing pisses me off when people just visit YouTube and pull off clips, Oga please I use God beg you, don't say it anywhere that Kanu was a better player than bergkamp, very laughable I could also pull off Dennis Bergkamp YouTube videos mind you I've been an arsenal fan since 98/99 and I've got nothing but love for Kanu but fact is Dennis was better it's not even up for argument.
on nsofor and Jayjay at hull, didn't really watch them so can't say much, but if okocha was as vital as you've said then hull wouldn't have cancelled his contract and send him into retirement as they had just been promoted to the epl for the first time.

nelszx:
I share in this optimism too.
A game isn't played until it's done and dusted
Nigeria should make the QF or even the SF
#SoarEaglesSoar
#GwG

And in all honesty, Argentina won't qualify from this group. Rohr will need to see the footages of the European Qualifiers to the WC as they have already sized themselves up and other matches between that time. Apart from Germany, Spain and maybe Portugal, the rest are just overrated average teams that benefitted from good rankings.

Mujtahida:

Let him be invited. That's all. We don't need to drag this issue much. If the ability to perform at the highest levels the Coach will surely pick him. Our arguments on whether to call or not to call Martins sometimes gets too personal. Some(not you though) do not embrace the team because Martins and others have not been invited. That to me is just too annoyingly partisan.
Again others have set a barbed wire fence against the recall of Martins. That too is petty. I once argued strenuously against his invitation but I've since re-evaluated my position. I now say let him be invited. Not because of experience per se, not because the young lads cannot deliver but simply because one cannot argue against performance. If he performs I think the team stands to be all the better for his inclusion.

Mickael2:



Well said

Mickael2:



As in Bergkamp that had the best first touch in football then is who the guy was talking about? As in thesame guy that can bring down a ball travelling at an astonishing pace with just one single touch without even stretching his legs? The thing tire me. I will agree that Kanu is better than Anelka and Adebayor(put together sef) but Bergkamp? Kai

Mujtahida:

Edited. Do read the fuller post.

Mickael2:



the primary problem we have is that we are too eager to jump to the future forgetting that the past gives us a better springboard. I have mentioned it before that Iheanacho merits his place on the plane to Russia(despite his poor form) and I still want to believe that, where I now have a problem is people kicking against bringing Martins to camp at all, I mean if he comes and the coaches and team psychos believe he is bad for the team(based on performance or otherwise) then there is no harm done, if he comes to training and outperforms Ighalo and Iheanacho then one of them has to make way and return for the AFCON, there are no sentiments just perform and you are in.

Now we are also talking about Enyeama and people are bringing up a totally unrelated analogy(Rufai's case). I mean Rufai was on holidays, Enyeama still trains every other day with the team physiotherapist so is he fit? Absolutely but he may be match rusty which can be corrected with training sessions not even a match, there is a big difference between the two but people here once they have a personal issue with you, that's it

Mujtahida:

Let him be invited. That's all. We don't need to drag this issue much. If the ability to perform at the highest levels the Coach will surely pick him. Our arguments on whether to call or not to call Martins sometimes gets too personal. Some(not you though) do not embrace the team because Martins and others have not been invited. That to me is just too annoyingly partisan.
Again others have set a barbed wire fence against the recall of Martins. That too is petty. I once argued strenuously against his invitation but I've since re-evaluated my position. I now say let him be invited. Not because of experience per se, not because the young lads cannot deliver but simply because one cannot argue against performance. If he performs I think the team stands to be all the better for his inclusion.

mank1234:


Even players on bench who are not scoring should be called too since they trained with the team and would have been scoring if they were paying them.

Mickael2:



most of the world cups have been won by teams who had difficulties during the qualifiers. France did it, Italy and even Argentina before. Tbh I see Argentina in the final, does that mean they must top our group? No, we can that's assuming Croatia plays the way they did at the Euros instead of the way they played against Greece. Do not forget Sirgudsson and his crosses and setpiece prowess so I wouldn't write off Iceland, like someone mentioned before, at the world cup minor things like setpieces determine games. At the last world cup we lost to Argentina and France because of crosses/setpieces. In 2010 we lost to Argentina and drew against SK because of setpieces, I can go on and on and Iceland have a wonderful setpiece king, that should worry us as well but we can navigate the group

Mickael2:


I would have tagged this is a ridiculous comment but for let me clear you up. Enyeama is not on the bench, if he is fit he would be a starter for just about any club. So saying a benchwarmer will score if he is given a chance gives a whole new meaning to the word 'ridiculous'

tbaba1234:
My proposed friendlies

Sweden, very organised, similar to what you'd expect from Iceland. We saw it against Italy.

Serbia, similar type of football to croatia.

Uruguay, another south American test for Argentina.

chrisooblog:


Icelanders are many things but minnows they surely are not. Like a lot of posters have said they are very disciplined defensively and compact they also have a good team spirit. They have beaten solid teams like england and croatia so they are very dangerous

Mickael2:


I love this guy

safarigirl:
Praise God!

Not quite the hamstring injury I had in mind, but we will take the muscle strain...for a moment I thought this guy cannot just display one mortal flaw and mistakenly injure or something. Good to know he can at least have muscle strain that will keep him out of a game

Next up, Ndidi and Shehu...make dem just collect all the injuries wey dem wan get before World Cup

TheGoodJoe:
cc: jihday

Nothing irritates me in football analysis as someone arguing something that he does not know.

First of all, Sylvain Wiltord played as a striker in games for Arsenal. It is clear you just browsed wiki and came to argue. Anyone who followed Arsenal back then will not debate this.

Saying Kanu does not come close to Bergkamp is another baffling statement. Keeo in mind Kanu had a heart condition and could not get a fair run of games. However, when he played, his quality was not a doubt.

Watch this clip and tell me Dennis Bergkamp could ever produce this kind of quality.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGvmsanDAk

Calling Nsofor average is another weak one. Nsofor was on fire when he had his run at West Ham. Certainly one of the best in the English Premier League during his run of games. It was terrible when he was unfairly dropped. A big case for the Nigerian factor point. For you to use the term average, shows you did not watch Nsofor at West Ham at all. Those who did knew how brilliant he was during the window of his run.

For you to say Okocha, 18 games no goal for Hull, shows another misconception. Okocha played his role for Hull and he was vital. I even remember some assists he gave Fraizer Campbell, who I think was on loan from Manchester United. There are also pre-assists and also vital passes that create scoring opportunity to hinge your point on goals to value Okocha.

chrisooblog:
I want to employ all of us to not get ahead of ourselves talking about qualifying for second round or quarters or semis right now the croatia match is our most important game our cup final. In short we should take it a game at a time

TheGoodJoe:



I am not saying Martins is slow but use the term intensity. He has lost speed and is no more the speed demon of the past. However, the demand of the system we currently play rely more on constant running than a sprint of few yards.

The players need to press when the opposing side are building up play and track back to support the team when under attack, attack with pace when we are counter attacking. Not a slight on Martins but I doubt he can meet up with the intensity of our play.

Argentina is done and dusted but it shows the potential of our young players. As I said, the next top quality friendly will determined how prepared we are. We were not prepared in 2002. Playing top friendly games would have exposed the weakness of that team.

Mickael2:



there is nothing I won't hear. So when Omeruo was playing for the U23's(Chelsea's U23 is way better than Leicester's) it was a very bad thing, but now that Iheanacho is playing for Leicester's U23 they will suddenly win the chinese cup if they register for it? Just read this again and check if it makes sense even to you

jihday:
and nothing pisses me off when people just visit YouTube and pull off clips, Oga please I use God beg you, don't say it anywhere that Kanu was a better player than bergkamp, very laughable I could also pull off Dennis Bergkamp YouTube videos mind you I've been an arsenal fan since 98/99 and I've got nothing but love for Kanu but fact is Dennis was better it's not even up for argument.
on nsofor and Jayjay at hull, didn't really watch them so can't say much, but if okocha was as vital as you've said then hull wouldn't have cancelled his contract and send him into retirement as they had just been promoted to the epl for the first time.

Icon79:
Ian Darke is picking Nigeria to come last in Group D, behind Iceland!

Stupid man, that's why I almost got him fired from ESPN after he criticized African (Ghanaian) fans for booing Uruguay in South Africa 2010.
Anyway, he's going to eat his own words!


O pari

Mickael2:



most of the world cups have been won by teams who had difficulties during the qualifiers. France did it, Italy and even Argentina before. Tbh I see Argentina in the final, does that mean they must top our group? No, we can that's assuming Croatia plays the way they did at the Euros instead of the way they played against Greece. Do not forget Sirgudsson and his crosses and setpiece prowess so I wouldn't write off Iceland, like someone mentioned before, at the world cup minor things like setpieces determine games. At the last world cup we lost to Argentina and France because of crosses/setpieces. In 2010 we lost to Argentina and drew against SK because of setpieces, I can go on and on and Iceland have a wonderful setpiece king, that should worry us as well but we can navigate the group

Mickael2:


I would have tagged this is a ridiculous comment but for let me clear you up. Enyeama is not on the bench, if he is fit he would be a starter for just about any club. So saying a benchwarmer will score if he is given a chance gives a whole new meaning to the word 'ridiculous'