We can't be complacent. This is a tricky group. The team we underrate might just be the most difficult to beat.

SupremeBeast:
all the best with Croatia but I know they are very beatable. it's mostly Nigerian fans that put pressure on the team.

Joebie:
@ Mickael2
Why are we crying over Enyeama?. He is already on the road to recovery.
Let's see what happens between January and May. I will never shift my goal post. Performance at club level will show a player deserving for national call up. Then performance at the battlefield should show a player is deserving of selection for the WC. Rohr has already said Enyeama will have to start playing at the club level first before he will get a chance for recall... shekina!

The point with Enyeama goes beyond his regaining fitness, performance at club and whether he deserves a call up. The crux - more important than any other - is this: is Enyeama willing to return to the team? If he's not willing then as far as our WC is concerned all the other things mentioned do not count.
My thoughts are that we should start preparing those we have now oo and stop waiting for Enyeama to decide whether he's gon play for us, or wait for him to regain fitness or get a club or deserve his inclusion.
It's six months to the WC. The sun is still shining. Let's make hay.

SupremeBeast:
all the best with Croatia but I know they are very beatable. it's mostly Nigerian fans that put pressure on the team.

Uv said it all mate. Don't be complacent and don't give them too much respect which could amount to fearing them.

Loveren and Co can't stand the firepower of Nigeria

my brother, we will not be waiting for anyone's decision. Preparation has always been on. The scouts are at work. Just recently a GK was discovered. Whether Maduka comes good or not, the handwriting on the wall is clear -- we are not waiting for anyone's decision.

Mujtahida:

The point with Enyeama goes beyond his regaining fitness, performance at club and whether he deserves a call up. The crux - more important than any other - is this: is Enyeama willing to return to the team? If he's not willing then as far as our WC is concerned all the other things mentioned do not count.
My thoughts are that we should start preparing those we have now oo and stop waiting for Enyeama to decide whether he's gon play for us, or wait for him to regain fitness or get a club or deserve his inclusion.
The sun is shining. Let's make hay.

Moses assist

Moses with an assist now, l think he's fully back.

Dedebanky85:
Just to add, in the current SE, I can only see Kayode being faster than Martins. I think he'd tie Musa and Onyekuru. However, I noticed speed is not one of Rohr's favored quality in players. He looks at other things or else Onyekuru and Kayode would have been playing a lot more. Let's see what happens if/when he invites Martins. He may just have what Rohr is looking for.

I've always had the suspicion-exactly by your analysis - that speed is not necessarily what Rohr is looking for but many seem to think that speed is what counts because of our counter attacking play. But yet he seems not so keen on fielding Kayode, Musa, Onyekuru who are real speedsters. We might be wrong though.
And even though a team relies on its strength - which ours now unmistakably is our quick counter transitions, - let's develop other aspects of our game. Wing play, midfield build ups, a good rhythm and tempo.
I just watched Shearer talking about the reason England crashed out of Euro 2016. He said Roy Hodgson never knew his first eleven, never had a tactical system, the team never knew it's shape. Please let Rohr settle all this matters and still create room for unpredictability. Tough to do. But let him try.

Joebie:
my brother, we will not be waiting for anyone's decision. Preparation has always been on. The scouts are at work. Just recently a GK was discovered. Whether Maduka comes good or not, the handwriting on the wall is clear -- we are not waiting for anyone's decision.

I love how gallant he looks but let's leave Maduka yet. He's for the future. He shouldn't even be on our lips for this WC. Shows you how much of a problem we have if we mentioning Maduka who is 18, has no international experience and plays for Fortuna Dusseldorf B side(omo as I was writing this something kept telling me'Uzoho nko'?

Premier League Panel on Moses

I was just mentioning Maduka to make a point that the scouts are also in a look out for goal keepers, it's not like we are waiting on Enyeama's decision. The situation was similar when Rohr gave conditions for Enyeama's recall. When Enyeama meets those conditions then we can talk about if Enyeama is ready to call off his retirement or not. As long as he is not playing, we don't want to know if he wants to return or not.

Mujtahida:

I love how gallant he looks but let's leave Maduka yet. He's for the future. He shouldn't even be on our lips for this WC. Shows you how much of a problem we have if we mentioning Maduka who is 18, has no international experience and plays for Fortuna Dusseldorf B side(omo as I was writing this something kept telling me'Uzoho nko'?

Joebie:
We can't be complacent. This is a tricky group. The team we underrate might just be the most difficult to beat.

it's really tricky like you said but winning your first match will boast the team's morale. lucky for you Iceland and Croatia were in the same group during the qualifiers so there is the video to give rohr the advantage as to how to beat them.

ChrisKels:


Uv said it all mate. Don't be complacent and don't give them too much respect which could amount to fearing them.

Loveren and Co can't stand the firepower of Nigeria

plus the pace and trickery of your players will help you alot. Croatia like to possess the ball alot since I think the best plan will be quick passes and counter attacks.

yes true.. those videos will come handy

SupremeBeast:
it's really tricky like you said but winning your first match will boast the team's morale. lucky for you Iceland and Croatia were in the same group during the qualifiers so there is the video to give rohr the advantage as to how to beat them.

Mujtahida:
Seems it has been decreed that we will not stop meeting Argentina unless we beat them. Now is the time.

We will stop meeting Argentina once our ranking improves.

terzurum5:

We will stop meeting Argentina once our ranking improves.

That ranking did us something, like how could Iran be ahead of us?

KC is back in the team..

tbaba1234:
KC is back in the team..

l believe he was sick then. There was no cause for alarm at all.

Mainz falling at home to Augsburg without Balogun
Akpboguma winning with Hoffenheim at home to Liepzig.
Both scores, 2-nil at the moment.

Modified
Akpoguma assist by the way

ChrisKels:


Yes we shouldn't be complacent, but a capital NO, Croatia ain't no trophy contenders.

Well that's ur opinion.

Here is a mention, not necessarily a recommendation.
A left back, Eke Uzoma (I don't want to hear he is too old)
He is a natural left footer.
He is on the pitch now at the moment for Hungarian side, Balmazujvaros Sport, as they lead Obinna Nwobodo's Upjest,
2-0 away.

Dude is short though.

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.

Please can I buy you a bottle of champagne or whatever your favourite drink is.

Dominic Iorfa scores for Ipswich
It's half-time
Ipswich 2-2 Nottingham Forest

Joebie:
Here is a mention, not necessarily a recommendation.
A left back, Eke Uzoma (I don't want to hear he is too old)
He is a natural left footer.
He is on the pitch now at the moment for Hungarian side, Balmazujvaros Sport, as they lead Obinna Nwobodo's Upjest,
2-0 away.

Dude is short though.

Chai

Lovely key pass from Ndidi. Gray fails to convert — hits the bar

Ndidi very impressive

How did that dude who clearly held Ndidi back not get a yellow card wow

First time ever CAF is embracing the WC as an African project by supporting each qualifying team with 500,000.00 dollars (175 million at 350n to a dollar) to improve and strengthen the technical supervision of the team. Also CAF will give each team 'fieldwiz' equipment - a sports tech equipment that gathers data on distances run, average and maximum speed, heat map etc(they fit use am measure Martins vs Moses speed)

This is highly commendable and I guess it's down to the weight Pinnick is pulling as an influential member of CAF. Hayatou's CAF never thought to do such a thing.

If only one more black African country had qualified nevertheless I am happy that this is being embraced as an African project. Way to go!

komekn:



Please can I buy you a bottle of champagne or whatever your favourite drink is.

Support the team regardless of whether Martins is recalled or not. I'm hoping for his recall too. Komekn walahi let me tell you this:sometimes I doubt whether you are a true fan of the SE team. I don't know how but somehow imperceptibly that impression is settling in my mind. I know I'm wrong though but I just gat to say it.

Mujtahida:

Support the team regardless of whether Martins is recalled or not. I'm hoping for his recall too. Komekn walahi let me tell you this:sometimes I doubt whether you are a true fan of the SE team. I don't know how but somehow imperceptibly that impression is settling in my mind. I know I'm wrong though but I just gat to say it.

he is a fan of the Super Eagles of UK

Joebie:
Here is a mention, not necessarily a recommendation.
A left back, Eke Uzoma (I don't want to hear he is too old)
He is a natural left footer.
He is on the pitch now at the moment for Hungarian side, Balmazujvaros Sport, as they lead Obinna Nwobodo's Upjest,
2-0 away.

Dude is short though.

Nice one, but if we can search in Hungary, l believe we would also do well to search for players in the Npfl.

Oh yes.. the last time I checked, nobody stopped us..
Please can u help us with that?

Daejoyoung:

Nice one, but if we can search in Hungary, l believe we would also do well to search for players in the Npfl.

Bout to watch the Anderlecht vs Lokeren match
Onyekuru start of course.