They are a semi final team at the very best (being generous). In my opinion, they lack a talisman in the mould of Greizman, MESSI, Ronaldo, Bale or a prime Torres/Villa up front. And in midfield, this team is not as talented as the class of 2010 to offset the lack of world class quality in attack.
for me spain is better than France with greizman and Argentina with messi.
The last worldcup spain won was with average goal of one in each match, worldcup is not about talisman, is about the team.
I know that mathematically this makes it possible but could they be other causes? Football has too much European flavour and I contend that we cannot beat them by playing the game they way they(Europeans) have structured it.
When I make reference to a good African coaches I always use Siasia.
a cursory look at that 2008 Olympics shows everything that Africa needs to excel. First of all we do not need a foreign coach, there is a bone in the foot which Europeans call Os Magnum but here we have another name for it. So it is in every field, what they know from their cradle is way way different from the basics we learn here. so how do you expect a foreign coach to be able to make use of our own basics while teaching us? The few White men who have come close to learning this have flourished way more than expected with lesser talented teams. Let the truth be told as at 1994 we did not have that much talent in our squad, most were raw players who later developed into good players during the 1998 World Cup but we had a far better tournament in 1994, Why? Because the coach in 1994 was one of the few guys who knew how the basics of African football. He was one of the few that understood that Africans had egos so he tried as much as possible to let that flow. There was a conversation I had with Siasia a long time ago and he said that the coach would come to....say Okocha and tell him something like ' you know you are a way better dribbler than Amuneke, show what you have', he will go to Amuneke and tell him ' you know you can easily bully your way through defences unlike that tiny Okocha with brown hair, show what you got'. In these two statements he has managed to tap into each man's ego but under this he still maintains this kind of strict African parental care which the players then were used to. He didn't care about the formation that other teams are playing, he used the one that he knew would suit our ability to run from 0-90mins. Trust me if this 3-5-2 formation was available then he would have used it or even a 3-4-3 to fully utilise out ability to run and also give our flair players the opportunity to express themselves and if he had cracked that then, that match against Italy would have easily been a 4-0 scoreline never mind that 1-2 loss. If Westerhoff had been able to take Nigeria to another CAF he would have won it again because he had imbibed the African basics and he totally ignored the European style of football. Another coach who has seemingly imbibed this African basic is Harve Renard and that's why he can take any team now to the summit of African football, trust me if he had the talent we have in this present super eagles squad, making the semifinals would have been very very possible. Beside all that, only a few African coaches sef understand that we have our basics too which they need to consider when coaching African teams. Imagine person like Amuneke wan coach Nigeria like we are Barcelona. it may work for U17 players who do not have any club, no ego and no stand but when they start getting clubs and the ego starts setting in he will fail, forget the tactics. He may go to a European club and start performing wonders no problem but not with our national team. Keshi and Siasia are perfect examples of people that have been able to inculcate those African basics into their coaching. If only they could eliminate greed and pick players based on form and merit we wouldn't be needing any foreign coach at all. For a normal European social media life has nothing to do with your performance, for us Africans social media has led to a greater failure rates in school, so a foreign coach may come and lay absolutely no emphasis on social media life thinking it has no business with our performance but then it does. In their club sides were they know that they need to perform else they will get kicked out how many of them have the time to post these number of pictures that they have been posting? that's one part of the reasons.
then we come down to tactics. What works for us? in the three world cups that we have performed well our wingers and SS have been very good, never mind the strikers themselves. Players like Babatunde and Osaze were the main reasons why we got to the round of 16 in 2014. But who are our wingers presently? Which of them can damage opponents? Victor Moses isn't even much of a threat to me and when you consider that we have like 4 or 5 other terrific wingers who could cause serious damage you start to wonder if the coach does not know what works for us. Is Iwobi a terrific winger? OK he is a good SS why still play him in that wing role? destroying two buildings at once. Emenike did not score a single goal at the World Cup and neither did Yakubu score from open play in 2010 and who was the main striker in 1998? many may recall the name because he is popular not because he did anything important in that tournament so this criticism of Ighalo is pointless to me, so long as he puts in a good shift for the team I am okay. Again the coach has the option of playing a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 which would give us the ability to run and run and use that to our advantage but he decides to stick with a 4-2-3-1 formation? no need saying more.
Finally team chemistry. You won't get that by playing together for two weeks, probably Hummels and Boateng will be the first choice CBs for Germany, two players that started playing together from U20 and are in the same club. Ramos and Pique, players who study each other every week since they play in the same league. I can assure you that Balogun has never even watched Ekongs matches for his club side never mind the fact that they have hardly played together for 6-7 times. The only semblance to team chemistry that we have is between Onazi and Mikel which is why till today Onazi performs better with Mikel no argument but that alone will not work since we now play with Mikel higher up the pitch. In football, national teammates actually influence the movement of players, De Gea wanted to go back to Madrid because of that, Neymar to PSG and some others. but presently how many clubs have more than one Nigerian team? I wouldn't blame anybody for that though.
In conclusion I believe the right mixture of team chemistry, proper tactics and proper tactician/manager/team father would be enough for us to win the world cup
sentiment na your problem, Echiejile was not a bad left back afterall he was part of the defense that brought us the worldcup spot.
i don't want to go into Aina and Echiejile argument again because it won't change anything. Abey george tried for Nigeria but i don't see how he was done more than Echiejile.
George was not even playing for Championship side, he was swimming in lower league woth portvale while Echiejile played for french league with rennes and Monaco and also with Portugal league with Braga with loads of champions league exposure
that's the career gorge Abey would have prayed for and if Aina get that kinda career he will be fulfilled.
Oga free Echiejile
Firstly Abbey played for Macclesfield Town first.
My diction was clear George Abbey played well during the period he played for the SE. There is no comparison with Echiejile.
What I did say and or imply, Echiejile is shadow of his former self you can not progress forward on the basis of past glories.
Currently Echiejile is the weak link he is even failing at club football. Unable to make way in Turkey he us playing 2nd division in Belgium.
Mujtahida: MY THOUGHTS ON THE EVE OF THE WC since 2002 no country apart from european countries has won the WC(and more european countries have won the WC than any other country from other continents since the inception of the FIFA WC in 1930. while it can be argued that this is because europeans have proportionately more teams than other continents -could there be other causes?) could this be as a result of the fact that global football is tailored to suit the style, the nature and character of Europeans? take this issue of pressing that has almost become the alfa tactics employed by most teams for example. it is about choking and pressuring the opposition when they(the opposition) have the ball. now i think this is what happened: europeans eliminated the dribble(yes dribbling is almost dead) because i do not see how pressing can be effective when you have a team of good ball dribblers. can you press maradona, or okocha or any team with a good number of dribblers like Brazil 82 team? they will just dribble themselves out of the choke and pass the ball to a team mate who is free from the press. just a moment of sheer individual brilliance, a sweet turn, a flick and dance with the ball and the whole press will collapse.but you see what europeans have done: they eliminated the dribble, clamped down on individual displays and erected a temple to the god of passing, passing, passing and laid more emphasis on team game. europeans thrive on organization and efficiency: they hate anything disorganized which is how they regard anything free flowing(meanwhile africans want expressiveness and flair). check out classical european music, opera and the ballet dance. everything is timed and organized. the world of music was cold until africans and south americans(and it was still africans if you know your history)with the their toms toms, sense of natural rhythm and free flowing dance brought in the blues, jazz and pop culture was born. for the life of me i have tried to enjoy mozart, bach, handel and others but omo i still prefer the sound of the gong, ekwe, beaded gourd and talking drum. to the european ear african music is disorganized but as africans we know theres a method to that seeming "disorganization". our music is all about rhythm and improvisation.
my point is we must break away from this european model of playing football: we cannot beat them when it comes to an organized approached to football. no wonder xavi said that they understand football as a space-time concept. this is nothing but the scientific european mind speaking. the black man has no such concept. (thats why he cannot operate by the 24 hour clock). africans understand football as a dance, as rhythm, as beat, as robustness and vigour. this is how we must play our football. we must play football according to our soul. we are africans and its not a matter of race- its a matter of an outlook on life which we can perfect and use to define our game.
my brothers i would appreciate your thoughts on this issue cc Icobn4s asha80 bascovanveli goldfish80 tbaba1234 safarigirl servik kennysville oasis07 thesupernerd goodjoe joebie chriskels davep AIG mikael2 kog45 forgiveness soetanoluwa martz07 charlesemeka and every other esteemed poster on this great thread
This is so on point!!! Am an assistant coach in our area team and I tell the head coach that we are playing the way Europeans want us to play, they don't produce natural dribblers so they found a way around it and because they've invested lots of money into it, they get to set the standard and the whole world must tag along cus if you want to earn big money u've got to play their way. Players that can dribble will make pressing look like (why dis one dey run like mumuu) but we must have a balance, inculcate the concept of time and space in football and let them dribble alot in training especially the young ones that are gifted. We can't play Opera better than them but we can copy a big part and add our drums and rhythm and create a WICKED sound, if we can pull it off? By fire by force dem go hear word.
Eg: Wizkid sold out a 20k capacity venue in London but modenine with all the (keeping it real) rap no fit sell out 1k capacity
for me spain is better than France with greizman and Argentina with messi.
The last worldcup spain won was with average goal of one in each match, worldcup is not about talisman, is about the team.
Of course they are better than Argentina who they beat blue black not so long ago in a friendly. Having a talisman in a bad team can only get you further so much but you begin to look world conquering when you have a good team and a talisman. Although, comparing this team with the golden age class of 2008-2012 is stretching it a bit. Must be said.
Exactly, power and skill is what we need, our present team has skills but limited power. The moment players like amokachi, amuneke, ikpeba, siasia, taribo, oliseh,mutiu left our national team, we have found it difficult to find players with both power and skill. The remnants left then were folks like Taiwo, osaze, even martins with all his power and skills couldn't do enough.
This is so on point!!! Am an assistant coach in our area team and I tell the head coach that we are playing the way Europeans want us to play, they don't produce natural dribblers so they found a way around it and because they've invested lots of money into it, they get to set the standard and the whole world must tag along cus if you want to earn big money u've got to play their way. Players that can dribble will make pressing look like (why dis one dey run like mumuu) but we must have a balance, inculcate the concept of time and space in football and let them dribble alot in training especially the young ones that are gifted. We can't play Opera better than them but we can copy a big part and add our drums and rhythm and create a WICKED sound, if we can pull it off? By fire by force dem go hear word.
Eg: Wizkid sold out a 20k capacity venue in London but modenine with all the (keeping it real) rap no fit sell out 1k capacity
you have said it better than i ever could have said and i am happy that you are in a position to influence things. kudos bro cos you have awareness and that alone counts for something. we must incorporate the best of the European style with the natural flair and expressiveness of the african. thank you for dropping your thoughts
i have the same opinion too, he has good passing range, his rely on reading the game more than speed and his the taller of the trior
You are talking about Balogun right?
Btw, can you try watching the second half between Nigeria England? Watch the defensive candidates on the field for us and tell me what you notice from their performance individually and collectivel2?
Mujtahida: MY THOUGHTS ON THE EVE OF THE WC since 2002 no country apart from european countries has won the WC(and more european countries have won the WC than any other country from other continents since the inception of the FIFA WC in 1930. while it can be argued that this is because europeans have proportionately more teams than other continents -could there be other causes?) could this be as a result of the fact that global football is tailored to suit the style, the nature and character of Europeans? take this issue of pressing that has almost become the alfa tactics employed by most teams for example. it is about choking and pressuring the opposition when they(the opposition) have the ball. now i think this is what happened: europeans eliminated the dribble(yes dribbling is almost dead) because i do not see how pressing can be effective when you have a team of good ball dribblers. can you press maradona, or okocha or any team with a good number of dribblers like Brazil 82 team? they will just dribble themselves out of the choke and pass the ball to a team mate who is free from the press. just a moment of sheer individual brilliance, a sweet turn, a flick and dance with the ball and the whole press will collapse.but you see what europeans have done: they eliminated the dribble, clamped down on individual displays and erected a temple to the god of passing, passing, passing and laid more emphasis on team game. europeans thrive on organization and efficiency: they hate anything disorganized which is how they regard anything free flowing(meanwhile africans want expressiveness and flair). check out classical european music, opera and the ballet dance. everything is timed and organized. the world of music was cold until africans and south americans(and it was still africans if you know your history)with the their toms toms, sense of natural rhythm and free flowing dance brought in the blues, jazz and pop culture was born. for the life of me i have tried to enjoy mozart, bach, handel and others but omo i still prefer the sound of the gong, ekwe, beaded gourd and talking drum. to the european ear african music is disorganized but as africans we know theres a method to that seeming "disorganization". our music is all about rhythm and improvisation.
my point is we must break away from this european model of playing football: we cannot beat them when it comes to an organized approached to football. no wonder xavi said that they understand football as a space-time concept. this is nothing but the scientific european mind speaking. the black man has no such concept. (thats why he cannot operate by the 24 hour clock). africans understand football as a dance, as rhythm, as beat, as robustness and vigour. this is how we must play our football. we must play football according to our soul. we are africans and its not a matter of race- its a matter of an outlook on life which we can perfect and use to define our game.
my brothers i would appreciate your thoughts on this issue cc Icobn4s asha80 bascovanveli goldfish80 tbaba1234 safarigirl servik kennysville oasis07 thesupernerd goodjoe joebie chriskels davep AIG mikael2 kog45 forgiveness soetanoluwa martz07 charlesemeka and every other esteemed poster on this great thread
i was actually thinking of this same thing, even the south Americans are also suffering thesame faith, they lost there identity too.
Sub-Saharan Africa team should embrace who they are and add some little flavour of what they were expose to in Europe.
is no coincidence that the Africa team that actually got to the quater final all play with some kinda physicality and some flair when needed.
Cameroon in 1990, Ghana in 2010 and Senegal 2002 did that perfectly well and could have gotten even to the final with little more effort and mental concentration.
This issue is affecting Nigerian and Africa in every sector
TheSuperNerd: Balogun can stay in the middle but Ekong have also thrived there in a 3-man set up as seen from some of our games. Pace is not only needed for the sides, but also for the middle as can be seen in that England game when Ekong was face to face with a pacy Welbeck thru the centre. Rohr knows what he's doing by sometimes placing Ekong in the middle...
But if Ogu starts as LCB then Balogun may shift to the middle and Ekong to the right or it can be vice versa (Ekong-middle, Balogun-Right). We saw parts of this in the Czech game.
I suggested that earlier, Balogun in the side will be expose when under pressure, watch out first half in Argentina
When I make reference to a good African coaches I always use Siasia.
a cursory look at that 2008 Olympics shows everything that Africa needs to excel. First of all we do not need a foreign coach, there is a bone in the foot which Europeans call Os Magnum but here we have another name for it. So it is in every field, what they know from their cradle is way way different from the basics we learn here. so how do you expect a foreign coach to be able to make use of our own basics while teaching us? The few White men who have come close to learning this have flourished way more than expected with lesser talented teams. Let the truth be told as at 1994 we did not have that much talent in our squad, most were raw players who later developed into good players during the 1998 World Cup but we had a far better tournament in 1994, Why? Because the coach in 1994 was one of the few guys who knew how the basics of African football. He was one of the few that understood that Africans had egos so he tried as much as possible to let that flow. There was a conversation I had with Siasia a long time ago and he said that the coach would come to....say Okocha and tell him something like ' you know you are a way better dribbler than Amuneke, show what you have', he will go to Amuneke and tell him ' you know you can easily bully your way through defences unlike that tiny Okocha with brown hair, show what you got'. In these two statements he has managed to tap into each man's ego but under this he still maintains this kind of strict African parental care which the players then were used to. He didn't care about the formation that other teams are playing, he used the one that he knew would suit our ability to run from 0-90mins. Trust me if this 3-5-2 formation was available then he would have used it or even a 3-4-3 to fully utilise out ability to run and also give our flair players the opportunity to express themselves and if he had cracked that then, that match against Italy would have easily been a 4-0 scoreline never mind that 1-2 loss. If Westerhoff had been able to take Nigeria to another CAF he would have won it again because he had imbibed the African basics and he totally ignored the European style of football. Another coach who has seemingly imbibed this African basic is Harve Renard and that's why he can take any team now to the summit of African football, trust me if he had the talent we have in this present super eagles squad, making the semifinals would have been very very possible. Beside all that, only a few African coaches sef understand that we have our basics too which they need to consider when coaching African teams. Imagine person like Amuneke wan coach Nigeria like we are Barcelona. it may work for U17 players who do not have any club, no ego and no stand but when they start getting clubs and the ego starts setting in he will fail, forget the tactics. He may go to a European club and start performing wonders no problem but not with our national team. Keshi and Siasia are perfect examples of people that have been able to inculcate those African basics into their coaching. If only they could eliminate greed and pick players based on form and merit we wouldn't be needing any foreign coach at all. For a normal European social media life has nothing to do with your performance, for us Africans social media has led to a greater failure rates in school, so a foreign coach may come and lay absolutely no emphasis on social media life thinking it has no business with our performance but then it does. In their club sides were they know that they need to perform else they will get kicked out how many of them have the time to post these number of pictures that they have been posting? that's one part of the reasons.
then we come down to tactics. What works for us? in the three world cups that we have performed well our wingers and SS have been very good, never mind the strikers themselves. Players like Babatunde and Osaze were the main reasons why we got to the round of 16 in 2014. But who are our wingers presently? Which of them can damage opponents? Victor Moses isn't even much of a threat to me and when you consider that we have like 4 or 5 other terrific wingers who could cause serious damage you start to wonder if the coach does not know what works for us. Is Iwobi a terrific winger? OK he is a good SS why still play him in that wing role? destroying two buildings at once. Emenike did not score a single goal at the World Cup and neither did Yakubu score from open play in 2010 and who was the main striker in 1998? many may recall the name because he is popular not because he did anything important in that tournament so this criticism of Ighalo is pointless to me, so long as he puts in a good shift for the team I am okay. Again the coach has the option of playing a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 which would give us the ability to run and run and use that to our advantage but he decides to stick with a 4-2-3-1 formation? no need saying more.
Finally team chemistry. You won't get that by playing together for two weeks, probably Hummels and Boateng will be the first choice CBs for Germany, two players that started playing together from U20 and are in the same club. Ramos and Pique, players who study each other every week since they play in the same league. I can assure you that Balogun has never even watched Ekongs matches for his club side never mind the fact that they have hardly played together for 6-7 times. The only semblance to team chemistry that we have is between Onazi and Mikel which is why till today Onazi performs better with Mikel no argument but that alone will not work since we now play with Mikel higher up the pitch. In football, national teammates actually influence the movement of players, De Gea wanted to go back to Madrid because of that, Neymar to PSG and some others. but presently how many clubs have more than one Nigerian team? I wouldn't blame anybody for that though.
In conclusion I believe the right mixture of team chemistry, proper tactics and proper tactician/manager/team father would be enough for us to win the world cup
i guess this is a subject dear to your heart cos i doubt if you have ever written so much as this ever since i joined this thread. the statistics support your position: all the countries that have won the WC have done so with indigenous coaches. westerhoff stayed here so long and imbibed our way and this influenced how he made our players play. i do not see anything magical about the tactics deployed by the top footballing nations that we cannot match but like you said greed and corruption is our bane. this is what spoils it for our coaches.
First, let us remove the notion that the Europeans do not produce good dribblers.
Off the top of my head, Figo, Brian and Michael Laudrup, Gascoigne, Joe Cole, Ryan Giggs, Overmars, Seedorf, Johann Cruyff, Dugarry, Djorkaeff and a host of others.
Today, in dribbling talents, which Africans would we put above the likes of Hazard, Dembele, Isco, Thiago Alcantara, Bernardo Silva, Sane etc.
I doubt we should think we edge the Europeans in individual creativity.
This should be the concern of the South Americans. Not us.
TheSuperNerd: Fernando Hierro.. Hmmm... That great Spanish captain who also played for and captained Real madrid... You sack a Madrid man and bring in another Madrid man... Me just looking at these people... Lol Let's see how it goes shaa...
The surprises at this world cup are still many in their coming... Just never expected we would get one before Kickoff...
He was not sacked because he was a madrid man, he was sacked because he was negotiating with Madrid without the conscent of his owners and also signed a contract without them knowing....they got to know few minutes before media was about to announced it
I also believe we can achieve greatness with our indigenious coaches but they will need support, better pay and most importantly time to make their impact. Most of our indigenious coaches suffer from the fire brigade approach that has hindered our football.
I also feel Amunike can deliver a good job if given the opportunity.
South Africa toyed with the idea of having their national team play in the Psl a season prior to the 2010 world cup,it might sound unattainable, but such radical ideas might actually work. As Africans, we must be brave and push out our boats. This is one of the reasons I like the idea behind Chan.
there is no doubt that we can only have success when our local leagues imbibe the best practices as far as football administration is concerned. our clubs need to be overhauled. a national strategy(no complex plan,just something simple which will be implemented will do) has to mapped out involving football clubs, academies, scouting, coaching, facilities, club administration and all other important aspect of the game.
beyond winning the WC, we are sitting on a gold mine as far as football is concerned. the days of oil is numbered.
Mujtahida: i hope SE are psyched up to brace the viking clap of the Icelanders. Iceland has a population of 334,252. it is on record that 60% of the country's population turned up as supporters during the last Euro(thats like almost the whole country).
i hope we have nerves of steel to withstand the disruptive effect of this clapping cos this is what would happen at the WC
chrisooblog: true that's why brazilians argentines were so successful in the early years of the world cup. yes the europeans taught them bitter lessons which brazil has adjusted to infact i see neymar and co winning the whole thing because they've managed to incorporate their samba, jogo bonito into european organization and made it purposeful, result oriented. that's the conundrum sub-saharan african teams have been unsuccessful in solving. for some reason players educated here are not imparted with the drive to win but rather show off dribble to get hails and ''accolades'' whereas the real accolade is winning the trophy.
having said that i still feel a team from sub-saharan africa especially west africa will one day soon win the world cup cos our style of disorganization confounds them mascherano as much admitted that lol. north africans style is too similar europeans which is their style on acid.
hopefully the foreign born players will continue to bring in elements of professionalism in their football upbringing back but here at home the nff should thinking of bringing young football brains across the land and not just restrict it to the old boys club of ex internationals
Well I think we can take a cursory look at the success of African teams in the cadet championship. African teams have always shined at the under 17 championship. Struggled at the under 20s and made remarkable success at the Olympics. Nigeria being the most successful of them all. The question then is how have we attained this success, despite all odds and the unfavourable conditions that churns out these starlets. One thing is certain the hunger to succeed is higher at the cadet level. Maybe it has to do with the obscurities and economic hardships these young stars come out from, sadly when they are at the peak they just fizzle out in the long run. The Hunger to win at all cost was largely responsible for us dominating the cadet level. Take it a little higher and look at the under 20 sides with the most successful being the Ghanaian team of 2009 with the likes of players like Adiyah, these same hunger and intensity in which they played was raw and beautiful. Same goes to the Cameroonian side at the world Cup where Africa was announced to the World . Fast forward down to 94 and 96 Nigeria announced itself on the bigger scene. Winning the Olympics with its style of football. Quickly we saw Cameroon do the same at the next Olympics. We have gone along way. But with time and hunger, we would surely win the World Cup. African teams just need to keep pushing and playing. Brazil recently won the Olympics football gold. Something Nigeria did eighteen years earlier. So I for one don't think it's adopting the European style that has strangled our development, I think we are just not there in terms of hunger for it. This would literally translate on the field of play.
so for you its not a matter of style but a matter of passion and desire?
TheSuperNerd: Been a long busy day over here but this world cup got me going and doing all sorts of creative multitasking... lol.. Can't wait for the Kick off already...
Meanwhile, From @OfficialFPL stats...
Kelechi Iheanacho was involved in a @LCFC (Leicester) goal every 117.7 minutes last season #GoalsOriented.
We need to find a way to play Kelechi in our team. We're assured of scoring goals, that much is certain.
It is the work of the coach to maximize a team's potential. Let's hope Rohr pull it off.
Lord in heaven. Why telling me what I myself reported here? Is it that some of you here don't read comments before quoting someone? That was me making light banter and I have already posted the comments of the Spanish FA president himself explaining why Lopetegui had to be fired... Good God! Next time... Try to follow comments before quoting someone... I have hammered on this already before... It will save lots of irrelevant replies like this one.
He was not sacked because he was a madrid man, he was sacked because he was negotiating with Madrid without the conscent of his owners and also signed a contract without them knowing....they got to know few minutes before media was about to announced it
However, the baseline data used to make the deductions is. I suggest you do some research on that first, several published scientific journals are readily available.
What MRI gives is near 100% certainty of what age range a person can not be in. That deduction is made from the test results married to the baseline data.
That means it's indicative and far more relevant to the U17 set where bone fusion should not have set in. All things being equal. That's why it's effectiveness at U21 level is open to question.
Add the variable of nutrition, environment, and race and absolute becomes impossible but indicative a very big YES.
Add to all those variables the penchant for sharp practices within our officialdom. Then the case of a Nigerian origin player born in the USA failing the MRI scan becomes feasible. Particularly when they the NFF refused to hand over the test results for scrutiny.
As a society age cheating is not unique to football but pervades every aspect of our life from police army service to government bodies and ministries indeed there are men married to women older than them without knowing.
So I now bury the matter it's no longer relevant.
Indeed this problem was birthed by European football associations in thier obsession with youth. As if youth was the only component for football quality and excellence.
You get to 21 and you are almost dismissed as being over the hill if you have no pedigree. The association with youth and top football performance is absurd.
If you are good age is irrelevant in my opinion.
Maduabuchi Obinwa's case even verifies the strictness of the MRI scan because even though he was sixteen, he failed the test. So it means it is very difficult for overaged players to pass.
TheGoodJoe: First, let us get the notion that the Europeans do not produce good dribblers.
Off the top of my head, Figo, Brian and Michael Laudrup, Gascoigne, Joe Cole, Ryan Giggs, Overmars, Seedorf, Johann Cruyff, Dugarry, Djorkaeff and a host of others.
Today, in dribbling talents, which Africans would we put above the likes of Hazard, Dembele, Isco, Thiago Alcantara, Bernardo Silva, Sane etc.
I doubt we should think we edge the Europeans in individual creativity.
This should be the concern of the South Americans. Not us.
cc: Mujtahida, Martz101.
nobody said the bolded. i am only talking about where the emphasis is in modern day football:less dribbling and flair(which has been derisively tagged showboating) and much emphasis on passing. in truth what you have written is beside the point as you seem to have misconstrued what i wrote.
Mujtahida: It's like our boys don forget the purpose of this WC ooo. I don't see them play football as much as I see them dancing, sightseeing and generally in a flexing mood. Okay ooo.
nobody said the bolded. i am only talking about where the emphasis is in modern day football:less dribbling and flair(which has been derisively tagged showboating) and much emphasis on passing. in truth what you have written is beside the point as you seem to have misconstrued what i wrote.
I am saying contrary to the belief, the dribbling game favors the Europeans because they are better at it. Thinking we need more dribbling in our team as the solution does not cut it. We need to work with the current trend and create our own path from it. Just as the Chileans did.
At the end, it comes to us having our own set-up and apply most of the modern models of the game.
Mujtahida: i hope SE are psyched up to brace the viking clap of the Icelanders. Iceland has a population of 334,252. it is on record that 60% of the country's population turned up as supporters during the last Euro(thats like almost the whole country).
i hope we have nerves of steel to withstand the disruptive effect of this clapping cos this is what would happen at the WC
) . 
Is it that some of you here don't read comments before quoting someone? That was me making light banter and I have already posted the comments of the Spanish FA president himself explaining why Lopetegui had to be fired... Good God! Next time... Try to follow comments before quoting someone... I have hammered on this already before... It will save lots of irrelevant replies like this one. 
