Russia 2018 finally here.

For some of us that hardly engage in most social stuffs around, footballing events like this help us to have a change of routine once a while.

Too bad i might not even get to watch most matches on TV or cable.. I pray my data don't disappoint me. I will end up having to stream most of the matches.

Mujtahida:

Brother forget it: Beckham was a blast. He was better than Finidi

better in what sense??

basically a good crosser, beckham was not the best player in Manchester united then, the likes of giggs and scholes were better.

TheSuperNerd:
Iwobi On His Best Roommate, Favourite Goal, Aubameyang Style, Shaku Shaku




Super Eagles forward Alex Iwobi, who is with the squad in Russia for the World Cup, answered some fun questions in a short BBC Africa video…


Special goal?

My goal for Nigeria vs Zambia (Iwobi sc6the winner against Zambia in Uyo, the goal that sealed the Super Eagles Russia 2018 World Cup ticket).


Favourite boy band?

Kelechi (Iheanacho) has some lowkey songs. I’d probably have Ezenwa on the chorus or something like that.



Favourite Okocha goal?

It has to be against Middlesbrough. He bent it in. I was with dad that day and it was amazing.



Best dressed: you or Aubameyang?

I believe I’m the best dressed. He’s a bit too flash. I don’t really like too much flash.



Weirdest item teammate has brought to camp?

Kelechi actually brought a microwave when we were in London, of all things. But I found it useful because he was in my room and we could warm up our food.



Barcelona or Real Madrid on FIFA 18?

Barcelona.




Best and worst roommates?

Both have to be Kelechi. He has this tendency to be late and I don’t like to leave him behind because we’re roommates and I feel we’re in this together. But at the same time he’s fun, he’s always enjoyment. He’s the best and the worst at the same time.



Most difficult dance move?

Shaku shaku. I’m still learning it and I have to learn it before the World Cup by force. I’m still learning the footwork.


Source: https://www.completesportsnigeria.com/iwobi-on-his-best-roommate-favourite-goal-aubameyang-style-shaku-shaku/



Russia 2018 Final clock countdown: 8 hours 47 mins to go

From Iwobi`s response on most difficult dance move i think shaku shaku is going to be their dance step for goal celebration. Who else can see so?

You have made a nice observation. I thought so too when I was sharing the news but decided to not comment on it... lol

Eligreat247:


From Iwobi`s response on most difficult dance move i think shaku shaku is going to be their dance step for goal celebration. Who else can see so?

TheGoodJoe:


European countries produce more skillful talents. Look at the Dutch for instance, when the talk of skillful talents, it will not revolve around Etim Esin, Okocha, Oruma.

Van Der Vaart, Sniejder, Robben, Emmanuelson, Drenthe.. These were creative players from one era. If we go to the seventies, there is a host of others. We do not churn out skillful players like the Europeans to claim an edge.

drenthe and emmanuelson where not better footballer than celestinea babayaro, babayaro tocuhes were neat and precise...his one of the full backs that modernize how a full back should play, but European media no gree you see am

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 apt !

As we all know this era football is more of business than entertainment and everyone want to make money.

For Africa to have their own philosophy of football will take alot of work and structure to get there and also everyone want quick result... How many people can wait for solid restructuring of Africa football ?

I know we will get there one day... Look at our music from Africa gong gong, western came to Change it to blues, jazz.. And even change the way we do things... Some still call it mental slavery.

But things is going back to how Africa music suppose to be.. And you can see even world is inculcating our type of music to theirs.

First we need to have a standard league where we can groom our players and groom our coaches with African football philosophy .

Good organisation to take the world by surprise with that we can achieve sth...

World just need to see what can bring money for them and what can win matches for the team. If our Africa football philosophy can do that... The world will take it..
But can we?

Martz101:


better in what sense??

basically a good crosser, beckham was not the best player in Manchester united then, the likes of giggs and scholes were better.

I agree that Scholes, Giggs were better but when you compare Beckham and Finidi, I'd say Beckham was better in respect of crosses which essentially is what Finidi was also known for.

Mickael2:




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

You have said it all... Nice input

andrew444:


Thank you,I am just trying to give him a small clue Rodrigo Bentacur of juventus we know what he can cause in the Midfield.

Nobody will tell you Uruguay cant make the semi,they will just watch and see,As far as am concerned Brazil dont have much quality players than Uruguay.

Some people call brazil world cup favorite but who is the striker there?

If we can call brazil world cup favorite then uruguay should also be called,As far as i am concerned luis suarez is the best striker in the WORLD.

As far as i am concerned Gabriel jesus is still an average player,is he because he plays for mancity and pep trust him alot? can we compare a gabriel jesus and a suarez or cavani? Aside neymar coutinho uruguay will match with brazil.

Thiago silva is not a better defender than Diego godin. Brazil edge them out in midfield but they edge brazil out in defence and attack.

i was feeling your world cup analysis untill now, Brazil is ahead of Uruguay.

Brazil can replace each position with another good player.

the striker is jesus and his a very good striker, with very good precision,his the closest thing to Ronaldo since he retired. they have inform william, neymar and coutihno behind him and one of the best box to box midfielder in paulihno and Classic defensive midfielder casemiro.

At the back they have Thiago and there Miranda flanked by consistent Marcelo and danilo who had a great season. there goal keeper is one of the best goal keeper in Europe Alison

interesting thing is the option they have on the bench. firmino can slot in easily for Jesus though you can have him play behind jesus, douglas costa can do a william job easily and also come in for neymar when needed, Taison is just an identical player to countihno.

Fernandihno will start in most teams in the worldcup, Luis of athletico is also an option for marcelo and marquinho is also an option in CB. Ederson will be the option in the goalkeeper department.

This Brazilian team can't be compare to ageing Uruguay team, they can't beat an Egypt team with Salah, they will have a had time beating them without salah.

andrew444:


Gabriel Jesus is a good player but not yet world class

What about how Luis Suarez and cavani plays for Uruguay ? Check their goal ratio also,it's one of the best in the world only Neymar cr7 and Messi has better goal ratio than them.

Luis Suarez .... 98 games and 51 goals
Cavani..... 100 games 42 goals

alot of players has better goal ratio than them, even in the worldcup

Martz101:


if beckham was in this era he will be converted to a RB trust me

Omo you wickedt

Mujtahida:

Brother forget it: Beckham was a blast. He was better than Finidi

Started getting underrated due to his pop fame. People just think he was good at crossing but his passing (especially long ones) were insane. Didn't have flair/skill but had an above average touch.

Did you know:

Robert Prosinecki is the only player to score for two different countries at a FIFA World Cup. He scored for Yugoslavia against the UAE at Italia 1990; and scored for Croatia at the France 98 World Cup.

Mujtahida:

I agree that Scholes, Giggs were better but when you compare Beckham and Finidi, I'd say Beckham was better in respect of crosses which essentially is what Finidi was also known for.

there were more to finidi game than just crossing, he was better with spead and can cut just like modern right wingers do.

beckham relied more in his crossing ability while finidi can not be predicted, is easy to cut out beckham from the match.

Mujtahida:

Omo you wickedt

yes na, basically all he do is cross the ball, no penetrating runs, compare him to his counterpart giggs, giggs wes everything a winger should be.

giggs can cut inside and even make those darting run like the one he did in the FA against Arsenal

AIG07:
hahaha this got me laughing... Make Saturday come jare.

I don't even know what our opponents will be thinking about us.
I don't know if they will be jealous or be seeing us as some bunch of unserious team.

TThem go be like are you for real? When they see our guys in track suit on matchday!

OOrisirisi country.


Rohr is no longer a coach but Baba Olomo wewe

� lol

Martz101:


i was feeling your world cup analysis untill now, Brazil is ahead of Uruguay.

Brazil can replace each position with another good player.

the striker is jesus and his a very good striker, with very good precision,his the closest thing to Ronaldo since he retired. they have inform william, neymar and coutihno behind him and one of the best box to box midfielder in paulihno and Classic defensive midfielder casemiro.

At the back they have Thiago and there Miranda flanked by consistent Marcelo and danilo who had a great season. there goal keeper is one of the best goal keeper in Europe Alison

interesting thing is the option they have on the bench. firmino can slot in easily for Jesus though you can have him play behind jesus, douglas costa can do a william job easily and also come in for neymar when needed, Taison is just an identical player to countihno.

Fernandihno will start in most teams in the worldcup, Luis of athletico is also an option for marcelo and marquinho is also an option in CB. Ederson will be the option in the goalkeeper department.

This Brazilian team can't be compare to ageing Uruguay team, they can't beat an Egypt team with Salah, they will have a had time beating them without salah.

Brazil is ahead of Uruguay i go with you,I am just making example trust me,Uruguay team only few are aged.

What about fernandinho 33,filepe Luis 32 Thiago Silvia 33,Miranda 33,Marcelo 30,Alves 35 was supposed to be there but injury stop him.

Uruguay.....Suarez 31 cavani 31,Godin 32,maxi perriera 33...remind me of who else ?

Who is the older team?

Willian is not a starter in Brazil,coutinho and Neymar will share the right and left flank.

edi287:

Started getting underrated due to his pop fame. People just think he was good at crossing but his passing (especially long ones) were insane. Didn't have flair/skill but had an above average touch.

not people thinking but it was the truth, in that era there were alot of very good players and beckham ain't suppose to be mention around them.

Bbc and English made it look like he was maradona, beckham was not even Man U best player then

Martz101:


alot of players has better goal ratio than them, even in the worldcup

Alright you can mention them ?

andrew444:


Brazil is ahead of Uruguay i go with you,I am just making example trust me,Uruguay team only few are aged.

What about fernandinho 33,filepe Luis 32 Thiago Silvia 33,Miranda 33,Marcelo 30,Alves 35 was supposed to be there but injury stop him.

Uruguay.....Suarez 31 cavani 31,Godin 32,maxi perriera 33...remind me of who else ?

Who is the older team?

Willian is not a starter in Brazil,coutinho and Neymar will share the right and left flank.

willian is a starter, brazil play 4-2-3-1, the formation, check there last 6 matches, they played the same players, fenandihno starter when neymar was injured.

brazil coach starting line up is very obvious

Martz101:


not people thinking but it was the truth, in that era there were alot of very good players and beckham ain't suppose to be mention around them.

Bbc and English made it look like he was maradona, beckham was not even Man U best player then

Beckham from 99 - 02 was probably the second best midfielder in man united after Roy Keane.
It's a myth that he was only good at crossing. He was a superb passer, had an above average touch, great vision and crazy stamina. Yeah he didn't have the flair and Skill of Figo, but he was a VERY good player.
His best position was as a CM. Didn't have the pace and skill to beat defenders on the flanks.

andrew444:

Alright you can mention them ?

zlatan ...116 games. 62goals okazaki...108 games. 50 goals lewandowski...95 games 55 goals Clint Dempsey... Dzecko tim cahill

Mujtahida:

I agree that Scholes, Giggs were better but when you compare Beckham and Finidi, I'd say Beckham was better in respect of crosses which essentially is what Finidi was also known for.

Becks had a greater impact in that na 99 ucl win than both Giggs and Scholes. My brother was a die hard man united fan and we recorded their games those days. Becks was great. He had 24 assists that season. Look at his numbers and they were quite impressive.
Becks Vision and passing is far better than Finidis.

edi287:

Beckham from 99 - 02 was probably the second best midfielder in man united after Roy Keane.
It's a myth that he was only good at crossing. He was a superb passer, had an above average touch, great vision and crazy stamina. Yeah he didn't have the flair and Skill of Figo, but he was a VERY good player.
His best position was as a CM. Didn't have the pace and skill to beat defenders on the flanks.

you mean he could not nail down his favourite position, no skill or pace to beat defenders on the wing and his the best??

Super Eagles Camp Update


The Super Eagles of Nigeria will hold their final training session today by 10am local time ( 8am Nigerian time) in Essentuki. (Meaning they are training now or have just wrapped things up or close to finishing their training as we speak).

The Gernot Rohr led side who will face Croatia in their opening game this Saturday will depart Essentuki for Kaliningrad by 3:55pm local time(1:55pm Nigerian time).

After the game they will return to Essentuki to continue preparation for the second game against Iceland on June 22 in Volgograd.


Russia 2018 Final clock countdown: 6 hours 13 mins to go

edi287:

Becks had a greater impact in that na 99 ucl win than both Giggs and Scholes. My brother was a die hard man united fan and we recorded their games those days. Becks was great. He had 24 assists that season. Look at his numbers and they were quite impressive.
Becks Vision and passing is far better than Finidis.

Far better. It's not even a matter for debate. Recently I watched Beckham again and I was just amazed at the accuracy of his crosses. That guy could locate his teammates with his curlers from afar. He was better abeg.

Martz101:


zlatan ...116 games. 62goals
okazaki...108 games. 50 goals
lewandowski...95 games 55 goals
Clint Dempsey...
Dzecko
tim cahill

Zlatan not at the World Cup

Clint Dempsey North America play more games same goes to the Asia,I can bring a Saudi Arabia player stats.

Zlatan played for Sweden till 35 Tim Cahill is 38 and you think Suarez will not have more stats than them when he reached that age?

Dzeko is not at the World Cup

Dempsey 141 appearance and 57 goals Suarez is not up to that appearance.

North America plays more match than anyone else,concafaf gold cup is every 2 years and copa America is every 4 years and copa America got no qualifiers and they also invite teams from north America mostly USA Mexico and Jamaica

Okazaki got more caps than Suarez and Suarez got more goals ratio than him.

Martz101:


willian is a starter, brazil play 4-2-3-1, the formation, check there last 6 matches, they played the same players, fenandihno starter when neymar was injured.

brazil coach starting line up is very obvious

William is not a starter he was bench throughout the qualifiers you are looking at the friendlies.

Casemeiro paulinho and renato Augusto started all qualifiers.

So where will coutinho fit in ? You are looking at the friendlies ?

Coutinho always plays from the flank for Brazil,even Douglas started most friendlies as willian.

But latin has to do with classic roman language and i don't think French should be among the list, french is more to english/greek than to latin.

Though i understand where you're coming from looking at the context the commentator was speaking from (Footballing context) but Latin term is more complex than that.

Funny enough, Latin is more significantly used with Mexicans and smaller countries like Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venzuelas etc but mostly on Mexicans.

It's more on the sounds and music and less on sports.

asha80:
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French all descended from Latin.. from the commentator's view I guess he meant Latin American countries (usually Spanish speaking except brazil that is Portuguese speaking )

Martz101:
[/b]

you mean he could not nail down his favourite position, no skill or pace to beat defenders on the wing and his the best??

We all know Figo was the best Right Winger during that era. Whatever Becks lacked in flair and pace outwide, he made up for it with his insane set piece and passing ability. Plus his stamina helped in defending out wide.
Becks was not a gra gra player contrary to what some want us to believe.

andrew444:


Zlatan not at the World Cup

Clint Dempsey North America play more games same goes to the Asia,I can bring a Saudi Arabia player stats.

Zlatan played for Sweden till 35 Tim Cahill is 38 and you think Suarez will not have more stats than them when he reached that age?

Dzeko is not at the World Cup

Dempsey 141 appearance and 57 goals Suarez is not up to that appearance.

North America plays more match than anyone else,concafaf gold cup is every 2 years and copa America is every 4 years and copa America got no qualifiers and they also invite teams from north America mostly USA Mexico and Jamaica

Okazaki got more caps than Suarez and Suarez got more goals ratio than him.

bros or else you don't understand English, you said cavani and suarez has one of the goal ratio in the world(not worldcup) except neymar, ronaldo amd messi and i told you there were many players above them and some are even in the worldcup.

zlatan and Cahill playing to 35 or 38 does not mean a thing, don't you know what ratio is??

and why are you comparing all players to suarez what of cavani?

what of lewandowski??

baba before you talk check your fact before you miss inform people

somehow:
But latin has to do with classic roman language and i don't think French should be among the list, french is more to english/greek than to latin.

Though i understand where you're coming from looking at the context the commentator was speaking from (Footballing context) but Latin term is more complex than that.

Funny enough, Latin is more significantly used with Mexicans and smaller countries like Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venzuelas etc but mostly on Mexicans.

It's more on the sounds and music and less on sports.

i actually meant the language