Four reasons Eagles failed to scale French hurdle
It is still the topic of the day among millions of football crazy Nigerians.This is not surprising because many were full of hope that Eagles Manager Stephen Okechuku Keshi would guide the team to their first ever FIFA World Cup quarter final but it wasn’t to be. SHOT! therefore takes a look at the four […]
It is still the topic of the day among millions of football crazy Nigerians.
This is not surprising because many were full of hope that Eagles Manager Stephen Okechuku Keshi would guide the team to their first ever FIFA World Cup quarter final but it wasn’t to be. SHOT! therefore takes a look at the four things that went wrong in the match and ended Eagles 2014 World Cup run.
Technicalities- some people have long held the belief that Keshi is not a sound tactician, that he is a bit deficient in that vital department and they might have a point. When Onazi got injured, Ramon Azeez was stripping to come on only for Reuben Gabriel to surface. The latter had minimal effect and did little to stabilize Nigeria’s midfield. Stephen Keshi did not react when Nigeria went a goal down in the 79th minute only to make a last ditch effort in stoppage time to take off Moses for Uche Nwofor when Shola Ameobi was on the bench. A positive response from the bench early enough maybe would have even won the match for Nigeria. Deschamps identified what he needed to do and he did by bringing in Griezmann and the rest is history. Even when Keshi had two more substitutions to do and chasing the game, he hesitated in making any changes which was one of the turning points. Perhaps ESPN pundit and Everton manager, Roberto Martinez sums it up nicely how the bench failed Nigeria against France.
“Nigeria didn’t have anything extra coming from the bench. Everything was on the pitch.” Roberto Martinez said.
The French took out Onazi- Ogenyi Onazi has been Nigeria’s most influential midfielder in Brazil and Deschamps having done his homework well might have given opposite number Blaise Matuidi the task of taking him out of the game which he did in the 56th minute with a horrific tackle on the Nigerian which gave the French the opportunity to take over the game which the Eagles had hitherto had greater control of. This seriously diminished Eagles hopes of taking something out of the game.
No show from the Big boys- Just go to anybody about now in Nigeria and ask him who he thinks is the biggest let down as For Nigeria as far as Brazil 2014 is concerned, surely Mikel would be the man. As the Super Eagles biggest star much was expected from him in terms of anchoring the midfield superbly, taking charge and providing the platform for other players to perform. He failed terribly in all those and that’s why he has been singled out for mockery and abuse after the ouster. His partner in ‘crime’ was Osaze Odemwingie who alongside the Chelsea player are the two most popular Eagles players of this crop, they both failed to take charge and energise the team. Odemwingie on his part had a below par showing compared to his other two previous matches.
American Referee- American referee Mark Geiger’s made two decisions that hurt the Super Eagles and then entire nation. The two decisions that went against Nigeria and contributed to Eagles downfall were the referee’s inability to send off Blaise Matuidi for his violent tackle on Onazi and refusal to award the Eagles a penalty even when it was glaring that Patrice Evra wrapped his arms around Osaze Odemwingie in the box.