Tag: eagles

WITH few weeks left to the commencement of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the ex-international Adokiye Amiesimaka has declared that the Super Eagles are unready for the global football
Speaking in an interview with Goal, the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations winner who is now a lawyer, said the Nigeria Football Federation’s(NFF) eggheads are abandoning pressing issues for irrelevant ones which is a pointer that the country will only be going to make up the numbers in South America.
“I have said it over and over again that we are not ready for the 2014 World Cup. Everyone is talking about the provisional list, no one seems to be asking, ‘what of the technical crew?’,” Amiesimaka told Goal.
“It is like wanting to buy the best car but no one to drive the car,then of what use is it? Keshi said he needs an assistant which the NFF has refused.
“Why are Nigerians not talking about that? As far as I am concerned our technical crew is not complete,” he added.
“That is the area we should focus on and not just debating on players that should make the World Cup list which the coach does not want.
“This shows we are going to Brazil for another jamboree. It means we are not firing on all cylinders because how do we explain not going to World Cup without our full technical capability.
The chief coach is good enough which he has proved but the NFF are not ready to give him the assistant he wants.
About the chances of the Super Eagles to do well in the competition where they will face Argentina, Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina,Amiesimaka candidly stated that it would be a wild goose chase to expect Keshi’s men to get past the preliminary round
“This is a country where everyone expects a miracle and not working towards achieving results. We sit back and say God is on our side – it is absolute nonsense. If not, why do we keep talking about second round and quarter finals?
“We have won the age grade competitions so many times yet we find it very hard to get to the semi final of the FIFA World Cup or is there any country that has won any age grade competition without winning the World Cup or at least getting to the last four?
“I am saying if we are serious about winning the U-17 World Cup, then we should be talking about winning the senior World Cup, if we can’t then we are fooling ourselves.
“With the present crop of Super Eagles we have now, we are going to be lucky to beat Bosnia and Iran not to talk about qualifying for the next round,” he concluded.

Former Green Eagles forward, Michael Obiku has described the present coach of the Super Eagles as a good and tested coach going into the World Cup in Brazil.

Obiku disclosed that Keshi’s wealth of experience will stand him in good stead to progress beyond the first round of the World Cup.

“I think we are going to try to do our best, we have a very good coach who it took a long time before Nigerians could trust him to take over the job because he has always been assistance. He’s gone to Togo to prove himself, did well in Mali before becoming the national team coach and also winning the African cup in South Africa. I think he will do well to go past the first round of the World Cup.”

Obiku also talked about playing style and philosophy of coaches in the handling of teams. He explained the Dutch blue print in the way the coach see his team and pointed out things that could be learnt as well while also crediting the strong nature of the Nigerian team.

“It’s a whole talking point, that’s where every coach is different, every land and country has their own vision, and we have our own belief and our vision. Nigeria has its own belief and vision as well. Keshi has his own thinking of who is going to play and all that, but we the Dutch think in different ways, we’re going to lend you to run this way so that we make it all a component that one player is not valuable, everybody can really work as a team and achieve result, that’s how we see it from the Dutch but then not necessarily taking anything away from Nigerians. Of course they are capable, that’s the credit that we as Nigerians have, we’re strong and yea maybe the mental part we don’t really know,” Obiku concluded.

Nigeria’s position in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings remains unchanged as the African Champions remain rooted to the 47th spot.

The country’s position in the rankings remains unchanged as they scooped up 626 points to remain in 47th place in the world, and seventh in Africa with 626 points.

Despite dropping down a spot to 24th place, Ivory Coast remains the highest ranked African country with 839 points. While Algeria and Egypt make up the top three in Africa as they are placed 25th and 26th respectively on the world stage.

Cape Verde Islands are the fourth most ranked African team as they are placed 33rd on the world stage with 739 points. While Ghana (35) and Tunisia (44) occupy fifth and sixth place on the continent.

Cameroon (50), Guinea (53) and Mali (56) make up the African top ten with 588, 572 and 561 points respectively.

Spain, Germany, Argentina, Portugal and Colombia are the top five countries in the world. World Cup opponents Bosnia and Iran are rated 21st and 42nd respectively.

The next ranking will be published by the official website of FIFA, fifa.com on April 10, 2014.

Nigeria may add to the three World Cup warm-ups they have confirmed ahead of Brazil 2014, officials have informed MTNFootball.com.

The African Champions have already lined up friendlies against Scotland, Greece and USA leading up to the World Cup in June. But General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Musa Amadu, has hinted they could squeeze a fourth test game before Brazil 2014 should coach Stephen Keshi accept.

“We’re putting all measures in place to ensure that the team is properly prepared for the World Cup and that is why we have lined up friendlies up until June 7. And if the coach accepts, we could squeeze in one more game before our first game at the World Cup,” said Amadu.

Nigeria’s opening match at Brazil 2014 will be against Iran on June 16, and Amadu told MTNFootball.com it was crucial the Eagles got off to a winning start.

“It is very important that the Super Eagles win their first group game against Iran. This would go a long way to determine how far the team would go at the World Cup,” he said.

The other teams in Nigeria’s first round group are Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Sportinglife can reveal today that Super Eagles players will storm Philadelphia in the United States on May 29, after playing against an undisclosed opponent in London on May 28 as exclusively reported by this newspaper on Wednesday.

Disclosing this to Sportinglife on telephone from Abuja on Friday afternoon, General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Musa Amadu stated that the Eagles will play two friendly games in the US on June 3 and 7, although he refused to disclose the countries that would be involved in the two games.

“We have engaged reputable agents to source for quality matches for the Eagles in the US. What happened concerning what you tagged the eight-nation tournament is that a group of agents found out that many countries who are bound for the World Cup in Brazil have the US as their training venues, preparatory to the Mundial.

“So, the established contact with us through our agents and I can tell you for a fact that we are working with them, although I cannot divulge anything to you yet because we are still doting the Ts of the matches. But for sure, by next week, I will give you the details. We have implicit confidence in those sourcing for games for the Eagles since we contracted them. We have a game against Mexico on March 5. I don’t know anything about the game against Scotland in May.

“There won’t be any eight-nation tournament where eight teams will be put in two groups of four teams that would play until two finalists emerge. No such format exists with what we are discussing with our agent. Instead, we have two matches on June 3 and 7 with the Eagles leaving London on May 29, after playing against a country I won’t want to disclose to you on May 28,” Musa said.