Sports
Eaglets Played To Impress Agents – Coach
Golden Eaglets coach, John Obuh says his players threw their original game plan to the winds and instead played to impress agents in the Final.
Nigeria lost 0-1 to Switzerland in the Final, and Obuh admitted that although his players were unlucky, they also contributed to the problem in some ways.
“One of the problems we had is that some of the players were trying to play to impress certain agents,” he said.
“I did as much as possible to psyche them up to know that this was the most important game of the tournament and it would not be good for us to come all this way and fall at the final step.
Nigeria were all over the Swiss in the opening period, and could have been up by at least two goals before the break.
As the game wound down, and trailing by a goal, the Eaglets hit the post twice and forced some cracking saves from the Swiss goalkeeper, and Obuh also pointed to hard luck.
“On a good day, we should have won this match. We had chances, we hit the bar and we played well. One of my substitutes was the one that came on and hit the bar.
“That is why I say, as far as I am concerned, this is what is destined to happen. I don’t have any regrets, I always remain positive no matter what happens.”
He also explained that his decision to start Sani Emmanuel, usually a substitute, was informed by injury to Omoh Ojabu.
“Yesterday, at our last training session, one of my players, who is supposed to start, had a muscle tear and it happened at the last minute.
“This was his (Sani’s) chance to come and start, and he had opportunities but maybe he was distracted by the thought of winning the top scorer award and he didn’t do what he was supposed to do”.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.