The Technical Adviser, Crown
FC of Ogbomosho, Lawrence Akpokona, has attributed the high number of goals scored so far at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil to team’s hunger to win.
Akpokona told newsmen in Lagos in an interview that, it was also an indication of the quality strikers paraded by the teams.
Over 136 goals were scored in the group stage as against 101 scored during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
As at June 29, 145 goals were scored in Brazil which were the entire goals scored in South Africa 2010.
James Rodriguez of Colombia leads the score chart with five goals while a host of other players have four goals.
Nigerian, Ahmed Musa, has two goals to his credit.
“ It goes to show that most teams are laying emphasis on attack, you can see that most teams attack with pace and power.
“Teams do not defend as much because they want to win and it is also an improvement in the teams attack lines.
“If you look at the highest goal scorer you’ll see it is five showing that there is a spread of goals in the competition.
“And not just strikers are having their names on the score sheet but defenders, which shows an improvement in team work as a whole,” he said.
Akpokona, who was a former assistant coach of the Super Eagles, also commented on the fact that for the first time in the history of the World Cup, two Africa countries made it to the round of 16.
“ This is good for development of football in Africa and I think the continent is just being unlucky not having three to four African teams in the round of 16.
“Cote d’voire narrowly missed moving to the next round from the group stage, Ghana also was unlucky.
“I think it is a general improvement in the quality of play in the continent and there is no other way you can see it
“ I hope both teams move on to the quarter-finals stage,” Akpokona said.
Nigeria and Algeria are the two countries that made history as the only two African teams to qualify to the round of 16.