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AFCON 2023: Uzoho Favoured To Start In Goal For Super Eagles Vs Equatorial Guinea

AFCON 2023: Uzoho Favoured To Start In Goal For Super Eagles Vs Equatorial Guinea

Francis Uzoho is expected to start in goal when the Super Eagles confront the Nzalang Nacional of Equatorial Guinea in their opening fixture at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Uzoho has been widely criticised for his poor displays in recent outings for the Super Eagles.

Head coach Jose Peseiro has drafted in Chippa United goalie, Stanley Nwabili to contest for the number one position.

Read Also:AFCON 2023: Côte d’Ivoire Star Haller Out Of Opening Game Against Guinea-Bissau

Enyimba’s Olorunleke Ojo is the other goalkeeper contesting for the number one position.

Uzoho has however performed better than the duo in training, according to camp sources.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Omonia Nicosia of Cyrus shot stopper will be in goal for the Super Eagles against Juan Micha’s men.

The Super Eagles will face Equatorial Guinea at the Alassanne Quattara Stadium, Ebimpe, Abidjan on Sunday.

By Adeboye Amosu in Abidjan

Got what it Takes?

Predict and Win Millions Now

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 30
  • Sportradio88.0 fm 10 months ago

    No prob. We no he will concede a goal mixamum let the forward scored 3 goals in reply. Lol

  • Why bring in goalkeepers that the calamitous Uzoho is better than? What a waste of 2 spots in that department. There are goalkeepers that are a million times better than Uzoho that should have been brought in so Uzoho can compete for the no 1 spot instead it’s the opposite. Uzoho is so relaxed because he knows already he is better than goalkeepers in camp so he can’t be bothered. Which way Our leaders? Which way NFF? Which way Jose Peseiro?

    • Chima E Samuels 10 months ago

      Stanley Nwabili was another hype by Nigerians who don’t anything about football if not for Betting. LMAO Stanley this Stanley that. As for Leke he was never good but him get connection that is why he is making the team as escort.

      • I think Stanley Nwabili is a decent deputy to Uzoho. We are going to the Afcon with decent goalkeepers. Nwabili has been around the block in continental football. Uzoho has world cup and Afcon experience whilst Olorunleke can hold his own at the highest level.

        This Afcon should be fabulous for Nigeria because we should reach at least the quarter final.

    • Michael Olaleye 10 months ago

      I agree with you. But Peserio should know now that there’s no more excuses for however he performed in the Nations Cup. We are Nigeria and we a big footballing nation.

  • Dr. Drey 10 months ago

    “….There are goalkeepers that are a million times better than Uzoho that should have been brought in so Uzoho can compete for the no 1 spot…”
    .
    .
    .

    Pls can you kindly name them…? I will really appreciate if you can.

    Afelokhai was the name on y’all’s lips until he swallow 4 vs Togo homebased.

    Adeleye used to be the messiah on everybody’s lips….kpufff….we all saw he was nothing but a flash in the pan in international colours vs Algeria homebased and vs Sierra Leone

    Then came the cry for Nwabali…..kpuff…. boy conceded from a GK blunder in his very first cap for the main eagles after swallowing 4 vs Mexico with the homebased eagles.

    Akpeyi was a bad keeper
    Exenwa was a bad keeper
    Okoye is a bad keeper
    Uzoho too is a bad keeper.

    Like I’ll always say…..Something must be wrong somewhere.

    Everybody cannot just be bad and still command shirts and get paid salaries everymonth in their various clubs.

    Maybe it’s the fans who label these guys bad who are actually BAD FANS.

    Enyeama was not made overnight…..I repeat….Enyeama was not made overnight.
    Our search for an overnight enyeama is the reason every GK that turns out of for the sE is bad.

    • Footballfanatic 10 months ago

      Uzoho has been national team GK since 2018 but to you he is still learning? Our best GK is a bench warmer in Cyprus lmaoo….You must be a mad man…..

      • Hi Dr Drey,

        In truth, height will be Adeleye’s hindrance in the Super Eagles. He is good but most Super Eagles coaches prefer tall goalkeepers.

        Okoye is a Nigeria international. I think he want to gain foothold in club football before shifting his attention to the Super Eagles. This is paying off for him as he has started accumulating game time in Italy.

        For me, why have we struggled in the goalkeeping department? I think it is because we haven’t paid much attention to very many decent homebased goalkeepers and those playing in lower leagues.

        Uzoho has been handed several lifelines. He now has to grab the bull by the horn with the opportunity afforted him if retained as number one tomorrow.

      • Dr. Drey 10 months ago

        Pele o.

        I guess Uzoho has amassed 100 caps in the 6 years he’s been in the SE to become an experienced Enyeama with 100 caps….LMAOoo.

        How did y’all treat the other GKs in the team before we had to settle for a “bench warmer” in Cyprus as our best.

        Did his bench warming status in Cyprus stop him from posting a MOTM performance at Old Trafford in an Europa league game…?

        Has his bench warming status in Cyprus stopped in from posting MOTM performances in his last two league games b4 leaving for the AFCON camp….??

        Maybe your brain was in coma when eyeama was posting blunder after blunder in SE shirt for 4 years, where the likes of Sam Okoye and Chijioke Ejiogu were winning GK of the season ahead of him in the NPFL….yet he was allowed to mature to becoming the greatest African GkOAT.

        Shebi they’ve brought in your messiah who are 1st team players from Isreal and South Africa….how market….LMAOoo….they’ve not even played 10% the number of international games Uzoho has played they’re already committing GK blunders….LMAOoo.

        You must be a mentally deranged man.

      • KENNETH 10 months ago

        When you know he is a mad man, you should just have ignored him. Mr know it all will never give in. He is afraid to support his PE teacher. Coming here spilling nonsense. telling us their is no one better than Uzoho in Nigeria. Not even in Nigerian league you will still see capable players on the street of Nigeria better than Uzoho. Please let us stop this hype about he just had 3 clean sheets. How many of you even watched any of his games

        • Dr. Drey 10 months ago

          Okoponu ashiere omo.

          Oya name the better goalkeepers in Nigerian league na….LMAOoo.

          Opuro aye ati Orun…LMAOoo

          Shebi you have watched the millions of goalkeepers playing against quality opposition and quality strikers and you have see they are better than Uzoho….LMAOoo

          Better goalkeepers that cannot save their teams from being dumped out of CAF competitions in first round….LMAOoo

          Abi your NPFL clubs participating in CAF competitions are so blind they can’t see these millions of goalkeepers on the streets and sign them to help them prosecute their continent campaigns season after season…
          LMAOoo .

          Okponu abugije.

          Eranko lasan lasan.

    • Golden Child 10 months ago

      Whilst fans can be impatient but why is the case different for Enyeama? It is the same fans. How come that they were patient with Enyeama but have not been patient with these goal keepers? The answer is simple Enyeama was consistent and dependable. Despite his short stint in goal, Carl Ikeme was loved by the fans. To be fair, Uzoho is decent but has been inactive and his performances in recent time is sufficient enough for fans to criticise him. This is the nature of fans, particularly fans whose team’s has been used to success. The problem can not be the fans.

      • Dr. Drey 10 months ago

        Hahahaha….and where did you get your fallacy that fans were patient with enyeama back then…LMAOoo.

        Go and look for local newspapers circa 2003 to 2006, flip to the back pages and the sports editorials and see what the media wrote about Vincent back then.

        Why do you think Berti Vogts first job as SE coach was dropping Enyeama…LMAOoo….if he was so fantabulous back then…LMAOoo

        I have severally chronicled many matches…both club and international back then where Enyeama cost us….particularly the 2006 World cup qualifiers.

        Enyeama has the likes of Chairman Chukwu (the then coach) and Dr Ikpeme (the then NFF technical director) to thank for the role they both played in keeping his place in the SE then….with the embarrassemt of GKs like Ejiogu, Okoye, John Gaadi who were doing fantastically well both in the league and on the continent.

        Austin Ejide who was his deputy already played in Tunisia (and later France) b4 Enyeama even made it out of the NPFL…no thanks to his inconsistencies back then. He was at Bolton Wanderers on trails for 3 weeks sometime in 2003 or 2004 and they wouldn’t even sign him as their third choice Gk.

        Who do you want to bamboozle with fallacies….LMAOoo.

        How can 6 professional GKs keep goal for the national team in 6 years and all of them will be BAD simply because it is the nature of fans to criticize…..Those fans must need serious mental assessment.

        Till today the highest number of caps any of our GKs since enyeama have amassed so far is a mere 30 caps. Yet they should keep goal like 2013 Enyeama who was close to his 80th cap back then….LMAOoo

        Yall must be joking.

        You guys should not worry ehn….an Enyeama will drop down from heaven for y’all someday….LMAOoo

        Stanley Nwabili this….Stanley nwabali that….boy marked his debut with a blunder….LMAOoo. I observed how y’all danced around that fact and turned your attention elsewhere since monday and I couldn’t help but laugh.

        I am really seriously hoping Peserio does not play Uzoho at all at this AFCON…..let your 1 million GKs who are better than Uzoho play and let see the Enyeama they are in least than 30 caps…LMAOoo

        • Footballfanatic 10 months ago

          Nah Uzoho will be first choice and will still commit blunders lol……….Let’s see what ur excuse will be

  • Chima E Samuels 10 months ago

    Amas Obasogie and Rasheed would have given Uzoho a good run. But let us support Uzoho for now…

    • Footballfanatic 10 months ago

      Shit we don’t have a choice lol the two other gks are not any better..

    • Absolutely @ Chima. Some people can’t really see true talent. That boy Rasheed, Okonkwo and Obasogie have it in them to solve our goalkeeping problem. Greed on the part of those running our football and football agents are preventing proper talents from representing us.

  • Amas Obasogie and Rasheedat will have their time, Chima.

    This is Uzoho’s time to shine. He was unfortunate to lose his slot to Daniel Akpeyi in 2019 Afcon and to Maduka Okoye in the 2021 edition.

    Nothing should stop him now. If he should lose his spot to Nwabili, it will be a hat-trick of Afcons that Uzoho lost his starting slot – something that will be unprecedented for any goalkeeper in Nigerian history.

    But Uzoho is a goalkeeper experiencing rebirth. He just singlehandedly masterminded 3 wins out of the last 4 league games in the modest Cyprus league. The 2018 World Cup goalkeeper also just 2 goals in Afcon qualifiers which constituted to Nigeria’s impressive +18 goals difference in the qualifiers.

    Uzoho has the height of a quality goalkeeper. His punching, parrying, diving and distribution skills are top notch. But starting position, decision making, loss of concentration and inability to deal with long range effort have plagued him.

    Still, no goalkeeper in international football is not without shortcomings. Uzoho does have redeeming qualities. He is by far the most travelled and most experienced goalkeeper in camp. He is chopping at the bits to prove doubters wrong and he has it in him to emerge as the best goalkeeper in the tournament if he elevates his level of concentration.

    In Uzoho we trust.

  • Coache 10 months ago

    Alex Ferguson used to say a good goal keeper will give you 10 points in a.season.

    I was A GREAT critic of Enyeama those days but against CIV IN 2013, he made 2 or 3 great saves in the quarter finals against Drogba. We went on to win the cup that year. This one that all teams know the weakness of Uzoho team plus a wayward defence, the cup is far from us. A ferocious shot from outside the 18 yards and 200million people have to go to bed sad.

    • chuks haifa 10 months ago

      “A ferocious shot from outside the 18 yards and 200million people have to go to bed sad”….That’s a word for the wise. You can’t tell me that out of 200 million people, we can’t find a better goalkeeper than Uzoho. Hopefully a new coach that is not compromised will do the right thing.

  • This man coached this team for over two years and Uzoho is still all he could have? That’s really terrible!

  • So Uzoho is still our number 1? What is the point of looking around for a replacement goal keeper by Paseiro? Anyways,we should be ready to bring back basket of goals to Nigeria after the group stage. Ire o!

  • Papafem 10 months ago

    I know Uzoho has his deficiencies, but truth be told; no player in that camp is good enough to displace him.

    I also notice that many of us on this platform rate players based on what the agent of the players are pushing into the media space through their proxies or what the players are saying themselves. I read some people here saying Rasheed is better Uzoho. Like seriously? How many of you suggesting Rasheed has watched him play? Some of us don’t even know what the Swedish league is called, not to mention knowing the colour of Rasheed’s club jersey, but they suddenly want Peseiro to do away with Uzoho and start their darling keeper in goal against CIV. Funny people. Even this Nwabili is still largely untested in international football, so he can’t be a straight-off replacement of Uzoho.

    I have the feeling that Uzoho knows he has a point to prove. This is about the last chance for him to make it right, having recieved serious flaks and cutting condemnation in the past few months for his purported mistakes in that shirt. I know he’s highly motivated to win back the confidence of disgruntled fans, otherwise, his career is over in the national team. Baba knows this, and such a player, from psychology point of view is better suited for this kind of assignment than any other keeper in that team.

    Again, there’s a neutral trainer in camp, Peseiro’s new goalkeeper trainer, who with an unbiased mind, must have seen all goalkeepers in training. If he prefers Uzoho, who are we to say no?

    Let’s just find a way of enjoying this tournament and leave the gate for Musa. Otherwise, we will end up with Cardiac arrest even before the first ball is kicked.

    • Golden Child 10 months ago

      @Papafem, I think we are being unfair to some of these new goal keepers. How many opportunities is given to them? Nwabali kept in goal against more difficult opposition and we are already assuming he is better. Mind you, he will not get any other opportunities. There was Sebastian osigwe, how many opportunities did they give him?

      In opinion, the only 2 gks who have been given opportunities are uzoho and madukA.

      How many opportunities did Adeleye get? If my memory serves me right, he only played 1 half in friendly game and 1 forced opportunity when Uzoho was ruled out in a qualifier. Rohr at least tried by scouting Uzoho and Maduka, this coach does not seem interested . I am not particular
      On any goal keeper, what I find unacceptable is the fact that we not actively trying to improve that position.

      Make no mistake, I do not think he is interested in any other goal keeper. Adeleye has been inactive and there has been uproar from even the ministry against Uzoho, hence the face saving trip to SA for Nwabali. He put in Uzoho in a game that was easy, with more established players then throws Nwabali into the lion’s den so he can continue with the narrative that Uzoho is the best option.

      In my opinion, he has not done enough. Also, Peseiro is not the only complicit in this, the NFF technical committee is also culpable. In saner climes where performance is measured, how is Eguavoen and co still in charge? Since Ikeme, they are yet to produce a goal keeper of any repute.Since mikel, they are yet to produce any midfielder of any repute, yet these are 2 positions we have struggled with for years. Technical bereft committee jam technically bereft manager, the result will be a calamitous ending.

      Watch the space , when they fail in Ivory Coast, they will start calling for home-based players and local coach. It is just one repetitive unending iteration of failure.

  • How can someone who claimed to be a sport aficionado be making case for a nos one choice gk that had less than 5 game between April and December 2023, when we have a gk rated as the 2nd best in the Swedish league is baffling.

    I am surprised about his doubles standard if he can justify the inclusion of a captain who only played one club game since Sept 2023. Yet he talks about inviting players from top 5 league as yardstick for invite.

    • Dr. Drey 10 months ago

      Pls show us the link to the information that the 2nd best GK in the Swedish league is a Nigerian.

      Please how many of this 2nd best GK’s games have you watches from April to December too…?

      Going by the logic of your comment, Ojo Olorunleke should just be handed a starting shirt tomorrow. No need getting the verdict of the neutral GK trainer whose job it is to assess and afirm which of the 3 Gks is best.

      Afterall, Ojo is even better than Liverpool’s Kelleher since he has played more games than him since April to December 2023.

  • The answer to your first question
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Allsvenskan#

    The answer to your second question

    I have watched couple of his game to know that he was the first choice gk for his club, he helped his club to the fifth position in the Swedish league and was rated 2nd best gk in the league.

    And for the rest of the other questions, I didn’t understand your point. All I know is that we cannot have a third choice gk manning our post. Just like you tag nwakali inclusion in 2021 Afcon as “SMUGGLING through back door” I also say no to bench warmer inclusion into SE.

    • Footballfanatic 10 months ago

      Can you Imagine only a weird person that doesn’t want to seem wrong will rate a Cyprus league bench warmer better than the second-best goalkeeper in the Swedish league….and I am not saying Rasheed will be an instant hit but if we had a goalkeeping crisis, then why didn’t this coach invite him to even test him out.. No top footballing country will continue to field an error prone gk who cost us a wc slot, and has fumbled like 4 times lol. This is the same guy that supports Musa who I’m not sure has played 4 games this season. This is double standards that even a blind man can see.


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