Completesports.com’s ADEBOYE AMOSU appraises the performance of Flying Eagles’ players in their 2-0 loss to the United States of America in their second Group D match of the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland.
OLAWALE OREMADE 5/10
Conceded for the first time in the competition. Didn’t look inspiring like in the first game against Qatar.
RABIU MOHAMMED 5/10
Had a torrid time coping with the pace and trickery of Timothy Weah who outshone him in the game. He was however unlucky not to score for the Flying Eagles late in the game when his overhead kick was tipped over by the USA goalkeeper.
VALENTINE OZORNWAFOR 5/10
Had a torrid evening coping with USA forwards; Sebastian Soto and Alex Mendez. The Enyimba centre-back was no where near his best in the game.
ALIU SALAWUDEEN 5/10
Never hit the standard he set in the Flying Eagles’ first game against Qatar. He was all over the place like his central defensive partner Valentine Ozornwafor whenever the Americans move forward.
IKOUWEN UTIN 5/10
A disappointing performance from the skipper. Lacked when attacking and looked suspect defensively.
JAMILU MOHAMMED 5/10
Struggled to assert himself on the Flying Eagles’ game and didn’t offer enough protection to the back four.
TOM-DELE BASHIRU 3/10
Hauled off after 31 minutes, the Manchester City youngster put up a poor showing in the game.
KINGSLEY MICHAEL 5/10l
He was anonymous all through the time he spent on the pitch. He was replaced by Success Makanjuola in the second half.
MAXWELL EFFIOM 5/10
Toiled hard to impress in the game. His well taken shot hit the upright late in the first half.
OKECHUKWU OFFIA 5/10
Not really at his best for the Flying Eagles in the game. Had the sight of goal a couple of times but failed to find the back of the net.
JEROME ADAMS 5/10
Largely ineffective before his substitution for Tijani Muhammed after the break.
SUBSTITUTES
ANIEKEME OKON 5/10
Took the place of the largely ineffective Tom Dele-Bashiru in the first half and failed to make much impact in the game.
TIJANI MUHAMMED 4/10
Still yet to impress in the competition. Lacked pace and power to trouble opposing defenders.
SUCCESS MAKANJUOLA 5 / 10
Looked lively when he came on but could not do mucj to salvage the game for the Flying Eagles
20 Comments
The side looks so disjointed.
They lack basic football tactics.
We are stuck with them..lol, hopefully they get a good result in the last match
My grouse with this team is that their average age can’t be less than 27 years. The coach that select them is doing more harm to Nigeria football. SHAME
@Glory
I understand your strong belief on these boys,trust me I want to share same .
But what you don’t have,you don’t have.no matter how you try to force it.
Honestly,these boys have been let down by their coach.and only few of them are really good.they really don’t have it…
I don’t believe they played a defensive game against the USA.
They started with a 4-3-3 .
And that can’t be defensive..
The US team was just simply better on the night..
Faster.hungrier.and better tactically as well..
Our defense was all over the place.
The captain is one that should be converted to a forward player,cause he has no defensive quality.he was beaten time after time. I saw the same flaws with him at the last Chan.as well as the first matcb against Qatar.the Qatari just failed to take their chance.
The right back is good,but sometimes forgets his position.he was given a torrid time by Weah.He can improve.
For the CB..I think only Valentine can cut it.he is one that has a lot of potential.one that can improve with good coaching.but his partner; can’t even read the game.
Beaten time after time with through pass against the Qataris,and you can see the second goal against the US.
And to the midfield.
They can play..
I think the midfielders have favourable potential to become better with the right attitude,good coaching .
Okon, Dele, Michael, Success.are good players.they just need to work harder.and a good coach.
The attack..wow!
Nothing to write home about.
Adams.please..reminds me of Makinwa!all over the place..
Tijani..I just don’t understand.
And the two wingers..what the hell!
They don’t have the speed.no skill.no crosses..how are they wingers??
But well,at least they go back to help the defense?yeah right..
then I think they need they need to rethink their positions and make some personal changes..
What it is, is what it is…
Let’s just enjoy this competition.
If they go on and surprise us.fine..we get to praise them.
If they don’t.fine..we get to criticize them.
That’s why we are fans.after all,they aren’t playing for themselves.they are wearing our colours.so they should represent it with their best..they are the lucky few to have that honour..
We can only wish them well.and keep watching…
Yeah @ Hush some of those players are not good enough but this is where we are, So knowing this, losing a game shouldn’t be a surprise. All I m saying is they should throw everything into playing attacking football not fearing to lose.
Complete Sports stop destroying our football by rating them with the terms like he had a bad day. This boys from Goalkeeper to left back and jerome akor are just fake footballers. Single out players like Okon and Success due to their performance so that Nigerians will know the truth. I hate all this Godfatherism and favorism journalist.
The young shall grow. Cut these teenagers some slack. They will grow and learn from this experience.
Many of them like the young goalkeeper Oremade will be around for decades to come.
Hahahahahahahaha. Savage sarcasm! Laugh wan tear my belle. 🙂
lol!! hahaha. O’boy you are just hilarious.
I maintain my assessment of the team. They are a bunch of very talented players. The COACH,just like Rohr did at d last World Cup got it wrong by coming into d game with a defensive mindset. This, I repeat this I m sounding loud n clear for all national teams managers to know,nigeria players never do well going into games with a defensive mindset. We have always n will always struggle. By nature d Nigerian spirit loves to show off, the Nigerian spirit is full of dynamism n never Conservative. National teams always shows off a people’s attitude to life. The Germans, English, etc can do well with defensive approach but definitely not Nigeria, Brazil. Argentina etc. ROHR n DENNEBY BEWARE OR WE ARE Definitely GONNA SEE A REPEAT OF YESTERDAY’S PERFORMANCE AT AFCON n WOMEN’S WORLD CUP.
True I’m totally against defensive football.
Man, I hv keenly observe all our national teams from over the years, we never do well playing defensive football as our players don’t see a need to win that very important second ball n that’s only natural.Because why fight to win second ball when you may have been told to stay in your half n play to defend. But what these coaches ignore is the fact that as a people we are one of d most disorganised society in d world n in this we thrive. This then runs contrary to Playing defensive football where discipline n organisation holds the key, reason countries like Germany, England etc can thrive in defensive football. But on the otherside of things, when we look back to almost all of our best moments in football, we were an all attacking team. using our disorganisation to positively disorganise teams no matter who they happen to be.Its no brainer we came back from 4 goals down against USSR, no brainer we came back from verge of defeat to beat a super star studded Brazil at d Olympics. The style of continuous attacking scares the hell out of our opponents n sooner or later they give in. Yes we might not have won all d time but on those times we lost, we did with our heads held high. Losing gallantly is far better than trying to win, so pathetically like pregnant women, which on majority of time we still don’t get the win.
The coaches decision to play defensive football was what informed the decision to take off Tom Dele, as Tom isn’t a defensive minded player.
And was his replacement (okon) too a defensive player…? NO.
The coach didnt play defensive football…he had no reason to. we were simply out-coached and out-ran by a better team. QED
You reminded me of a chat my colleague sent me on whatsapp “Sam America wan kill us o” then I rushed to the Internet to stream the game I was like oops not this again. Lol I wish there was an optin to add photo on this forum. The chat will make alot of laughs.
@ Drey yeah Okon might not be a defensive player but probably d coach haven made up his mind to play for a draw by been defensive decided to bring in a player with a bit more defensive quality n energy n also one that could still attack when there comes an opportunity to do so. My point is defensive approach never n will never work for any Nigerian team. We can never be like d Germans or any other countries that play that way. We should always play our all attacking brand of football. We should now start to understand that this how we play n try to perfect it.
I totally disagree with you here Glory. This team though talented are seriously technically and tactically deficient. And no they didn’t play defensive football, they were forced to play defensively by the USA. You can only attack when you have the ball and especially in the first half they were chasing rather than having possession of the ball. I pointed this out even after they beat Qatar, Chima can attest to this, their deficiencies were exposed even in that game only that Qatar equally didn’t have the know-how to exploit them. Well the USA is another level just like Senegal, Uruguay, France, Portugal etc. We just physically bullied Qatar which we will not be able to do with most teams in this tournament. Comparing them to the Super Eagles is totally wrong. While Aigbogun went and scouted technically deficient players, check out the players that we have in the Super Eagles, Onyekuru, Osimhen, Chukwueze, Mikel, Ndidi, Troost-Ekong, etc. We constantly make the mistake of comparing the World Cup with the AFCON. At the World Cup were not outplayed this way. I have watched our game against Argentina up to 4 times and can clearly say we were just unlucky. We were very organised and methodical in our play hence Uzoho didn’t have much to do in the game. If Ighalo had converted that chance and Moses not switched off we would having been talking about this differently. Now compare to what happened yesterday where they were totally outplayed. In Africa we have played the best teams since Rohr, including Senegal and except for the home loss to South Africa, we have been unbeaten since 2016. This is not a fluke. In the last game against Egypt you can clearly see the organisation of the team. Our best chance of silverware this year is the AFCON. The current Super Eagles would be very difficult for any African team to beat. As for the Falcon’s Dennerby has also brought some organisation to their play but unlike the AFCON we are going to meet teams of the highest quality in France and Norway but getting out of the Group would be an achievement.
@ Adisboy, I get your point wt regards to some SE games. But in those games we played our attacking brand of football. This is what I m saying, that every time we play like that we perform. But d moment we resort to defensive football we start to play ourselves into a defeat. This flying eagles team is made up very good players n like I said earlier they came into d party with that mindset not to lose instead of coming with d believe they can win and that translated into playing defensive. In playing defensive, winning that very important second ball is never a priority because the organisation is there to neutralise any threat. But we always lack that organisation n decipline to play that way.
These ratings dont justify how they perform…the GK made some smart saves, blame the defenders for a poor outing, there is nothing the GK could do to save those goals. i will still give him a 5 though, Utin had a bad day he is a 3, Valentine is a 4, bad day for him. Kingley Michael – 4, Tom-Bashir – 3, SalahudeeN, Rabiu and Mohammed all 3. I really wish i could enter the field and give Effiom and Offia knocks, they failed to lift the team with their capabilities, a 4 for them. Okon and Makanjuola brought the needed spirit into the team…it was just too late. I dont know that that Adams guy is doing in the team……The coach ehn….make i no just talk.
Adams inclusion as a No9 for that matter is the biggest madness I have ever witnessed in Nigeria football. The boy is as slow as a snail and can not complete a pass or even kick the ball Jesus how much did he pay. His scary loOKs is the only thing I noticed. My brother that guy is not a player and has nothing to do with football. Qatar was inexperienced that was why we won and a lot of power play made some bad players shine. Utin made two assist but he can never be a lb for SE if naija tris that we will concede goals but I know the guy has serious Godfathers in the team so anything can happen.
I said it after the first match against Qatar that these Nigeria team will fall if they meet a good opposition. They can still qualify through back door among 4 best losers. That’s where they belong. The coach is not good enough.