Taiwo Awoniyi scored in the opening day fixture of the new Bundesliga season, as Union Berlin and Bayer Leverkusen settled for a 1-1 draw on Saturday, Completesports.com reports.
Awoniyi broke the deadlock in the seventh minute to put Union Berlin ahead.
But just five minutes after the Nigerian opener Leverkusen equalised through Moussa Diaby.
Also Read: FIFA: Okocha One Of The Most Electrifying Players In Football History
In the 63rd minute Awoniyi was replaced by Andreas Voglsammer after going down with suspected cramp.
Union Berlin’s next fixture is against KUPS in midweek in the newly introduced UEFA Europa Conference League.
By James Agberebi
20 Comments
Good start for Nigerian players.
Awoniyi deserve to be in the national team….he came through the ranks and he plays in a top5 league so what is delaying his call up?….big strong and skillful striker with alot of pace…..I think he will be useful to SE.
Be calming down. Who should he displace from the team gan gan?
Playing for the team does not necessarily mean someone must leave the team for him…..it’s a squad game….we need a big and competitive squad that would put everyone on their toes both in the national team and their club side…..The national team is not anybody’s property and it’s should be refreshed from time to time.
He can replace Paul onuachu in the team. He can also stand in for victor osimhen. He should have been ahead of victor if things had worked in his favour. But as far as football goes nothing is certain. Victor took his chance and is now the number one striker for the super eagles and deservedly so. But we need capable backups and taiwo awoniyi looks good for it.
Its been awhile since the super eagles had a striker who could score goals in the German league. I wish awoniyi all the best this season.
So because he scored today, he should be in the se? Who will he bench? How many strikers can we have in the se at a time? If you were coach, among osimhen, sodiq, mofen, simmy, etc, who will you call up?
I will call the one playing in a top5 leagues scoring and a constant starter in his club at the moment…..
@Akp… This is why some of us say to move forward we should throw past records for any player out the window and use the results for the now… but top 5 league playing status is for some and not all… period.
@jimmy I know what you mean and we will keep drumming the Top5 league talk until it is fully achieved…..it’s a possibility.
Jimmyoverthebar and the gang with all due respect to awoniyi whose talent and abilities aren’t in doubt, calling up every Tom, Dick and Harry without Respect for team chemistry is counterproductive… Which ball u say u even play sef??? You’re supposed to be correcting people when it comes to football matters… Same mentality is the bane of our local coaches
@Cuteprince… Team chemistry did not win us anything for almost 20years… 1994 to 2013… Keshi came and rejig and won, if regular players are not put on their toes… they soon become complacent and diminishing returns hits… Awoniyi is seasoned now… Very similar to Osimhen he is more suited to direct striking role than Iheanacho to me… Iheanacho is a support in mold, Awoniyi is a finisher… I won’t say drop Iheanacho but if Awoniyi continues in a rich vein of form… He should get his chance with Eagles. How does England do it with the avalanche of stars always available and likewise France… they employ form and current stats not peeping into what was achieved even yesterday for anyone… Salute.
Valid points bro… Big ups
Well said @Jimmyball I will always choose form over chemistry or physics.
@cute prince football super powers like Germany France England Portugal Itali with their stockpile of talent don’t complain of Tom dick and Harry….They even come down to our level and drag our talented players with us then who is Nigeria to be complaining of too much options???…. Nigeria is not even stocked enough to compete at the world stage and you are here complaining of too much options…..We need all the top quality players we can get…..we need at least 3 world class players in each wing to stand a chance at the world stage of football according to the present level of the game…..We are still lagging behind in terms of abundance of talented world class players….period
@Akp… Exactly my mind. That’s when a sound coach who knows how to filter players and use for optimum results comes handy. Look at Roberto Mancini with players who no one would call super stars… most were not even playing in Milan, Inter, Juve and their big clubs… just some bunch of ball hustlers and gritty hatchetmen… he restored Italy’s lost glory in one tournament beating the host in the final… now that’s a feat.
@AKP Valid points too bro
Ain’t complaining of too much talents as I believe in the more the merrier… But not sacrificing chemistry,cohesion and bond…. I do fancy Awoniyi even as a better option to Paulo… I just pray he regains that form that made Liverpool sign him
I hope these guys keep this momentum leading up to the nations cup and Worldcup
Its to early to complain of Awoyini he should be consistent first before all this agitation for his call up
@Gowetok… I agree with you. We already have proven scorers, Osimhen, Iheanacho on his good day, Paul Onuachu with some good fortune… Simmy… quiet but effective, even Sadiq… these are good times… In as much as we want chemistry, the team has to be refreshed from time to time those on undeniable form… It will keep all on their toes and striving harder… We are turning the ridge into a world cup year… What we will watch out in the likes of Moffi and Awoniyi this season is fitn conistency… I wish them all luck. I dont think any coach will envy Rohr’s position right now with a huge dilemma from being spoilt for choices… Lol.
Lets not forget the combination of iheanacho and awoniyi during the u-17 and isaac success was also part of that team. Some may say that is youth football but from there you can see the style of play or formation that best suits these players. I agree with @Jimmy in that awoniyi is similar to osimhen although I see Victor as slightly ahead of him in terms of goal scoring, speed and overall play. But if he can bring his club form back to the super eagles we wont be afraid whenever Victor isn’t available or he is substituted. We do have alot of attacking players. The likes of sadia umar and awoniyi haven’t played for the super eagles but they have played for the youth teams.
Lets wait and see what happens when they are invited, how they handle themselves. But I want to say, if I have to choose four attackers/strikers for the super eagles team, I will choose: Victor Osimhen, iheanacho kelechi, sadiq umar and taiwo awoniyi.
Paul onuachu for me isnt as consistent as we would want for the super eagles and moffi is still coming up. Players like dennis will be considered for as a winger and would compete with the likes of chukwueze, musa, simon, kalu and others for a spot. There is still room for improvement in the midfield, but players like etebo and onyeka have improved their chances of being selected in that position. Any player coming to play in that position has to bring something special to the team.
Full back position is well covered with one preferred change, calvin bassey should replace collins jamilu (that is if c. Bassey wants to play for Nigeria). We still need more central defenders, preferably one with a left foot. Balogun is active but he is getting slower. Right now our best central defensive pairing should be akpoguma and ekong.
The goal keeping department is between uzoho and okoye.
Right now based on current form I would say our starting eleven should look like this:
OKOYE
AKPOGUMA. EKONG. LEON. CALVIN.
NDIDI.
ONYEKA. ETEBO.
ARIBO. DENNIS.
OSIMHEN.