Qatar 2022 World Cup-bound Costa Rica defeated the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-0 in an international friendly game in the early hours of Thursday morning.
This is the first time ever both Costa Rica and the Super Eagles will meet at senior level.
Goals in each half from Oscar Duarte and Kendall Waston, secured the win for Costa Rica.
Both goals were set up by former Arsenal forward Joel Campbell.
The Super Eagles coached by Salisu Yusuf paraded only home-based players for the friendly encounter played inside the Estadio Nacional de in San Jose.
Costa Rica got off to a good start as they broke the deadlock in the seventh minute through Duarte.
And in the 73rd minute Waston doubled their lead to help his team return to winning ways, after their last game which was also a friendly with South Korea in September ended 2-2.
While for the Super Eagles it is now a third consecutive defeats.
Up next for the Super Eagles is another friendly game against Portugal who will also feature at this year’s World Cup.
The game comes up on Thursday, 17 November at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
29 Comments
Verily verily, these home based boys played very well from what I saw. For long periods of time they were actually out-dribbling and out-passing the World Cup bound Costa Ricans. Finishing was their problem, but beleive me, the passing and movement of the Nigerian B Team was a beauty to behold. If you play well and lose, it is a lot easier to take and I was happy with what I saw. They wore numbers and not names but two names from the Spanish Commentators stood out for me Ogbonda and Okaka, but the whole team played pleasant football. Well done guys even though you lost.
GeorgeO
Salish Yusuf? Na was for Nigeria. With the CHAN Eagles he failed to qualify. With the U23 he has so far managed one draw and one win,his team failing to score goals from open play,3 goals all from dead balls(two penalties and one free kick goal).Now this defeat by Costa Rica. Yet the NFF under Gusau inherited and retained Yusuf from the out gone ,Pinnick regime. Is Salish Yusuf the only coach in Nigeria? Where is Stanley Eguma? Where is Fidelis Ilechukwu,etc. May God help us.
Take it easy man, it’s too early to start criticizing gusau!
Salisu Yusuf? Na waa for Nigeria!!! With the CHAN Eagles he failed to qualify. With the U23 he has so far managed one draw and one win,his team failing to score goals from open play,3 goals all from dead balls(two penalties and one free kick goal).Now this defeat by Costa Rica. Yet the NFF under Gusau inherited and retained Yusuf from the out gone ,Pinnick regime. Is Salish Yusuf the only coach in Nigeria? Where is Stanley Eguma? Where is Fidelis Ilechukwu,etc. May God help us.
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If am NFF chairman, I will first fix the league before we can use complete home base players to play friendly matches as super eagles B team. Secondly Nigeria suppose to use those players playing in Denmark League, Belgium, Turkey, Norway, coratia league, Sweden league and other non football countries Nigeria players play. When Brazil open Abuja stadium for us with 3:0, they use home base mix with foreign base stars. Everybody can see that our hoke base players can’t win ordinary Africa club side talkless of national team of another country. NFF be wise
The countries you mentioned leagues are active at the moment and are not backed by FIFA to release players not at this time.
Yusuf did well with the players available for the Costa Rica game.
I have said it many times Salusi is nothing to write home as a coach but because of politics, they will keep him there because he came from one important tribe! This can’t happen in good foitball developed country
Go and submit your coaching credentials if you better Yusuf. Those boys played well, even with the little time at there disposal. Please leave the man alone, you ask for player from certain league and they come and play rubbish
NIGERIA EYES WILL NEVER OPEN UNTILL YUSUF SALISU FINAL DESTROY NIGERIA FOOTBALL THEN UNA EYES GO OPEN
YUSUF THE MAN WHO WAS BAN BY TAKEN BRIBE FROM PLAYERS IS MANAGING YOUR NATIONAL TEAM BIG SHAME TO NIGERIA FOOTBALL
Who is surprised with the result? Using untested home based team to face a WC-bound team? Who advised such an ego-trip? Not to talk of a failed coach and a confirmed bribe taker. Yusuf Salisu should have been covering his face and hiding in a secluded corner.
And you think if they had met our professionals they would have beaten them, It is you that should be covering your face in shame because you don’t know how to read games, Costa rica didn’t play like a world cup bound team, they will surely collect. leave yusuf alone and go apply for his position if you know better
@Nonso
Let’s plan and execute to achieve results and not rely on excuses . . .”if they had met our professionals they would have beaten them”–wishful thinking. How do you know???
You’re merely attacking me for thinking differently: “you don’t know how to read games”. I’ve never claimed to be a coach . . . but let me tell you, I practise my chosen profession and achieve results.
Obviously from your comment, it tells me you didn’t watch the match, like i stated earlier with the chances that the home based lost, there professional players would have defeated costa rica, Please take your time and go watch the match. Would not be shocked if the costa rican’s demanded for the home based. Thank God you have profession that feeds you, so focus on that and stop faulting Yusuf
I was actually expecting a bigger goal margin from CRC. But from what I saw in
The match, our inability to convert our chances reared its ugly head again. It has become a serious issue no one is talking about.
I’ve never seen a team dominated by home based players, male or female, that is not wasteful in front of goal. We all saw what happened at FIFA u17 and u20 female world cup. The 2 teams would have easily reached the final but for their wastefulness in front of goal. Our clubs in CAF competitions didn’t dare better. The kind of goals Plateau United threw away in the first leg of their penultimate match put paid to their chances of advancing in CCL. We all saw the u23 team too. They wasted so many chances both in Tanzania and Nigeria in those two legged matches. Bayelsa Queen has brought this deficiency to the attention if the world again with their performance against MSD and Asfar of morroxxo. Wastage, Wastage, Wastage!
While the NFF is trying to fix the league, they should invest in our coaches as well. We are gradually normalizing mediocrity. Nigeria national teams losing these days is nothing to anyone again. We are so used to losing now that we are beginning to see victories as super bonus in international football. How we got here, only God knows.
In my opinion, the boys played really well. Their passes in the final third cost them the game. I know you all wanna come here and blame Yusuf….I don’t think that is right. For me, he did well and he should build on that. I mean, that Costa Rica team is Qatar-bound and those home-baded boys outplayed them.
Thank you @ola Yusuf remain one of our best local coches. I don’t know why they are blaming yusu the result was not bad the boy played verry well.
Although they lost, but their ball distribution was better than even the A Eagles. The
only problem is the finishing. If this set of boys are mixed with some of our good
foreign base strikers, goals will easily come by.
Thanks to those who saw the match live and brought the factual reports.
From the comments so far, most people here would rather see Yusuf fail than succeed as the coach of the SE team B, this hatred for the man can be seen from a tribal angle, an antecedent angle and from a losing angle….this is sad
Lets learn to appreciate the boys and the crew when they perform….they didn’t win but at least the they gave a good account of themselves away to a worldcup bound team despite the local league being inactive
@Adeniyi,you don’t get it .Nobody is saying they did not play well. At present ,Salish Yusuf has three portfolios in our national team. He is an Assistant Coach in the Super Eagles,Head Coach of Dream Team(Nigeria’s under-23 Olympic Team) and Head Coach of Super Eagles Team B. Things are not done that way in saner climes. Other coaches should be given a chance with our national teams. Despite Yisuf’s past unsavory antecedents, the NFF guys seem to stuck on him. This not about ethnicity. It is about patriotism. It is about Nigeria.
And who are the other coaches if we may ask, the ones you can’t afford to pay, please dish out names of those who can do better
@ Adeniyi, could you tell us the reason while the likes of Sepp Blatter, Isa Hayatu and Platini are no more by the football helms?
Paris 2024, Here We Come?
As a means of preparing for next year’s Under 23 assignments, I think this week’s friendly match against Costa Rica served a valuable purpose.
To be honest, I didn’t bother staying up to watch the match live because I had expected a massacre. But, based on the extended highlights that I have seen thus far, I now regret that decision.
The homebased Nigerian players should be lauded for putting up such a respectable performance against decent world cup bound team. Both of Costa Rica’s goals came directly or indirectly via set pieces which speaks to how resolute and robust the Super Eagles were in open play.
I guess the question is: what do I want from this sort of David and Goliath encounter?
– for the Super Eagles not to intimidated by the opponent.
– for Nigeria to generate edge-of-the-seat nail-biting moments.
– for Nigeria’s goalkeeper to produce breathtaking saves.
– for the players to execute thier plans professionally.
– for the match highlights to be re-watchable.
– and for a few Nigerian players to catch the eye.
The output produced by the under23 dominated Super yesterday ticked several right boxes despite the loss that was – in truth – inevitable.
I implore the NFF to continue taking such opportunities to help expose Salisu Yusuf and his homebases-cum-Under23 Super Eagles to high caliber oppositions: this match against Costa Rica wasn’t a waste of time at all.
Well done to Yusuf and his boys. Nigeria must participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics. High profile Friendlies like this one can only help the entire team acuminate their skills ahead of the task at hand.
After reading the comments I went to watch the highlights of the match. Those who’re saying the Home-based players passed and moved the ball better than the real SE are exaggerating.
The home-based players passed and moved the ball excellently in the center of the pitch, but could not execute this passing game into the final third of their opponent’s half or into the penalty box.
The job Iwobi in the center, Simon on the left, and Lookman on the right execute for the SE.
Instead, they played a good passing game in the first third of their opponent’s half and resorted to wild speculative shots outside the penalty area. Those saying they missed chances have no understanding of mathematical probabilities. Shots fired from 22-30 yards from the opponent’s goal have a low probability of staying on target let alone beating the goalkeeper unless the goalkeeper’s name is Uzoho or Okoye.
That final ball or pass that cuts open a defense and allows a striker to receive the ball in the opponent’s penalty area was missing. No crosses were executed, nor any setpiece strategy. Instead, it was their opponents that executed setpieces leading to the first goal from a freekick and arguably the second from a corner.
The real SE would have trashed this Nigerian side as they did Bissau. Their defending especially against setpieces was laughable, and there were a few wild tackles.
The refereeing was substandard as has become normal when the SE play friendlies in the opponent’s country. We should organize more friendlies at home. A major reason why we’re losing friendlies is the officiating. The Costa Rican first goal came from a dubious freekick.
Overall, Costa Rica were the more professional side and were at no time in danger of losing.
As to the coach, he showed nothing to convince me of his coaching acumen on tactical play, interplay passes or set-piece defending. Those trying to talk up the performance are as the English would say, “polishing a turd”.
Believe me, I watched the game from beginning to end. These boys played better than Super Eagles. Their problem was finishing. The Super Eagles also have problems with finishing. I was watching on Youtube from a Costa Rican presenter and the opinions by Costa Ricans questioned how badly their team was playing against a junior Nigerian team. I was just happy to see these boys play like the Super Eagles of the 1990s, they were dribbling the Costa Ricans from right, left and center. The only problem like I said was finishing and inability to thread the killer pass into the Costa Rican 18 yard box. Watching highlights is one thing, but if you had in mind the recent perfromances of Super Eagles before watching the match against a World Cup bound team, you will be happy although they lost. The match was a send-off for the Costa Ricans who celebrated with fireworks and pomp after the game ended.
There is no way I can blame the Coach based on what I saw yesterday and what I saw of the Super Eagles in Algeria. The Super eagles played like people who had inferiority complex, whereas, yesterday, the B Team played like people who wanted confirm that familiar fan song we used to sing in those about “teach them soccer”. Okay o, I have written enough, all I know is that I was happy to see the B Team outplay the Costa Ricans but happy also for Costa Rica to win as a send off. The second goal from the corner kick the Costa Rican #19 who seemed to be a giant compared to the shortish looking Nigerian players. I am sure that the boys will do well if they continue to develop.
I am Igbo in the USA who went to school in Jos and served in Ondo State in the late 80s, so my emphasis is not on the tribe of the Coach or players, but the quality of what I saw. I enjoyed the match is my parting words to you all. God bless.
GeorgeO
I need not say more, George…
Abeg go watch the game again, just pray that the main players beat Portugal on Thursday. Yes there were lapses and thats because the team was hurriedly assembled and they tried, wish we could go back to the days when we had both Team A and Team B, this guys really tried.
My take: Salisu Yusuf should concentrate on tinkering the current under-23 national team. He should be stripped of his position as Assistant Coach in the Super Eagles set up as well as relieved of his appointment as the Super Eagles Team B Head Coach. Other home-based coaches should be appointed in the above mentioned capacities by the new NFF Board.His teams don’t score goals in open play.Statistics do not lie. CHAN Eagles misadventure against Ghana(home and away) 1-1 with Tanzania away(penalty goal),2-0 with Tanzania at home(1 penalty goal and 1 freekick goal) Now this latest one: 0-2 loss to World Cup-bound Costa Rica. They play well but they fritter away begging goal scoring chances. Enough of these heartbreaks! Our Dream Team must qualify for Morocco 2003 Africa U23 Cup of Nations and Paris 2004 Olympics. This not about tribalism, please.
This present Costa Rican team sucks, i don’t think they will do well in the world cup this time around.
These Nigerian boys tried. The referee was judgmental as he refused to award a clear paneity in the first few minutes of the Game.
The Nigerian coach should work on the players wastefulness in front of the goal post. Costa Rica is always a hard nut to crack in this part of the World in football.