Super Eagles had a recovery session at the Helnan Palestine Hotel on Sunday morning after their 3-2 win against Cameroon and ahead of Wednesday’s AFCON 2019 quarterfinal match against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, Completesports.com reports.
Players who didn’t play a part in the game had a light session, while those that took part spent time on the beach.
The players and the team’s backroom staff are expected to leave for Cairo after taking their lunch on Monday afternoon.
The Super Eagles defeated the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon 3-2 on Saturday at the Alexandria Stadium to book a place in the last eight.
South Africa on the other hand edged out hosts Egypt 1-0 to book a place in the quarterfinals.
The Super Eagles – Bafana Bafana clash at the Cairo International Stadium on Wednesday will kick off at 8pm Nigerian time.
By Adeboye Amosu (pix: by Ganiyu Yusuf) in Alexandria
11 Comments
Anyone that is able to reach Rohr, should pls bring this to him n the team as we prepare for the south African game. WINNING SECOND BALLS FROM START TO FINISH will kill off the South Africans.This is one area they have always thrive better against us, all d time they defeated us. Our players must have to be very quick off d mark. God bless Rohr n the team for making Nigerians proud n bring Nigerians together.
My take on this winning of Cameroon is about the rumors that there was a stampede in the Nigeria supporters club. They were hurriedly reselling their return flight ticket. What should we do with such people?
Hmmm! What a game on Saturday! The Eagles need no reminding that the job is half done. The subsequent games is going to be tougher, starting with South Africa who believes they have our no now.
This is where whatever preparation we are making now should go beyond tactics practiced on the field. A lot of what we need now is psychologist boost. Bora utilised it to massive effect for the 1998 world cup Eagles opener against Spain and we defeated them with the arsenal at Spain’s command then. What did he do? He anticipated that to give the players extra edge, he’ll have to do something extra-ordinary. So he employed a camera crew who went to the family homes of each player, interviewed their parents and siblings where all urged their wards to go all out. He played the master-stroke by showing the team the packaged film to the players before the Spanish game and it fired them on.
If the football house has been proactive i believe they could have done something like that or another dimension. Assembling the Greats of Nigeria football – the okallas, chukwus, odegbamis, odiyes, amiesimekas, okochas, kanus, 1994 to 2000 team etc. Send them as an official team to Egypt to spur the boys adrenaline up for subsequent games.
The boys need a 12th player, unseen hand, to propel them beyond their limit and innate and dormant ability. That’s the dose they need for the South African game to charge up their adrenaline.
All the same, i wish them luck and hope they’ll make a compact team against the subsequent opponents.
God bless Nigeria! God bless the Super Eagles!!.
Where have you been all my life? Loving it…..
Also, another thing the team and handlers should understand is that WHEN A TEAM MEMBER STRUGGLES, THE WHOLE TEAM STRUGGLES! Its as simple as that.
Lets take a cue from the Cuban Relay Teams of 70s to the 90s. They never had individual very good sprinters but when it comes the to relay, OMG! The big teams USA, Britain, etc had to go the extra mile to beat them. They were mostly between 1st to 3rd of any athletic competition. They were too good as a relay team.
So enough of show-boating, individualism. We should make it short and sharp. Receive and release as appropriate. What killed us in the Madagascar game was because; 1) we held on to the ball for too long; 2) non anticipation of a pass so the opponent who reads the game better counters it; 3) movement of our players off the ball was meager.
But one thing i can assure you is that South Africa’s game plan will be to curtain us through man-marking a la Madagascar and use fast counter attack strategies. Check the qualifier in Uyo for ease of reference.
More of this sort of analysis please. I am loving it!
I am really applauding you very seriously now. I mean…you’ve cracked it were its strongest.
The battle against SA will be won in the midfield. We can not afford a 3 man midfield with Iwobi just loitering around. Baxter is the master of defensive football. He won 2 league titles with Kaizer Chiefs with this defend and counter philosophy. He led the SA team through the qualifiers unbeaten and not conceding in open play through out.
Trust me…they’ve got a really hard-to-crack defence, a midfield that never stops fighting and can be dangerous on the counter. Their goal keepers are trained to launch counter attacks from right from the 6-yard box.
That era when we used to call SA our ‘wives’ is gone. We’ve played 5 matches against them in recent times and have struggled to beat them to no avail. We need to take them very seriously this time around.
The era of disrespecting our opponents because of our superiority complex is long gone…..we need to stay serious and more focused henceforth.
I think Rohr should surprise them by starting either oshimen or onyekuru, and chukweze. Then ighalo comes in, changing the formation to a 4-4-2
Hehehehe…..CSN coaches don come again…!
Modern day football has gone beyond FORMATION…we are now in the era of INFORMATION.
You play your 4-4-2, I play my my 4-4-2…then what next…???
very good of them
Iwobi Iwobi Iwobi, he needs to help etebo and Ndidi in neutralizing Furman and co in middle, Iwobi please track back win some tackles and do quick release to our wingers. We can’t be short one in the midfield against South Africa, every player must play their parts.if we can cut off supply to Tau South Africa is done. The team with best midfield will win on Wednesday.