Former Nigerian goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph says he’s optimistic the Home Based Super Eagles will turn around their two-goal deficit against Ghana in the return leg of the 2023 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN).
Two goals in the second half from the Ghanaians ensured that the home-based Super Eagles have a tall order in the return leg in Abuja on Saturday.
Though the game was cagey in the first half, the Ghanaians were the better side in the second half with Afrieye Barneh converting from the spot in the 50th minute and Seidu Suraj getting a second in the 87th minute to put the game past the Super Eagles.
However, Dosu in an interview with Completesports.com said that with the right mentality and approaches, the team will overcome Ghana.
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“It’s sad that the Home Based Super Eagles lost to their Ghanaian counterpart in the first leg. However, the coaching crew must watch some of the lapses in the team and find a way to fix things up in the second leg.
“I am very optimistic the Home Based Super Eagles will turn the table against Ghana and qualify for the CHAN tournament proper.”
Recall that Nigeria failed to qualify for the last edition of the competition hosted by Cameroon.
19 Comments
Empty hopes. People are beginning to be ashamed of NFF. Stinking visionless set up.
It’s obvious they are bound to fail again, Salisu Yussuf isn’t a coach talkless or good or not, he doesn’t know anything about coaching
is not a fault of a coach or player,ghana home base have been preparing like 7 months ago and friendly games too. the problem is lack of organization with NFF .
This Dosu of a thing is among the problem we have,is among the ppl willing to promote homebase eagles at all cost. These are the ppl that will still tell coach the kind of homebase players to select so far they are the players he wants to market.
We remember how you join force with others to humiliate rohr and clamoured for homebase in se even when it was obvious such players don’t fit into se.
Rather than you to blame the crooked systems that assemble these players without proper training you are here giving Nigerian false hope.
God is watching all of you.
Can you imagine! 2-0 not even 1-1 or 2-1 ha! This is so anoying.
Why won’t he be optimistic since it’s their own that is leading the team. Isn’t he the same man who criticised rohr at every slight opportunity by calling him mechanic coach? Optimistic kill him lunbbish
Truth should be told. Anything that has to do with Nigeria name should be stopped for now.
Nigeria as a country is not settled. People are dying unexpectedly every day.
Nigeria need a special prayer and action. These are the two solutions to Nigeria problems.
Hmmmm. Confusion every where.
Presidential election is underway and I don’t think Nigerians are ready for a change yet with what am seeing. I am very sorry for you Nigerians. It is well. God bless Nigeria!!!
Although Joseph Dosu is optimistic of Nigeria’s chances of overturning a 2 goals deficit against fierce rivals Ghana in next weekend’s second leg of the Chan qualifiers, the team is in reality skating on thin ice.
In football, anything is possible but success to the home based Super Eagles will just represent rewarding poor practice.
In the first leg of the encounter in Ghana, the Super Eagles held their own in the first round. They were disciplined at the back and resolute in midfield but clueless in the final third.
But Ghana were razor sharp in attack and could actually have taken the lead in the first 10 minutes. They cracked open Nigeria’s defensive wall to such extent that a 2:0 scoreline to Ghana represented a fair outcome for a well drilled outfit.
Nigeria were experimental. Salisu Yusuf used the match to figure out which system worked with which personnel. Under a more competent Football Administration, at least 3 quality friendly matches would have afforded Salisu Yusuf ample opportunity to experiment.
The homebased lads are not fantastic but they weren’t entirely jaded either. They played with a reasonable level of intensity and application but they were let down by haphazard and inadequate preparations.
The best I think they can hope for in the second leg is a face-saving draw. At best they will score 1 goal but expecting them to overcome 2 goals deficit might be stretch faith to breaking point.
The Ghanians have their offensive routines finetuned and well polished while Nigeria are still looking for the express road that leads to their opponents’ box 18.
It’s almost a mismatch: a well prepared Ghana vs a hastily assembled, coubled together Nigeria. And it boggles the mind why the NFF left it late to assemble the boys knowing fully well Ghana would have played a round of qualifiers before these encounters.
It’s almost like the NFF were deliberately planning the team for failure. Late preparations went unpunished in the Wafu Zone B U-17 and U-20 tournaments. Ghana are just about to show that senior level football is another kettle of fish entirely: at this level, thorough planning will always come up trumps.
But, we can only hope. Perhaps an early goal for Nigeria can set in motion a chain reaction for a most unlikely Nigeria comeback. Mind games, home advantage and lessons from the first leg could also have roles play. A Super Eagles player might just be possesed with a spirit from the gods of football in Nigeria.
It is not over until it is but on evidence of what transpired in the first leg, the homebased Super Eagles seem set to miss consecutive Chan tournaments.
And that will be a pity.
Nigeria has some shape about them with but physically not fit!! Ghanaian defensive is unbreakable! Very resolute! It isn’t over but anything can happen in Abuja!
I hope Nigeria doesn’t break the abuja stadium again!
Indeed. Nigeria did have shape in the first leg which actually ended up been a tale of 2 halves.
Salisu Yusuf’s flat 4-4-2 formation allowed Nigeria to dominate the midfield and also provided width for the fullback to overlap and attempt crosses which bore fruits in the way of corner kicks for Nigeria earlier on.
The Super Eagles were comfortable with the ball and held sway for the entire first half but changes in Ghanaian personnel and a tweak in their formation (with pep talk from the coach) ended up being the game changer.
Salisu did introduce some fresh legs for Nigeria but this failed to translate into fresh ideas as Ghana only looked more like adding to their lead – which they eventually did.
Ghanaian players justified the investment in their preparation with a compelling performance while Nigeria reaped the reward of poor preparations.
Still, Nigeria were decent at the back despite the 2 goals and also held firm in midfield. A more creative approach upfront might help save some face for Nigeria.
But will it be able to turn the tide?
Salisu must inhance Super Eagles Chan attacking performance, he must put striker who has a sensibility of box to box scorer so that he will finish the task with 3 goals or 4 goal.
Gerarahia u no sabi ball
Despite we didn’t prepare before the first leg, I strongly believe that we can equalize and push the match to extra time and probably win it, because if Nigeria score first pressure would be on Ghanaians side.
Let pray, with God Almighty it is possible.
Abeg mek una park well jare. Ghana sabi play ball pass Naija by far, that’s the bitter truth. Nigeria only defeats Ghana in underage competitions. Ghana Galaxies can still come to Abuja and trash Nigeria!
Hoping to get good results from coach Salisu is like taking dead horse to the river to drink. Bad luck leadership must perish like Sodom and Gomorrah before expecting positive results. Bloodthirsty government in Nigeria will collapse like the Wall of Jericho in Jesus Mighty Name.
The insistence on appointing Coaches who refuse to develop themselves is what is killing our National teams. The Delusion that our coaches up-to-par is killing us. All the national teams both Male and Female are suffering because of this. Improve the level of the coaches.
On what observation is Dosu’s optimism based? Are the CHAN Eagles not coached by a man who knows nothing about football except to take bribes?
I always tell my Nigeria friends that Ghanaians will always beat eagles. Even if Ghana brings primary 5 people.
We Ghanaians are still going win 2:0 against that small eagles … which can fly to one galaxie.
For Nigeria to qualify, it means we have to score either 2 unreplied goals to take the game to penalties or score 3 unreplied goals to scale through. This i believe seems impossible against a side like Ghana. The truth is, our domestic league is nothing, absolutely nothing to write home about. Rohr said it but he was chastised for speaking the truth. They failed to accept the bitter truth and find ways of improving our domestic league to make it compete with other leagues on the continent. Instead of finding a solution to the sorry situation, they rather shifted to fighting a man whose hands were clean and whose offence was speaking the truth. now, here we are again. Look out how dosu is speaking as if you’ll just carry the ball with your bare hands and begin to drop it in the opponent’s post but why wouldn’t he have such shallow stupid hopes? it is their own that is in charge and hence whatever he does won’t be bad. This is the result of failing to work. The Ghanian team had been assembled months before the date of chan qhalifiers were fixed and ours was just assembled few weeks to the qualifiers. How do u expect our team to perform when they didn’t do their home work properly? Later, they would resort to empty stupid hopes, optimism and prayers as if God will answer them. God never answers a lazy man’s prayers. You have to work for things to begin to happen. This is one problem we have in this country. We tend to use God to fill the space when we see that we have fcke…d up and expect miracles to happen in the long run. The days of Kanu nwankwo, okocha and keshi Experienced miracles bcs those guys really worked hard for their success and when things weren’t going their way, God rewarded their hard work and perseverance with miracles that surprised the world of football up to this day. The same does not happen nowadays bcs we have replaced hard work with wickedness, jealousy, nepotism and foolishness. The afforementioned are the same reason we won’t be at the world cup. We had the opportunity to right our wrongs. We had Qatar on our hands only if we had used our head and soft pedalled on the afforementioned vices. This would always be our story until we begin to do things the right way. Do not expect miracles when you have not done your home work properly!