Super Eagles goalkeeper, Francis Uzoho says he will take responsibility of the team’s inability not to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Recall that it was Uzoho’s error that gave the Black Stars of Ghana their only goal at the Moshood Abiola Stadium last week which denied Nigeria a place in Qatar in November.
In his official Instagram handle, Uzoho blamed himself for the Super Eagles not qualifying for the mundial and has vowed to atone for his error in subsequent matches.
The goalkeeper promised to make sure he returns the smiles on the faces of Nigerian supporters.
Also Read: UCL: Hazard Out Of Real Madrid Squad To Face Chelsea
“This past couple of days has been the worst in my lifetime.
“I wanted to take my nation to Qatar but rather did the opposite. I know what football means to you all and to myself, I can’t promise not to make mistakes again but I can promise not to give up until I bring back that smile on your faces.
“Thank you for the support and God bless.”
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COMMENTS
Stupid idiot. May thunder strike you down .
So if Thunder strikes this guy and he dies what would be your gain, ??? Evil man, masquerading as a football fan.
Do not curse me please! Thunder will not strike him down in Jesus name. I lost one of my beloved friends because of his error. He was on oxygen for couple of days before he passed away. Just tell Mr. Uzoho to concentrate on his club career and don’t come near our super eagle anymore. This is not primary school games.
Uzoho you tried.since the all-knowing Oliseh made Enyeama to leave the team and the NFF did not intervene due to tribalism,we have been having goalkeeping disasters like you leading to our exiting every competition.carry on.conscience is an open wound and only truth(repeat truth)can heal it.Akpeyi,okoye and now you.Thankyou oh you hear?All our editors,journalists and the southwestern dominated sportswriters never saw the need to write against what oliseh did because enyeama is from a minority tube.Now enjoy
It is the same tribalism that made the glasswearing man in the glasshouse to remove a target-meeting coach and put his Edo/Delta brother despite outcry against this from patriotic people and now see the result.No country ever does well with tribalism
And same tribalism linking Oliseh to the vacant super eagles job.
Black stars technical crew must have studied the keeper and rest of the team to know their weakness and they actually got him by by playing a low shot to the ground to score him unlike our dumb ass technical crew that fail to study the black star to know their weakness….
That’s heavy @ROLE
Is it only Edo/Delta that have what it takes to coach the super Eagles in the tenure of the glass wearing Edo/Delta man?
Don’t bring tribalism into football please stop all that nonsense
Well since he has acknowledge that he cost us world cup, my heart has melted already for uzoho.
I know that your weakness is a low ball to ground please try and work on it.
Since low shot is his weakness, my question is how many shots on target (hot shot) did our strikers, wingers and Midfielders and defenders register against Ghana??? Toothless and blunt players!!! It’s a shame.
I mentioned it in my post before the WCQ playoffs, that the SE should practice shooting drills in training for the benefit of the Keepers and players but you saw Osimhen’s out of shape strike in Abuja after he controlled the ball with his head/chest? Non of our Midfielders and wingers played hot shots on target or the favourite R2… You see this is why the I doubt the intensity of SE camp training…
We need foreign trainers and analysts for the Eagles.
Eguavoen forgot Oliseh’ and Yekini’ thunder strikes???
I was waiting for our players to return similar Partey gestures to the Ghana keeper but our sluggish and languorous defenders were busy weakening and slowing the game they were loosing at the full glare of Eguavoen… No be stupidity be that???
And some idiots are still mentioning that serial failure ‘Eguavoen’ for NFF??? Retrogressive and retarded murons everywhere.
Uzoho go improve on your goal keeping and shot stopping skills and reflexes. Same applies to the “fine- boy” keeper, Okoye.
Curse some of our wicked Politicians. We understood it is painful and sad situation for soccer fans. We win together and we lose together.
The most foolish comment. …if a guy was in goal for 180 mins and only conceded a Gola. And u want thunder to strike him. Probably u don’t know wat u are saying.blackman.this thunder will follow u oo just dey look ur back . U better go do sacrifice immediately to avert the coming thunder.
I know u now.
The appointment of yobo as well was a product of tribalism… Man know man appointment.. God will help us from tribalism in this country
Ololo the stopping of tribalism must start from you by stop talking about it every body talk about tribalism who will be the one to stop it if not us
Please take tribalism out of this. The same Edo coach used 2 igbo men as goalkeepers (keepers whose costly mistake has sent Nigeria out of 2 major competitions), called sodiq, Shehu, zaidu, Musa (Hausa men), Chukwueze, Iheanacho, Onyeka (Igbo men), etc. Yet all these players failed woefully. But you want to make it appear as if it is because Eguavoen and Oliseh are from Edo and Delta that is why Nigeria has failed or may yet fail at the senior level of football. Please let’s try to be objective in our discussions.
Eguavoen failed because he is not capable of leading the super eagles. It is not because he is from Edo. Sebastine Brodricks, Willy Bazuaye, and Stephen Keshi (all Edo/Delta coaches) made Nigeria proud at one time. Does that mean that the NFA that appointed them then was tribalistic.? Amunike brought glory to Nigeria and his exploit is well recognized by FIFA. Does it mean that if tomorrow NFF appoint him, they will suddenly be playing the tribalism card? Tunde Disu, Samson Siasia, Paul Hamilton have all brought glory to Nigeria years ago. Does it mean that they were appointed by virtue of their tribal affiliation?
Let us take tribe out of our football because it will not do us any good if we continue to pander to tribe as the basis of our recent challenges at the senior level of football.
My brother be objective your self.when Rhor was wrongly removed,would you sincerely say that Eguavon was the best hand for the job?please answer me.you yourself as a football fan were you asking for Eguavon?were genuine football fans and other football stakeholders clamouring for Eguavon?listen until we stop making contributions based on where we come from or from deliberate lack of understanding of what the other person is saying we will not make progress
Your comment is full of tribalism and I wanted you to remove that from the discussion. Eguavoen is an Edo man who failed. But does that say All Edo or Delta coaches are incompetent coaches? I gave examples of coaches from Edo and Delta who succeeded and also pointed out others from Igboland, South south, and the West who equally achieved great success with Nigerian teams, to show you that it is not about tribe but the refusal of majority of our coaches to develop themselves. That is the problem and not tribe! We have also had oyinbo coaches who have come to Nigeria and failed. But that does not make the NFF that appointed them anti-Nigerian coaches. Majority of those coaches who failed are coaches who refused to developed themselves and learn the Nigerian culture and pysche of football. Westerhof, Otto Gloria, and Father Tiko were exceptions. That is why we still remember them till date. Decades after their exploits for NIgeria!
You don’t understand my comments.Cheers
Thank you@Moses Inyang! The fans listed more tactical, seasoned and better atuned indigenous Coaches like; Finidi, Manu, Amunike, Emelano, Egbo, etc but no, what do we know?
Rather the Mango head Picmilk, with his ulterior motive, imposed Eguavoen aka Cerezo aka Mr nosense/nonsense…
Eguavoen I feel for you but u shouldn’t have accepted what u can’t handle.
Our local coaches should know what is called Operations Research… U don’t go into a battle without knowing the strength and weaknesses of your team and opponent and then map out strategies and counter-strategies that will guarantee victory.
After the AFCON ouster, everyone told Eguavoen to work on his midfield very well but what did we get? Shambles, u brought Amoo and never used him.
Let me say it, Aribo is not a proactive AM, his impact was not felt in the two outings vs Ghana.
…..
Uzoho and Okoye will definitely get better. They are both on an encouraging trajectory although Okoye is getting more game time.
What we learned against Tunisia and Ghana is that both keepers suffer from the same handicap: long range low drives that ruffles through them.
If that one element can be knocked on the head, they will take their careers really far to reach for greater heights.
Okoye is obviously ahead in club football but he is yet to win the hearts and minds of a bevy of Super Eagles fans. Uzoho was doing well with a larger platoon of fans before he too fell to the same sward that pierced Okoye fiercely against Tunisia.
Now fans at a quandary.
Those who chanted Uzoho as number one all of a sudden have omelette pelted over their faces while the ones who support Okoye secretly harbour their own concerns.
Meaning, while these two work to clear their goalkeeping cobwebs, the new Super Eagles management team have to work tirelessly to unearth fresh goalkeeping options.
Not apprentice options who will learn on the job and make costly errors in the process. No, no,no. Fully cooked, off the shelf ready made options.
I think 4 years of apprentice goalkeepers is long enough.
Thanks for your comment. The keepers we love to remember – Okala, Ogedengbe, Fregene, Rufai, and Enyeama, all honed their skills in this our much maligned local league (abi how many champions league these keepers win for Africa during their days: save for only Enyeama). They were keeping week in, week out. Through that process they sharpened their skills. So, when they arrived the national team they were fully prepared for the challenge. Even Enyeama, when he got to the super eagles still had to clean up some of his flaws (he was a suspect in terms of aerial balls and penalties) before he became the darling of the Nigerian fans.
Unfortunately, our present keepers don’t pass through this well established process. One season in Nigeria, the next thing you know, them dey obodo oyinbo or obodo Africa they catch ball! Once outside the shores of Nigeria and not being fully baked as a proven and trusted goalkeeper, they become subject to different elements that can hamper their progressive development.
Outside Nigeria, these keepers are subject to racism, discriminations of varying degrees, challenges of acclimatization, the desire to provide for their loved ones back in Nigeria etc. Above all, they have to prove that they are 10 times better than their oyinbo counterparts before they can ever be possibly selected as first choice goalkeepers. Even at that, when they are selected, they dare not make mistake or else, they will find their way back to the bench or feeder team. When Rufai and Enyeama left Africa, they were already household names. That was why they could be the first choice goalkeepers for their clubsides.
If Nigeria truly wants a keeper that will give her rest of mind, she must look inwards and seek out promising keepers from her league. Regardless of how bad our league may be, we still have talents there. Our coaches just need to be ready to keep their hands dirty by scouting for these talents.
It really beats my imagination when our coaches will invite a keeper that is not the first choice goalkeeper in his clubside here in Nigeria to the national team and leave out the club’s first choice goalkeeper. This is the reason why I can’t spare Eguavoen and Alloy Agu for the failure of Nigeria to go to the world cup. This act, to me, is the height of recklessness of Eguavoen and Alloy Agu. Even the NFF people can’t be spare on this ineptitude. They could have questioned the invitation of a non first choice goalkeeper from our domestic league to the national team. But I guess this is Nigeria. A nation where objectivity and fairness is always sacrificed for poor performance.
As a side note, the exfootballer turned coach who supported invitation of a non first choice goalkeeper to the national team instead of the club’s first choice goalkeeper should go and change his ways before he nears the national team. If not, he himself will do worse than Eguavoen.
Okoye cept kleen shit in the Afcon gruup stage bot he steel has his shotkomins. Uzoho two is not pafect. Homebased golkeepers are not d best.
Ghana goalkeeper is also basket but our overrated strikers and midfielders didn’t try him abeg stop blaming our goalkeeper even enyeama dey concede cheap goals still out strikers then will score
@ Josh. You will spare them o & don’t let that beat your imagination. Ezenwa kept for us @ the last world cup qualifiers & he wasn’t the numer one @ Enyimba/Akwa United but Rohr still used him. So bro, the ticket loss was sad but we move.
Uzoho, you tried ur best, same people praised you when u saved their ungrateful souls in Ghana. I remembered I made a bet here saying Nigeria would not qualify, my bold prediction was based on the tribalism,sentiments and the corrupt nature of Eguaveon, Pinnick and others, fools proved me right. Inviting Ighalo, Sadiq and Musa over Awoniyi, then benched a young energetic Amoo throughout the game.
I remember arigo sahcci the Italian coach . Wen his team was about losing a game he was on the line shouting at his attackers. Hi hi shout santaco santaco matkv matck fall down run run defence cross rmun attack attack stoppp defend mazariok with fingers up .and standing and moving .
Wat did we had in our coach.at a point he looked at the vip corner .my mind told me the game is gone that was around 15 mins left if I m correct. I think he was trying to look for pinkinic… even picnic must have sense something. Butter it was too late to come to the reserve bench.
At that point assistant coach sef must be. Thinking wat happen . He can’t suddenly come to the party.den must came in .then I remembered the prophecy if Musa play this game eagles wil lose . There was a Spirit that came in with Musa I think he too heared the prophecy and he wants to counta it by scoring if ihaenacho had come in probability is that there wil be a cross into the 18yard .but the coach was even looking for help but no help can from his leautenant.
We nid beta golkeepers. C the senegalis golkeepers, he is the best. Mistakes hapin a lot wit Nigerian golkeepers. It most stop.
It’s a pity you allowed such error in such a match. It’s a pity. It goes to show our players need a lot to do to become great players. They are still average. They must work harder. I pity you uzoho. I have always claimed you are better in post for Nigeria than okoye. But that school boy error again in an important match like that and in Nigeria. I only pray God will help Nigerians yo forgive you easily.
Anyway, you are still better than okoye to me. Both of you still have a long way to go.
For those blaming the coaches for not using amoo. Can they tell me who amoo will bench in that team.. And cna they tell me amoo will come to the pitch to do wonders.
You see we lost the ticket and that is that. Let us learn and do the right things. Administrators, coachesand players all have the blames.
The player did not convert half chances. Great players do that in important matches. The goal keepers messed up afcon and in Abuja. Can tge coaches come to the field to play the bal into the net for them?
Was the coach the One who asked the keeper to make such an error. Probably that was the only real shot on goal for Ghanan.
On the part of the coaches. Favoritism is a big issue with them..when that is in place everything else will work against you like it did during the two legs.
We lost a match we should have won home and away. We played a Ghana team that is low in talent and morale. This will always be tge same when you are so shameful to favor some oleyers over others.
I wonder why onazi should be on a standby list for a major match like that. I wonder why ekong who had no playing time after afcon should be in the list and on the starting line up.
I wonder why ighalo who retired should be on the list.
The greatest injustice is the one done to dessers. That boy showed so much love for us. He wanted us. But clueless eguavon said he did not know more about him. That’s an awful statement.
Now I hooe that boy can still play for Belgium. We have denied a player who can convert half chances the opportunity if doing it for us. He could have just come in to displace oshimen.
It’s too bad. We really wronged dessers. We just showed how tgese olayers shiukd not consider playinf for us.
I heard oliseh is coming back. Another disaster. The immature oliseh. The temperamental oliseh. He will just come in to destroy the little that is left.
I heard pinnick wants another thrid term. God will help us to remove him from that office. He is such a bad luck for this nation.
Stop that@Christian mins… Amoo would have done a better job, at least in the 2nd half, than Aribo in AM and Dennis in 7. Mind you Amoo is a very mobile, hagile, fit, skillful and intelligent player… He even scored his club’s 2nd goal days before joining the SE camp. Again, it was reported that most of the SE senior players testified of Amoo’s ingenuity in training before the Abuja game.
The truth is that Eguavoen became cleuless, confused and soaked with fear and anxiety as the clock ticked closer to 90minutes in the 2nd half in Abuja… You can call him and ask him!
Eguavoen is a bold man but he was overwhelmed in the game in Abuja.
Amoo should have been able to string some reasonable passes and play some hot shots on target and even attracted some sensitive free kicks or penalty for the team. Fact!
Osimhen and Awoniyi should go and improve on their shooting skills, very important, else it will still let them down in crucial games in future.
Osimhen is 98% more clinical on airstrikes than his feet, Fact. Awoniyi hardly plays hot shots. Fact!
In terms of clinical strikers, I will go for Anthony Nwakaeme, Dessers, Osimhen, Iheanacho and Onuachu in that order of proficiency in the top 9 role. (Osimhen will be No 1, if he improves on his shooting acuracy and add some skills to his play).
To play Iheanacho as a striker, make sure u have very pacy wingers and Midfielders who could always drive in, cross the ball or pass to give Nacho some space to reck havock.
Nwakaeme can control the ball very well, can shoot the ball acurately, scores R2 steadily, gives good assists, he is pacy and can demolish defenders with his dribbling skills before scoring just like an inform Roberto Firmino of Liverpool (Remember that Liverpool vs Arsenal match last season or so where Firmino demolished Arsenal defence and score a hat trick?).
Osimhen is always predictable before shooting and most defenders would slide down quickly to block his shots even at Ghana it happened. We have told Osimhen to learn how to cut the ball with one foot and shoot the ball with the other by so doing your marker and even the keeper will slide away/fall down and you
can gegeli score your goal. Pls,pls,pls…
SE must not dribble into the goal post all the time to score goals.
Well taken shots “on target” can deflect, can beat any goal keeper and can also be parried for another player to tap in. Is this hard to know???
Nosa,
I have been saying it for a long time now. This current SE hardly take shots at goal. It’s almost as if they are allergic to shooting. They want to dribble themselves and their destiny before they score goals. Must you dribble every time? Must you enter into the box 18 before you can score?
They hardly cross the ball into the box, and they hardly take shots at goal.
Where then will goals come from?
We need them to start doing these things more frequently in matches.
@Nosa so amoo would have done the damage. The same we said oshimen and Dennis would have done the magic at afcon. Now against an ordinary Ghanaian team, they couldn’t fly. The same way we said lookman will crush opponents. He was there and nothing happened.
I am not blaming you for your optimism. I am just tired about how we over rate these players. They are just average players in my own opinion.
Even the best goalkeepers in football concede goals from time to time.
The Senegalese goalie Mendy, one of the best goalies in the world at the moment, just collected 4 from Brentford on Saturday.
However, it is noteworthy that none of the goals Mendy conceded were howlers or mistakes. They were clinical, well taken goals.
My point is, we are not being critical of Okoye and Uzoho because they conceded goals. We are unhappy with them BECAUSE OF THE KIND OF GOALS THEY CONCEDED.
Cheap goals. Howlers, mistakes, goals arising from poor judgment and positioning.
Goals that even a secondary school goalie will be embarrassed to concede.
The goal Uzoho conceded was a shot coming directly at him. How the ball went under him into the net is simply indefensible. A goalie at this level should be saving that in his sleep.
How Alloy Agu did not catch their deficiencies is a question only he can answer. He’s been training with this lads for years, and he did not see anything wrong with them?
We need a new goalie trainer in the SE. We also need to look around the planet for goalkeeping talent. I’m confident that a country of over 200 million people should be able to have access to quality goalkeeping talent.
I agree with all you said 100%. Thank you.
Carl Ikeme illness in 2017 was really a shame, he was a complete smooth Transition from Enyeama and we never missed Enyeama Atol when Carl was in goal. and at 35 he would still be in good shape now What a Goal Keeper he was. Nigeria just have bad Luck period!!!
@Ugo Iwunze, the truth is that Enyeama was unjustly treated by Oliseh and NFF.. They should apologise to that fine hardworking keeper so that things will be well with the SE goal keeping department.
How can you embarrass and humiliate your AFCON winning goalkeeper because you saw Carl Ikeme???
Sunday Oliseh should learn how to manage men and material else he should kindly and honourably stay away from the SE. This is a warning signal to Oliseh. Sir, go work on your temperament and man management skills. Very important to succeed else even your players can work against you to fail.
How did Oliseh embarrass Enyeama. Is it a crime to put a players on the bench? If a player don’t sit on the bench for others, how will the coach discover new players. Enyeama is not a saint. Is it not the same Enyeama that could not boldly say Uzoho made a mistake against Ghana? Go and listen to Enyeama’s interview on Brila FM during that crisis and you’ll know that even Enyeama is not a saint.
It is not every time we blame coaches. That is why they are not courageous enough to call our so called big players (but average indeed) to order.
@Josh, your presentation reflects strong arguments and top-notch intelligence. I was going to say something about our outage of the world, but because I have not been able to separate my emotion from the subject on ground, I decided to keep mute for now.
I think it will be helpful if we all present our points so that others can pick some lessons.
Now that Nigeria didn’t qualify for the world cup based on away go rules, what is the next? We have another four years to prepare for another one; the question should be, where did we miss it? What else can we do to recoup?
Shooting a dead man won’t make him die twice. The boys had apologies, and as a matter of fact, they felt the pain more than the fans. They are the ones that will earn money after all.
My take is, please let us move on. Our current reality is that we won’t be at the world cup. Please let’s stop the blame game. I don’t believe that appointment into super eagles’ technical department is based on tribe, except we have proof substantially enough to make such assertion.
I also feel that the energy that we put into making demands for the resignation of the NFF board should also be directed towards our government. I think they are not also doing enough.
Okoye oo, uzuor oo, we don’t want them in the super eagles again. Shikena.
All those who are blaming Tom, Dick and Harry, have you never made
mistake in life before? Nobody is above mistake at one point or the
other in life. People always learn to improve from their mistakes. One
of the world best goalkeepers ( Donaruma ) made a very silly mistake
and PSG was throne out from the Europe Champions league. Even at that,
he was still number one in Italy. So why will people be swearing for
players because we lost a match. It was written that Nigeria will not qualify for this edition of the world cup, if not, some of the chances
we got would have been converted. If it were to be players superiority
only, Nigeria and Italy would have qualified. There are certain
things beyond ordinary explanation because what is meant to be would
definitely would be. The best is to plan for the future early.