Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr says he is impressed with his players’ brave efforts in Sunday’s 4-2 away win against Lesotho in an AFCON 2021 qualifying match, insisting that the opponents scoring first didn’t count in the end, reports Completesports.com.
Rohr’s charges conceded early in the game but fought back to win the game 4-2 with Victor Osimhen netting a brace and Alex Iwobi and Samuel Chukuweze scoring the other goals.
“Some matches, you score the first goal and in some matches you concede first,” Rohr told reporters after the game.
“We scored first against Brazil and Ukraine but we didn’t win, so I prefer to concede first and win the match.
“This has proven that my players have a good spirit because they never give up.
“They continue to play well and do not panic. We have a very young team and what I like is the enthusiasm to play football.”
The German tactician was full of praises for the Super Eagles for putting up that brave performance despite arriving Maseru a few hours before the match.
Rohr added: “We know that it’s difficult to win in Lesotho especially when you concede the first goal. They played very well in the beginning, but we had to take the game in our hands.
“We had a long travel by night and you can see that at the beginning, my players were not fully concentrated.”
By Adeboye Amosu
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COMMENTS
this is so funny, does it mean when they score first, they become lackadaisical, or you become short of ideas on what to do next, coach, it is working for you. you needn’t talk on everything fa. no doubt, the boys have great fighting spirit and are not panicky, which is great for any team. Conceding against very tactical team can be a real problem, it will change the course of the game, disorganize your game plan and make your take unmeasured risks. WHile you are searching for goals, you become more vulnerable to counterattacks. All the same Kudo to you and the lads, you also have great eyes to spot good players, no one can take that away from you. also impressive that you now make early changes in response to the opponent rather than wait till 3 minutes to go! Congratulations to the super eagles, but coach, become more and more dynamic in your approach, become more unpredictable to the opponents. Above all, soar higher in the days ahead, best wishes. Give more confidence to the boys, don’t be fixated, imagine giving room to osimhen early at the world cup when uncle Ighalo was not coming to party early, the chap would have built so much confidence and make more impact in the team. Also, start giving confidence to the new goalie you are bringing on board, don’t wait until you current goalie retires before you will try okoye more … You are surely far above average at the moment … Kudos!
I prefer not to concede at all, if possible!
Hmmm, interesting.
“We scored first against Brazil and Ukraine but we didn’t win, so I prefer to concede first and win the match.
Mr. Rohr, please don’t even go there. It is very simple. You can’t give what you don’t have period.
Like I always said, I love you but I can’t love more than my Country.
Against Ukraine and Brazil you mentioned, your inability to changed tactics making Nigeria drawn these matches.
I appreciate your efforts and I hope NFF will do you a favor to get you someone to help you.
Also, Lesotho were playing as a team. They were tactically sound and fearless.
The superiority of our team way ahead of them.
Now, you haven’t changed and I don’t think you will. If Oghalo did not refused to come back to the Super Eagles team, you wouldn’t have considered Osimeh. Too bad.
That is why we lost this year Afcon trophy because you didn’t trust your players.
NFF wanted you to built a young team but it wasn’t your choice to do so. Why you are doing the same thing to Okoye now? Your fans lied to Nigerians that you preferred young players to old ones but you didn’t but your employer to you to do so.
You should have learned your lessons from that now. Osimeh has proven his worth and now Okoye.
You preferred Akpeyi to Okoye? Can you imagine that.
All in all, I have nothing against you but you need to change your attitude sir.
You are doing okay now people are hailing you but when it is matter most, you wouldn’t provided the results.
I’m a patriotic Nigerian and I wouldn’t be deceived by that.
For Lesotho to played like that against us kai, we deserves more than what we are getting.
It is a big lie to say it will take four years to build a sound and realiable team.
The length of the period to build a solid team depends on the players you have.
Someone even called Onuach Iroko tree while the person forgotten that the gaffer making the guy useless in the team.
Same thing with the new players in the team. Not even talking about Onyekuru.
What I am saying is real, coach Rohr’s team may find it difficult to win anything. The earlier we know this the better.
He got everything right yesterday but can he continue like that? I don’t know.
He gambles a lot which is why some times, Eagles has no patterns.
The solution to this problem is NFF.
NFF should please find another assistant coach who can help Oga Rohr.
We also need a goalkeeper trainer because what we having now is not competent enough. Agu is not the solution likewise Oga Rohr but coach Rohr is manageable. NFF can pair someone with him.
For coach Rohr’s fans, I’m shaking my head for you all. Did you all know the reason why Eagles failed to beat Brazil and Ukraine?
Because of you people that failed to tell your Oyinbo coach and NFF the truth of life.
Those two matches tells a lot about Mr. Rohr. I’m still maintaining my points here, for Nigeria to accomplish something big with coach Rohr, hmm, God and NFF are the solutions. If you don’t believe in that, the time will tell.
Lastly, I repeat, I love Mr. Rohr and I appreciate his efforts but I want more from him because we have the tools and the only challenging we are having now is the coach who can build the confidence, never say die Nigerians spirit, you can do it and nobody better than you spirit.
Not a coach that always says my team is young while French team were really young when they won the world cup in Russia.
We knew Osimeh since under17 and but the coach should please give more opportunity to other players to prove their worth.
That was the reason we lost Adi in this current team. Adi is another raw talented striker but this our world class coach doesn’t recognized talents until you voice out. Ovia Ejaria is another player. We have them out there.
Come on my people. We deserves more than this men. Chai, if I have the opportunity to be the coach of the Super Eagles, it won’t take me more than a year or two years to build a solid team for Nigeria because we have the players to get the job done.
You may be annoyed with me but I don’t care because the way I’m reasoning is quite different to yours. Ah, I love my Country and I want the best for my fatherland.
If you truly loved your Country, don’t be biased. Be faithful to your Country. Stop the blabbing and do the right thing for the betterment of our Country. Hmm, ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
What kind of mentality is that? Why should you concede first. You ate not serious I am sure. Maybe you mean to say as long as you win, it does not matter if you concede first or score first.
Rohr is not the kind of coach we need. I prefer that egypt man that won three afcon with egypt. Nigerians needs that arab man to give yalayala attitude. Believe Nff needs that kind of a man. To start with rohr profile is not good enough for three afcon champ like eagles. Imagine in that algeria game i cant forgive this man that afcon shouldhave bin our fourth. You have osihnen kalu and onyekuru in the bench and lost to algeria in the 90 min. A good coach will start onyekuru for musa and osihmen for ighalo. Becos both musa and ighalo has bin lebelled already by an experienced algerian defends. Later u can bring in ighalo and switch to 4 4 2 where u will have ighalo and osihmen upfront taking out onyekuru iwobi and chukwueze to have musa and kalu come in. Rohr needs to attend my coaching school.
Quit playing SEGA and go coach your local government 1st, then we will give you the attention you are seeking…!
Senegal is undoubtedly the strongest, most talented, most complete and most experienced team in Africa this year 2019, yet Algeria defeated them twice in the same tournament.
Even if we replayed the Algeria match 10 times with Guadiola as our coach, they would still have defeated us 10 times. Man-4-man, we wouldnt match the strength of that team.
well said Omo9ja. with those rohr mentality, am sorry we cant achieve any thing even in the next 15yrs despite we parade the best players in africa.
What is wrong in conceding first? after all the team you’re playing are not there to sell groundnut. The way some people reasons at times ehn! the game is all about scoring and anybody could do that at any time but the most important thing is how you react afterward. Moreover the game is not a do or die at times you win, draw or lose whether you scored first or come from behind
Humans_ Tufiakwa!!!!
They have shifted the fantastic results achieved by this Man and his team, to focus on his speech at the press conference. To them a match is no longer won on the Field of play but now on the pages of the Newspaper or in front of a microphone.
Rohr watch your back ooh’ this people are on u like a Flock of Demons waiting for ur downfall.
Dont mind these agents of darkness…..they don’t have anything to criticize again so its his statements during press conferences they want to make their life problems now.
Simple English….I’ll rather prefer conceding first and winning, to scoring first and not winning….that is what is giving them cancer of the brain.
Just like an African adage says, “a man who is hated will still be accused of raising dust even if he falls in a pool of water”
Your coach is helping us to make money Goal goal and over 2.5
I can’t understand anyone criticising Rohr for his statement here. In plain language, what the man simply said is that he prefers to concede first and still win, rather than score first and end up losing (or even drawing) a game. So what is wrong with that? Of course the ideal thing will be to win without conceding at all, but that is not possible all the time. If you concede first and still win, it’s a lot better than score first and end up losing. It’s also better than not conceding, and yet not win the game. Like Clemence Westerhof use to say “you score me 10, I score one more than you, I win”.
Rohr is not perfect, but that’s not enough reason to criticise everything he says even when such criticism does not make sense!
some people in this forum dont know that its not every player that is doing well in their clubs that will fit the national team. the coach has to carefully select the players he needs and integrate them into the team. someone mentioned adi and ejaria, these players look good but are we sure they would have added anything to the national team. aribo is in the team now and is doing well despite some acclimatization issues, he came into the at a time we needed a player like him. the coach saw that and quickly invited him.
the coach is doing well and he has raised a young team that will take the world by storm very soon. so always condemning his actions, decisions and saying things like he is not good enough to coach this team isnt helping.