Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr inspected facilities at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos on Friday ahead of next month’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fuxture against Lesotho, reports Completesports.com.
Rohr, who was accompanied by the Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Seyi Akinwunmi and Team Secretary, Dayo Enebi were led on the inspection tour by Chiarman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Sola Aiyepeku.
The Super Eagles last played a game at the ground against Sierra Leone in February 2011.
Read Also: Rohr Lists Condition For Inclusion Of Home Based Players In Super Eagles
The team, then managed by Samson Siasia defeated the Leone Stars 2-1 in a friendly match with Taye Taiwo and Ekigho Ehiosun scoring for the Eagles, while Mohamed Bangura was on target for the visitors.
The three-time African champions will make the short trip to Cotonou where they will take on the Squirrels of Benin Republic on March 22 and then welcome Lesotho to Lagos on March 30 to conclude the qualifying campaign for the 2021 AFCON.
Rohr’s charges need at least a point from the two matches to advance to the final tournament in Cameroon next year.
By Adeboye Amosu
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COMMENTS
It’s high time the Super Eagles had a permanent base.
This proclivity of ferrying them around the country to play their home matches doesn’t portend well and it’s counter-productive.
The grass on this pitch looks quite overgrown though and I do hope it will not hobble free-flowing, champagne football,spiced with sexy passes.
I can’t wait to behold the present bevy of talents in the Super Eagles unleashed against the rest of Africa at the AFCON proper.
I’m rubbing my palms in glee and already salivating at the prospect of that spectacle.
the pitch is like Ajegule field
Is Teslim Balogun not an artificial turf…?? Or as it been re-laid with natural grass overtime…??? Can someone help with some info on this…???
It is now grass. Conversion was completed in December 2020
Oh….really…that’s great then. Thanks for the info. Then that may signal the permanent return of the SE to Lagos. Lagosians au far na….Lolz
Village man you just got enlightened if it were to be someone else you will take advantage and say all bullshit. Bro you’re and idiot and will always be.
You owe Dr Drey an apology for using such foul language. It is bad form.
See our Animal don dey bark again….!
Its your mate that supplied an link down there for us all to read. that’s some who is responsible and an asset to this forum….LMAO….you you’ve been biting trees with your long mouth like that of a skunk all over the place since you dumped your former name only to reincarnate with this useless one you are bearing now….LMAO.
Human beings are commenting here…deranged animals should remain in the bush where they belong.
See pitch! After na, dey will expect Lookman and Ejaria to come and perform America wonder on this nonsense? We better contact Cameroun and start making arrangements to rent one of their pitches for our home game. Maybe they will be kind enough to give us a good deal.
They say it is insanity when you keep repeating the same mistake over and over again. Our own don pass craze. We keep talking about the same problem. I thought the miracle of Benin would finally be the turning point. Yet, here we are in 2021 still unable to provide our players with a decent pitch to play home games on!
I see your point Pompei. It is high time the Super Eagles have a main stadium they can call home. That Uyo stadium was very presentable for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. I still remember how luscious that Abuja stadium was… Anyway.
This is the insanity, many of Rohrs/ players critics don’t put into consideration before pouring vertuperation on them. Reason I always refuse to accept their critisicm for they constantly fail to holistically address issues relating to Rohrs performance. Knowing nigeria for its bureaucratic bottlenecks, combined with all forms of interference, coming from wetin we go chop media men, politicians, so called anywhere belle face high chiefs aka alayes, ignorant fans etc, I will always give Rohr and players a very very high score; performance wise because, ordinarily,it’s almost impossible for anything good to come out from working under such conditions. Until the nigeria system starts running smoothly like other countries, before we can honestly,start justifying such repugnant critisicm against players/coaches.
NFF is an insane institution. That’s clear. The real question is why Rohr is pandering to the dirty antics of NFF? What is wrong with Uyo stadium?
My brother…. Who will not like that Uyo stadium? I wonder why the NFF could not come to an agreement with the relevant parties to make that stadium one of the key venues for Super Eagles matches.
https://youtu.be/6RR-_gYGT4s
I detest playing the victimhood card, but is it because Uyo happens to be in a minority region? Shouldn’t we celebrate the foresight that came from such a region? Why inflict injuries on our boys in artificial turf? Do we want more dislocated shoulders? These injuries never disappear!
My brother, the person that shoulders the decision (amaju picnik) is from the region, so it’s not about region discrimination, it’s about corruption, greediness and lack of foresight.
To me nothing bad in moving our matches to different venues, but what’s bad is not using the best venue
Haba…dont bring ethnicity and tribalism into this issue. Simply stick to the incompetence of our football administration. Most of our matches in recent times have been played in the regions you just called “Minority”. When was the last time the super eagles played a competitive match in the Southwest? I cant even remember…the latest one is the friendly match 10 years ago…so its not about minority at all
Uyo stadium is the best stadium in Nigeria, i dont think not making use of it is about politics or insanity as some of us are suspecting, i think that stadium is reserved for big games and big matches, the Nff dont consider lesotho, serrielone, and sycilles as big teams or big games, the likes of algeria, benin republic, cameroun, southafrica are regular afcon contenders and the Nff consider matches against these teams as big games or must win games thats why they often use uyo for such matches,
Apart from that, national matches are been rotated among several cities in most countries all over the world. Its only england that makes wemblee their parmanent home. Rotating match venue around the country is very normal to me and there is no better chance to do it than with these kind of matches against serrieleone and lesotho, i expect the eagles to beat them anywhere even if its on a sand pitch, you people should stop laying escuses for them, do you think you can bit germany in ogbe or stephen keshi stadium? Those pitchs are good enough for them to bit you, even as worse as the serrie leon pitch we almost bit them there and even had disalowed goals in that game. if we prepare well and with the right selection we should bit lesotho anywhere as far as its football.
Talking about pitches i blame the technical crew for what they got, becos if you look at ogbe stadium the field was full of grass and it was standered enough to produce 8 encellent goals and good football, the super eagles played best football in decades scoring 4 sweet goals in 35 minutes of play, dominating their opponent till the 79 minutes when they gave the game away i dont see anyreason to blame field rather than to blame the players and crew.
If the field is overgrown as some of us claimes when the team trained the first day and met with the Nff officials why didnt they complain that the grasses are overgrown, it will not take one hour for 20 gardners to reduce or better level the grasses at list over grown grass is better than no grass field which needs planting,
The team didnt complain or ask for proper leveling becos they know that the field is good enough to play and they only starts complaining when they drew from 4 goals down hahaha very funny.
Nigeria defeated egypt and sychelys in stephen keshi stadium,
The under 23 team defeated lybia 4 0 and another team i cant remember the name collect 5 2 from us non of these losing teams coach faulted our stadium or pitch for their bad results. But when they drew uganda and zimbabwe in thesame stadium, rohr started seeing fault with the stadium and Nigerians are here to support the motion thats for me the real insanity.
Finaly i dont see anything wrong with teslim balogun field, they only need to level it and draw the lines, rohr is there, if there is any fault let him speak now, not after losing. i agree that uyo is our best stadium but the eagles should be able to bit lesotho in anypart of the country.
I am shaking my head for NFF and Oga Rohr.
NFF know what to do but because of their greenness attitude they will continue misleading Super Eagles.
Cameroon can’t do with their main stadium which is Amadu Aijo and Nigeria is joking with theirs which is in Surulere Lagos and we are expecting Super Eagles to mean the business with our national team? Come on NFF.
Football is not politics now.
Perhaps, Oga Rohr is not helping the situation too.
NFF keep pushing him around as if he is doing them a favor.
Instead of him to tell NFF that Super Eagles have to have a permanent home instead of moving the team from one state to another but he continue dancing to their tones.
Once again I’m so sorry for both NFF and Mr. Gernot Rohr. Super Eagles must not fail this time around. Otherwise, hmm.
Lagos is the best venue for Super Eagles the earlier NFF realize this the better. Eagles will have massive spectators in Lagos that is guaranteed.
Super Eagles can’t lose any how in Lagos that is for sure.
Super Eagles and the coaches will be more serious in Lagos than other states when they play in Lagos.
Because we Lagosians no de carry last. That is an abomination. Carry last? Mba. Not in Lagos.
Once in a while yes NFF can move Super Eagles around maybe when we have friendly matches.
This is why it is a very good idea to replace our ex players with Amaju and co because all they know is politics nothing else.
Gradually by gradually, NFF are returning Super Eagles back to their home.
We are expecting Super Eagles in Lagos. Oh yeah can’t wait. God bless Nigeria!!!
https://guardian.ng/sport/lagos-starts-conversion-of-teslim-balogun-stadium-turf-to-grass-pitch/
@Dapsy this your news is over two years ago and outdated, its nothing connected or in any way related to what we are currently analyzing concerning the current state of teslim balogun stadium lagos, please before you post or link any sport website on this forum try to verify properly, and know the authencity of the news before you make any move that might end up causing more harm than good on this sport forum. Thank you.
@Anthony Dr Drey actually asked to know if the pitch at Teslim Balogun is artificial or natural grass. I also observed with keen interest that it was based on the assumption that the pitch is artificial that some forumites concluded that SEs may also fail against Lesotho. If nothing could be inferred from the link that I posted here, at least there is an evidence that the former artificial turf has been removed in preparation for laying of natural grass over 2 years ago.
I doubt if the pitch at Tedlim Balogun Stadium has been re-laid to natural grass of international standard. The OFF is cutting corners to play in Lagos and travel to Cotonou by road, or vice versa