Former Nigeria international Ifeanyi Udeze has said the goalkeeping issue in the Super Eagles need to be addressed following Francis Uzoho’s howler against Algeria.
The Super Eagles suffered a fourth consecutive defeat to Algeria as they fell to a 2-1 loss in Tuesday’s friendly in Oran.
The debate about the competence of the current goalkeepers came up for discussion again, as Uzoho was beaten from 25 yard which resulted to Algeria’s second goal scored by Youcef Atal.
Terem Moffi has given the Super Eagles the lead early in the first half before Riyad Mahrez drew the Desert Foxes level.
And Udeze feels the goalkeeping departure need to be resolved as soon as possible.
“We need to solve the issue in the goalkeeping department because this is the national team,” Udeze said on Brila FM.
Also Read: Lorient Celebrate Moffi’s Goal In Super Eagles Defeat To Algeria
“And whether we like it or not there’s no patience to give a player of goalkeeper one or two years to improve. Such patience is for club sides not national team.
“At the national team if you’re not good enough you have to give others the chance to try and if that person is good enough he should man the post, that’s why it’s the national team.”
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COMMENTS
Ndi Okoye is a fantastic goalkeeper. Ngwa be patient with Okoye. Una see so? Uzoho and Okoye are not good enough, simple. Dele Alampasu is far better than 2 of them.
This has become like some spiritual problem. A football country with more than 200 million people, where almost every male child play football, struggling to get a decent goal keeper. Maybe something sketchy happened to Carl Ikeme, the last decent goal keeper we had, whilst he was around with others fighting for his place. And somehow requiring confessions and his(Carl’s forgiveness) otherwise this remain ridiculously strange for a big big footballing country like Nigeria.
That is the result of ill treatment meted on Enyeama by Sunday oliseh when his mother died and nff refused to interfere. What goes around comes around
Better shut up with your nonsense talk. Who told you they were the reasons he retired from the national team
As for me, Uzoho is still our best. He is not a bad goal keeper just that he is currently rusty because of lack of Game time. He needs to get a club even if it is on Loan just to get game time. He has more confidence than Okoye, Yesterday’s goal was simply because he didn’t see the ball on time. Maybe loss of concentration or maybe his view was blocked. But it is still his mistake and in my opinion one mistake does not erase or the great saves he makes. Good Goal keepers do make mistakes sometimes. If you say Uzoho is a bad Goal keeper go and watch Nigeria Vs Brazil match under Genet Rohr. He just need to find a way to get game time. Even Okoye is also match rusty and will be sharp and regain confidence when he starts playing regularly. We can look for new Goal keepers but we will still to wait for them to make their errors first. Or if we are lucky to get a very good and experienced Goal keeper either from home or abroad. But I doubt if such exist. We have to go through the process to get Lasting Success.
That’s a very silly argument
Uzoho is no longer the man he used to be. Uzoho was really progressing and ascending in his career until he got married. Ever since then, he has been retrogressing.
That we are not going to the World Cup was 100% caused by Uzoho. That we have lost four consecutive times to Algeria was 100% caused by the same man. Aswear, we can’t continue this way.
Uzoho should not be recalled until he sorts himself out.
Okoye would have been a good option but he made a very big mistake by leaving Sparta. That was a very big and clueless mistake. Okoye is not that good. He is very unreliable. He needed at least two years of regular playing to get better. Sparta Rotterdam would have afforded him that luxury. But to my shock, he left Sparta for Watford. That was a big mistake, because I was sure Watford won’t risk giving him the first-keeper position. This is because apart from being prone to unexpected mistakes, his biggest weak point is the fad in England. Shot (long and short range) is Okoye’s biggest weak point but the love of players in England. When the news of his departure to Watford was announced, I was not confident he will be made the first choice goalkeeper because I knew he will be exposed in training
Adebayo Adeleye height rules him out. Most of the goals scored against him at his club is due not being. Height is very important for goalkeepers
Yes you are right but frequent mistakes don’t speak good about GKs, remember Uzoho’s mistake cost us d world cup ticket. One would have expected him to have bettered his game but he kept commiting Blunders. A GK of Uzoho’s caliber is not expected to be making school boy’s mistake any more. He has come of age, even played at the world cup.
HONESTLY even though OKOYE is my guy, WE SERIOUSLY need to RESOLVE it..
WE can’t keep SAYING even DE GEA makes MISTAKES and then TEAMS will just be coming and be using US to CATCH CRUISE..
It’s becoming UNBECOMABLE BIKONU…
The blame should go to Alloy Agu who because of tribalism denied GKs from other region the chance to be with him. He was never interested in improving the team but only interested in bigotry..
At a time, Alampasu, Yakubu and other GKs were doing well for their clubsides but he kept inviting Enyimba reserve GKs and inactive Uzoho. Alloy Agu destroyed competition and relegated hardworking for ethnic bigotry.
Shame on you Alloy Agu.
If he stopped them from the national team did he stop them from performing in their clubs.. if a la alampasu was removed from the super eagles because he is Yoruba , why did he not go to Europe to do well, did his oyibo sideline him because he is Yoruba.. make we dey try talk wentin make sense abeg
This is a very silly argument.
Players are invited based on what they are doing in their clubs. Alloy Agu can’t trust goalkeepers whose clubs don’t even trust. Super Eagles is not a rehabilitation centre. Neither is it, an extension of the Federal Character Commission. Rather, it is an assembly of the very best in Nigeria. Thoss goalkeepers should start playing from their clubs first, before expecting SE invitation.
If I’m not mistaken, the goalkeepers you mentioned were both given chances by Alloy Agu and nothing came out of it
Thank God everyone has now realise that without a keeper no team can win a tournament. I raise this issue before Afcon and world qualifier with Ghana and I was jettison..A team is as good as its goal keeper especially in big games.Keep keeper removed us in Afcon two years ago under Rohr.Goal keeper remove again under Eguavon.Goal keeper made us fail to qualify for the next world cup..good keeper is the bane of the current SE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqTbmbMHELA
Just watching the goal reel of the 2000 AFCON and seeing the kinds of goals Ike Shorumun (at the peak of his powers) in goal for Nigeria was conceding.
Apparently we also had a “goalkeeping crisis” then too.
Uzoho or Okoye or any of the guys we’ve got now dare not concede such.
What is wrong with Nigerian football is not a goalkeeping problem. The problem lies in brainless and irrational critics and bigots who bring out knives to kill a goalkeeper for any mistake. Okoye’s life was threatened and the guy racially abused by bushmen, some of ehom are Nigeria’s forner internationals. Look at all the top keepers in the world – Neuer, Donnaruma, Allison Ter Stegen, Ramsdale! Each of them has made costly errors in the last 3 months, and yet they are still between the sticks for their country.
@Dr. Drey ,
I beg to disagree with you, the howler of Ike Shorumi against Cameroon was quite different from Uzoho.
The one that went through Shorumi’s leg was inside box 18 and one one on one with goalkeeper Shorumi ; in contrast to the Uzoho 25 yards that beat Uzoho .
The basic facts is Aloy Agu destroyed goalkeeping department with tribal sentiment and corruption coupled with an accomplice helpless Coach that cannot stamp his authority; and unfortunately in this jet age a local Aloy Agu that was himself an average keep in his time without European exposure was the one that was corruptly saddled with the most important department in any football team.
It was the most neglected department in the Super eagles just as Education is in Nigeria; during erstwhile Rohr’s tail end ; it was such bad to such extent an inactive Eyimba local club bench warmer ( John Noble) that didn’t played for good 6 months ; yet he was the comical best choice that would purportedly give stiff competition to the Okoyes , Uzoho & co !!
Our best keepers in the past except Cal Ikpeme have always been our local keepers Peter Rufai , Enyema , Ike Shorumi, Dele Ayenugba etc ; 6 months is more than enough to discover quality goalkeepers ( Onigbinde did it with a local goalkeeper Enyama in 3 months; it was just 3 or within 6 months that Oliseh gave us Cal Ikpeme); not all these below average ones that would continue to repeat error upon errors; National team is not meant for a training ground but place for the best.
The same errors that bundled out the best team in the Afcon 1st round just in the next round , was same that cost the team WC , and now same department were causing us embarrassment in a friendly matches ; what would happened then in a serious game ? Only an insane man would do same thing same way and would be expecting different result.
Lastly, what has been the positive impact of Ike Shorumi in the team ever since he took over from the tribal bigot & corrupt Aloy Agu ? If Ike Shorumi is not bringing any positive in the team, why don’t we reward Cal Ikpeme for his exemplary love for his father’s country Nigeria and for his great performance, rightly stepping into the vacant position of Enyema then with ease ?
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we don’t reward positively especially those that cannot be compromised
Hahahahaha….what is this one begging to disagree with…..LMAOoo.
Did Ike Shorunmu “the great” never commit blunders in his SE career….??? YES OR NO…???
I don’t give a damn if he committed it in the 6 yard box or the Center circle. A howler is a howler and even our legendary goalkeepers have committed their share of blunders in national team colours.
I just showed 4 instances of awful goalkeeping from him in an AFCON we hosted on home soil.
His blunder against Senegal in Mali 2002 AFCON semifinals that denied us a place in the final of that tournament is also still fresh in mind till date.
That was a peak 30yr old (or thereabout) Shorunmu in his 10th year as national team goalkeeper comiiting goalkeeping errors…..nobody called him names, nobody insulted his family, nobody called for him to be expelled from the SE, Nobody called his errors a “Goalkeeping Crisis”
Your best goalkeepers Enyeama (discovered in 2 weeks) and Ayenugba (discovered in 2 days) were not infalliable or immune from goalkeeping errors too.
Enyeama’s own blunders as SE goalkeeper too are well documented. It is still on record that it was his howler (letting a soft Manuel Figuriedo freekick creep under his armpit into the net) that gave Angola the equalizer that knocked us out of the 2006 World cup. Enyeama gave us many blunders to remember in his first 4 years as a SE goalkeeper. Aiyenugba’s contribution to our not qualifying for 2012 AFCON is still something we havent forgotten, with that disastrous display vs Guinea in Abuja.
None of them could pass trials in Europe at the age when Okoye and Uzoho started keeping goal in top divisions….None of them were infalliable….None of them were blunderless. They all committed errors as SE goalkeeper but our generation of fans were sensible and cultured enough not to kill them with the poisonous mouths and hatred like most of these loudmouths crying wolf where there is none now. Your Ikeme was keeping in league 1 and league 2 for most of his career and was already at his peak when made his SE debut. Maduka and Francis arent even anywhere near their peaks yet. Infact they are even yet to takeoff
And by the way, if not because of nothing bùt sheer hatred, when did conceeding a goal from a swerving, dipping shot that changed direction at the last minute become a goalkeeping blunder…??? Enyeama’s inability to deal with a shot like that vs Greece in 2010 got us knocked out of that world cup.
Since it takes 6 months to discover a goalkeeper that will never conceed goals or make mistakes why has your peserio, finidi and shorunmu not discovered one yet…..LMAOOO. What are they waiting for…??? Adeleye was supposed to be the superhero that will chase Okoye and Uzoho out of the national team….it didn’t take him 45mins before fumbling a harmless Cross passing across his 6yard box unto the path of an approching opposing player….LMAaooo…if not for a last ditch goal saving clearance by the defence.
Go and bring your spiderman that is immune to mistakes let’s see na….let him come and chop akpako too….LMAOoo.
I remember vividly this was how you were ranting afelokahi’s name on this forum a few years ago until he swallowed 4 goals against togolese homebased and your vocal cords lost their acoustic properties….LMAOoo
Blaming Alloy Rohr and Agu even when they are no longer with the team is senseless and wicked. Nigeria never conceded this kind of ridiculous goals during Rohr era. Was he in charge against Tunisia, Ghana and the one against Algeria? I thought I guys clamour for Ike Shoromu as the goalkeeping coach and ever since he and the new coach came in they could not change anything in that goal keeping department infact they are still using the same set of goalkeepers. You think they will go to Mars and brink new goalkeeper when the best we have is the one presently having a though time. Someone got signed by a Premiership club after a brilliant start from fourth devision and you say he is not good. You think those people in Watford are senseless. Things did not start well for him because they sacked the man who signed him but he can still get over it. Why won’t the guys lost confidence when they knew a simple mistake could result in asking for their heads.
Uzoho is no longer the man he used to be. Uzoho was really progressing and ascending in his career until he got married. Ever since then, he has been retrogressing.
That we are not going to the World Cup was 100% caused by Uzoho. That we have lost four consecutive times to Algeria was 100% caused by the same man. Aswear, we can’t continue this way, before we lose something more precious than gold.
Uzoho should not be recalled to the Super Eagles until he sorts himself out.
Okoye would have been a good option but he made a very big mistake by leaving Sparta. That was a very big and clueless mistake. Okoye is not that good. He is very unreliable. He needed at least two years of regular playing to get better. Sparta Rotterdam would have afforded him that luxury. But to my shock, he left Sparta for Watford. That was a big mistake, because I was sure Watford won’t risk giving him the first-keeper position. This is because apart from being prone to unexpected mistakes, his biggest weak point is the fad in England. Shot (long and short range) is Okoye’s biggest weak point. But that is the love of players in England. When the news of his departure to Watford was announced, I was not confident he will be made the first choice goalkeeper because I knew he will be exposed in training.
Adebayo Adeleye’s height rules him out. Most of the goals scored against him at his club is due not being. Height is very important for goalkeepers. After tasting and seeing the advantage of height for goalkeeper, we shouldn’t go back to Egypt.
I may be wrong, but I feel Uzoho’s problem is beyond football. He is definitely not the man that represented against Brazil.
However, I’m tipping Okoye. He has the height, build and composure. But he needs to be more serious with his career. He has to decide, whether he wants to be a model or continue as a footballer. He should look for a club where he will play regularly. Among other things, he should perfect on his positioning and shot stoppage