VINCENT ENYEAMA: Was virtually on holidays but was alert to safe off an Iranian header in the 34th minute. (5)
EFE AMBROSE: Unusually lethargic and failed to provide an outlet for all the attacking efforts of the team. We’ve certainly seen better performances from him. (4)
GODFREY OBOABONA: Had an early exit enforced by injury in the 29th minute. (Not Rated)
KENNETH OMERUO: The only constant in the Eagles backline. He was solid against the attacking forays of the Iranians but misplaced his effort when he chose to launch a long ball forward in the first half. (5)
JUWON OSHANIWA: Made the absence of Elderson Echiejile more glaring with elementary errors and got caught in possession time and again. (3)
OGENYI ONAZI: One of his less-than-stellar performances in an Eagles shirt, Onazi contrived to put every foot wrong after battling an injury scare in the first half. (3)
RAMON AZEEZ: His relative inexperience at this level showed as he wasn’t able to complement the effort of his colleagues in the middle or link up with the attack as much as he ought to. (3)
MIKEL OBI: Majority of Nigeria’s 64% ball possession advantage came from Mikel’s ball-holding skills but ultimately it didn’t help the Eagles’ cause as killed off the attacking instinct of the team with his decision-making, or rather a lack of it. (6)
AHMED MUSA: Missed a gilt-edged effort in the first half when he was slow to react to Emenike’s effort in the box but was anonymous thereafter, apart from some wayward corner-kicks. (4)
VICTOR MOSES: Would have prayed for a better performance than he had on the night. Largely un-anonymous for large parts of the game, it was not a surprise when he was pulled off for Shola Ameobi seven minutes after the restart. (4)
EMMANUEL EMENIKE: In a competition where the scoring hopes of the nation hung on his shoulders, Emenike did not get any favours from the referee despite the vicious kicks by the Iranian defence. He strayed from the centre to the wings but his most notable contribution was the lay-up for Musa in the first half. (5)
JOSEPH YOBO: A 29th minute substitute for the injured Oboabona, Yobo brought stability to the backline and went up for corner-kicks at the other end which ultimately proved futile. (5)
SHOLA AMEOBI: Came on for Victor Moses and immediately made his impact felt, using his physicality against the Iranian defence and nearly broke the deadlock on 90th minute with a header on target. (4)
OSAZE ODEMWINGIE: Subbed Ramon Azeez in the 69th minute but didn’t make a difference in a largely ineffectual team. (3)
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COMMENTS
I this agree with that Obi rating. Tell him he need to improve and also to be more disciplines with ball on the pitch, his holding on to ball too much. As if is the only one on the pitch. Tell him to be more tactical with the ball. I strongly believe I them Mr Improve.
These ratings are as nonsense as the game itself was:
The below is a better reflection of Nigeria’s embarrassing performance….and we have been well and truly slaughtered by the foreign media for it. I am afraid respect for Nigerian football has been completely lost and will take a very long time to be rebuilt.
Enyeama – 8/10 (Mostly didn’t have anything to do and that in itself is a danger to goalkeepers concentration. However when called upon he stood firm! Had he been beaten by Irans point blank header off a first half set piece it would not have been seen as a goal keeping error!)
Ambrose – 5/10 (hardly had to defend in this game. So what could he contribute to setting up attacks from the flank? Very little)
Oboabona – n/a (Subbed-off injured on 20 mins. Didn’t play for long enough to be rated.)
Omeruo – 6/10 (Did his job. One of the better performers on the night even though he had very little to do. There will be much busier nights when ratings will be harder to earn)
Oshaniwa – 5/10 (Just like Ambrose, hardly was called upon to defend. However in on the rare occasions when needed he was beaten easily. Was a willing supporter of the attack from the flank and delivered long throw-ins into the Iranian box. Hopefully he can improve as he’s not yet ready for this level of football.)
Mikel – 3/10 (Unbelievable performance. If you are looking for one of the main the reasons behind this lethargic display, LOOK NO FURTHER! Extremely slow in thoughts and execution hence destroying the urgency in our build-up play even before the ball gets into the Iranian half. Always dwelling on the ball and then passing backwards or sideways. Really would have looked more at home in the Iranian team. He attempted 19 long passes and completed 9.Please where was Keshi while this was happening? Was Mikel playing to instruction by doing this?
Onazi – 4/10 (before last night he was probably one of the most consistent performers in the team. You always know what to you are going to get with him, a modern day box to box midfielder and always positive in possession. Last night he tried hard, the tenacity and hard running was there but he just could not link up play effectively and then got frustrated by shooting from improbable areas.)
Azeez – 3/10 (I never saw him in this game apart from when he had cramps and took corners that did not beat the first defender.) Wont attach much blame to him as he really should not have been in the squad let alone a world cup starting 11. Perhaps his time is in the future.
Musa – 3 (Largely anonymous. Extremely poor touch and completely clueless in possession. Without his pace he’s a division 3 player at best. Yesterday he did not have the chance to use his pace hence the division 3 shift he delivered. I Also think both wingers (Musa and Moses)distinct lack of movement leaves the midfield with very few options to deliver passes contributing to the sideways and back passes)
Moses – 3/10 (Very frustrating performance from the player who really should be the key man in the team. Selfish in possession and fails in about half his dribble attempts, poor decision making in the final third and after several season in the English top flight still cannot take a corner kick?!)
Emenike – 3/10 (Has grown cocky since his rise to prominence in the team that he now argues with team mates in every game. Looks more and more like a one trick pony with each game and unfortunately that trick of outmuscling the last defender and running on goal won’t work when the last defender has support to double team marking him. But he thinks he’s superman and still tries anyway. Further evidence of a player not being properly managed. Never makes good runs off the ball like Musa and Moses so limiting the passing options from midfield. Only positives in this game was the delivery into the box which Musa didn’t not connect with in the first half. Extremely poor night.
Subs;
Yobo – 5/10 (Wasn’t tested. I’m certain almost any journey man centre back would have managed to curtail Iran’s lame attempts at attacking. So score is largely for support to attacking build-ups which really isn’t his job in the team)
Ameobi – 5/10 (2 shots attempted on goal in 37mins of play. Same amount as Emenike managed in 90mins. Surprisingly did better than most would have expected. Had he managed to find the net with his first glancing header for which he was adjudged to have fouled a defender while executing there would have been serious debates of Fifa conspiring against Nigeria…like we do with CAF.)
Odemwingie – 6/10 (Looked businesslike, showed urgency in his play and demeanour. Dropped deep to pick up the ball and drive forward several times and this was meant to be Azeez and Onazi’s job which they had failed to do miserably. Set up a volley with fine chest control in the Iranian box which was just off target and was incorrectly adjudged as handball by the ref.)
Keshi – 1/10 (Completely out of his depth! Did absolutely nothing to change proceedings as things went from very bad to unbearable. He had a team there for the taking and did not have the faintest clue what to do to take advantage. In fact had he attempted to change the shape of his team and it did not work perhaps he would have been able defendable. He did nothing. A glance at his bench must have been as depressing for him as it was for he fans. The Nigerian team was not managed in this game. Big shame on the so called big boss in yet another game that ended in big boos.)
Verdict: Based on this performance and the performances in the preceding warm up friendlies against Greece and USA, the 2 remaining fixtures for Nigeria in this tournament will end in defeat. Currently Nigeria are on a 9 game winless streak at the world cup.
Last 9 world cup games:
V Paraguay Lost 1 – 3
V Denmark Lost 1 – 4
V Argentina Lost 0 – 1
V Sweden Lost 1 – 2
V England Drew 0 – 0
V Argentina Lost 0 – 1
V Greece Lost 1 – 2
V South Korea Drew 2 – 2
V Iran Drew 0 – 0
With results like the above and performances like last night, Nigeria have it all to do to regain at least some respect on the world stage. Perhaps it would take at least another 4 years before any sort of amendments can begin to be made.
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Fantastic rating. Far better than Complete Sports’. Many tanx
Like I said earlier before the Eagle’s first game, taking Iran and Bosnia for granted and concentrating more attention on Argentina is not the best thing to do. Now ability to move to the 2nd round is now made the more difficult. How can we rest our hopes on beating Argentina to qualify? even a draw with Argentina may not be easy. What an up-hill task we are now left with. Good luck!
i think that this rating is so harsh i mean vincent and omeruo. in my candid opinion, those two were nigeria’s best performer on the night and deserves 7 to 8 in terms rating for the night.
I totally aggreed with Jay-Jay Okocha’s submission on the post-match analysis,l placed all the blame on Keshi for his inability to the read the match well and make right substitution.
Agreed,Moses was not effective with his poor ball decision each time he is with ball at opponent box,but this is a guy with a well know ability of taking on defenders and shreding them into pieces each time his with the ball.I would have expected Keshi to call him and tell him specifically what he should do when he gets the ball within the box of the opponent.He could have brought something out of it worse of all is to win a penalty for us-remenber most of the penalty Nigeria has won usually come from this.Instead of substituting him,Musa should have been removed for Shola instead,he was completely anonymous in the match,an imposing forward midfielder should have been brought in for Azzez as all the midfielders were only palying long ball.
Now we have an uphill task of qualifying from the group.I hope they would not play an open game against bosnia,it could be suicidal.
I totally aggreed with Jay-Jay Okocha’s submission on the post-match analysis,l placed all the blame on Keshi for his inability to the read the match well and make right substitutions.
Agreed,Moses was not effective with his poor ball decision each time he is with ball at opponent box,but this is a guy with a well known ability of taking on defenders and shreding them into pieces each time he’s with the ball.I would have expected Keshi to call him and tell him specifically what he should do when he gets the ball within the box of the opponent.He could have brought something out of it, worst still he could have won a penalty for us-remenber most of the penalty Nigeria has won usually come from this.Instead of substituting him,Musa should have been removed for Shola instead,he was completely anonymous in the match,an imposing forward midfielder should have been brought in for Azzez as all the midfielders were only playing long balls.
Now we have an uphill task of qualifying from the group.I hope they would not play an open game against bosnia,it could be suicidal.
Well individual can be armchair coaches in the leisure of their sitting rooms. The facts remains most of the players, especially the senior players in the team refused to play. Enyeama was equal to the task when required. Efe was a shadow of himself. He is known for his overlapping runs, which was non existence and his crosses. Juwon made some positive contribution, he showed a good progress from match against USA. Yobo, was another improvement, though he was trying to avoid mistakes. Omeruo, is a young enterprising defender that tried his best on the night. Mikel, pls watch replay of match and see, Nigeria is playing with two defensive midfielders, with Azzez playing in front of them as playmaker and link btw attack and midfield, count how many passes, Mikel and Onazi combined, instead they were cutting him off and just lumping balls upfront with the long balls passes. Onazi, I counted 17 misplacèd passes, as good as his work retention was, his ball distribution yesterday killed the team alongside Mikel, both playing in the engine room of the team. I hv followed this team and watch their matches live, and view each player technically, I realized that probably if the team is ready to use Azzez as the play maker, the young ball will do winders. He was full of running into channels and holes, look at early part of second half when he was being fed more wt passes, super eagles shows śigns of goals in offing before he was kicked badly and léft field of play. Musa as promising wt his speed as he could be, it appears he lack basics ingredients of a winger. No crosses and lack imagination. He shld look at himself yesterday, as himself if that is the best he can produce. Moses who has ability that can single handedly destroy defenders wás shadow of hîmself. He let himself down last night. Someone should tell Emenike, had should come down from his high horse and play for Nigeria. He was a totał disaster yesterday, where I was seated could see him with attitude of a player that is ready not to throw himself. Around for his country. Ameôbi tried hs best, but services were not forthcoming for a player who srtrife on crosses. Osaze made sôme positive contríbutions when he came for Azzez but our midfield then was outnumbered when defending . Overall we didn’t show character at all, are we playing short passes or long balls, no incisive shots or penetrating passes. Thére are rooms for greater improvements”
If we could not beat Iran then we have no business in Brazil, Keshi should bear the responsibility for the teams poor outing. He allowed sentiment to becloud his sense of judgment while building / naming his team, why would a coach only invite players that called or begged him at the expense of better players. The US national team coach travelled to germany and other parts of europe to convince US born footballers to play for their, so what you saw in their match against ghana wasn’t a fluke , it was a deliberate effort by coach who knew what was at stake. Keshi did not do enough to strengthen that team, he never traveled anywhere to meet any player that could have played for us, to him that would amount to begging
Rubbish rating. How can Mikel have the highest rating? Largely ineffectual in the game. The whole team was clueless without the ball. No link between the midfield and the attackers. I don’t see any tactical input by the coach overall..