Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the duo of Francis Uzoho and Maduka Okoye in the senior national team.
He made this known on the backdrop of Uzoho’s goalkeeping blunders that cost Nigeria qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Recall that Uzoho was Nigeria’s first-choice during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, while Okoye was the number goalkeeper at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, in Cameroon earlier this year.
But both goalkeepers seen recent individual errors stopped the Super Eagles’ progress at two major competitions.
Okoye fumbled a long-range shot from Tunisia player, Youssef Msakni, the only goal that knocked Nigeria out of 2021 AFCON, while Uzoho allowed a speculative Thomas Partey shot to go under him last month as the Black Stars of Ghana beat the Super Eagles in a World Cup playoff to qualify for Qatar.
Both goalkeepers have come under attack from a section of Super Eagles’ supporters on social media for their costly errors.
And Ighalo believes the pair are young boys and will grow.
“I felt sad about all the abuse [directed at Okoye and Uzoho],” Ighalo told ESPN in an interview.
“I know Nigerians always want to win, but these are young boys.
“One mistake is not the end of the world. People tend to forget that footballers are humans too. We cannot destroy the confidence of these boys because of one mistake.
“Okoye is a good goalkeeper. Uzoho is a good goalkeeper and they will grow and learn from this experience. But they need support.”
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COMMENTS
Igalo is ryte. Nigereans haff to bi pashient with Usoho and Ogoye. They weel improof.
Thank you Odion we know if you had played even 30mins at MKO, Nigeria would have qualified for Qatar. As they say, that is now history.
Very simple and it can only come from a detribalised Nigerian. Those boys need encouragement and support.
Hello my name sake, hope you are also progressive?
This is one identity i have been using for some years on this forum nd renowned for been progressive ideologically….. please don’t impersonate
And some idiots went as far as destroying stadium equipment just because of Uzoho error, nonsense.
Who told you it was because of his ERROR they went ahead to VANDALIZED the STADIUM??
Tell us why they did @Monkey
The most annoying part was when they sent threat letters to Okoye as if Nigeria must win everytime. Stupid animals.
Probably the fools wanted Eguavoen to stay behind Uzoho to party the ball. Uzoho no worry nothing so you and Okoye
Mister man can you shut up! Are they the only goalkeeper’s in a population of over 300 million people? We don’t want them again. Shikena.
LMFAO!!!
NIGERIA is over 300 MILLION people in POPULATION?
LMFAO!!
Maybe na you BORN the rest POPULATION…
LMFAO!!!
Hehehehehe…..I’ve told them before, they should go and bring their messianic goalkeepers from wherever they want to bring them and we will all continue going round in circles. That patience we dont want to have, we will have it by force.
We would have long buried the issue of goalkeeping in the SE if they didnt nail Uzoho’s confidence to the cross early 2019 simply because he made a mistake vs Seychelles. 3 uninterrupted years in goal (with consistency at club level) would have long ended our worries.
Mistakes and young goalkeepers are like Siamese twins. You have to be patient when performing the surgery to separate them.
The messaihs we want to bring were top choices in their clubs….something warranted them losing their 1st choice places.
If it were to be Uzoho in goal, he wouldn’t have conceded that goal Okoye conceeded…..BAM….and Uzoho follows suit. Because he hadn’t also faced that exact scenerio before too. And I make bold to say this day…that any other type of goal could have gone past Okoye vs Ghana…but that particular shot from Partey wouldnt have, because he would have known/deciphered how to deal with such swerving bouncy shots by taking a step or two forward just before the shot was taken. That is how goalkeepers learn…..and that is why they get better with age and experience.
Once again, I wish y’all well in your impatient search for another Enyeama in less than 10 international caps. But the humming bird that says it cannot because of ‘tottottottotoh’ say ‘toh’ would only look back in regret of worm it has lost.
A good keeper is a good keeper from cradle. When Eyamea was discovered his first game was against England at the world cup and he did very well to keep a clean sheet. Since then Eyama never looked back. Same story goes with Peter Rofai, Karl Ikeme et al. Every player is not a national team player according late Stephen Keshi, Some are only good at club level. International football need that extra stuff..Thats why it’s better to employ a Coach who as been there before and knows what’s it takes to win a tournament..the time to gamble is over. SE must be handed over to a Coach with good pedigree to manage without interference so he can discover his own kind of players base on his experience. Eagles shall rise again.
Hahahaha…Enyeama never looked back indeed….LMAOooo.
The last time I checked, Uzoho also had 1 good game vs Argentina. The last time I also checked, Okoye also had 1 good game vs Brazil too.
And afterwards…???
A new goalkeeper will have that 1 good game, that one good game where he doesnt disappoint, that 1 good game that will fetch him a recall. Its what happens afterwards that matters
We endured Enyeama for another 3 years after the England game before we could repost confidence in him….starting from his next match vs Senegal in a friendly where he fumbled a cross and the next match in Luanda where he was beaten by Fabrice Akwa from the most impossible angle a GK can ever get beaten.
The likes of Chijioke Ejiogu and Sam Okoye were miles ahead of him and winning GK of the year in the local league while Enyeama was still flapping at crosses and parring shots onto the feet of onrushing goalkeepers. Dele Aiyenugba is still regarded as the hero of the 2 CAFCL wins of the Enyimba era of that time rather than Vincent. I dont need to repost his catalogue of howlers in his early days here. Manuel Figueredo’s freekick that crept under his armpit into the net to knock us out of qualification for the 2006 world cup is still fresh in my head. Even Vincent himself cannot claim to have been an excellent goalkeeper in his early days in the national team.
But the long-term potentials handlers of the national team at that time saw in him made up for the short term success others who were way older than him could have brought, rather than truncate his growth.
Peter Rufia was never a hit from the start too we were patient with him till he matured in the late 80s. We had to at some point bring back Peter Fregene and Best Ogedegbe for quick fixes when his boat had not steadied.
Carl Ikeme at 22 was a benchwarmer in the English championship with wolves and on loan in league one at Charlton Athletic.
But as I said, good luck to y’all while looking for your goalkeeper from the cradle. He had better brought that cradle along with him while coming to the national team, because he will need it to cry on when I makes his first blunder and gets the hammer too
Enough said already
@Dr Drey, Deo,et al. Do you remember my article before the Ghana game? In which I tried to emphasiZe that SE might not cross the Ghana hurdle unless the problem in the goal keeping department was sorted out. I added that instead of Egu, traveling to London to met Lookman, Denis he should use the opportunity to go round and check out some good keepers from where he can select a national team material. Some fomurite jettisoned me while others swiped my opinion under the carpet. Today what I forsaw has come to pass. I want to once again emphasize now and here that Okoye, Uzoho and Akpeyi are not national team first team keepers. I have seen them all. They cannot safe Eagles against competent opposition. Pls note it somewhere cos I shall revisit this poat.Nigeria is a nation of 200million. There is a national team keeper somewhere .we must go search and discover him. Otherwise the generation of Osihem , Ndidi and co might never win anything for Eagles. I say this in tears
The funny thing is that you claimed there is a national team goalkeeper somewhere…..but you yourself cannot tell us where exactly.
I put it to you that if truly there was any goalkeeper who was head and shoulders better than the ones we have now, you wouldnt have hesitated to blurt out his name.
Gks who are getting mentioned in team of the season in Dutch league isnt good enough
Gks who are getting mentioned in CAF CL team of the season are not good enough
It is that guy that hasnt even debuted yet that is the Vincent Enyeama of 2010….LMAooo
Congratulations. Good luck with your search.
Who told you it was because of his ERROR they went ahead to VANDALIZED the STADIUM??
What are you talking about here Ighalo? Patient? After how many years? So six not good enough to prepared a world class goalie?
Are Uzoho and Okoye only the two keepers we have in Nigeria and abroad?
I can boldly tell you that the goalkeep that was in goal against Mexico was good enough to be among the team against Ghana but corruption have eaten deep, Agu opted for John Noble, Akpeyi and Uzoho. What was the result in the end?
If I may ask, how old was Gorge Campus of Mexico? He was very young as Mexican no1 goalie back then. He was always confident, bold and ready to served his fatherland with passion.
This is why I am always laughing at some people here on CSN. Many of these generations have started watching football in 2000.
However, what can we call Uzoho, Okoye, Akpeyi and John Noble? Still, you are saying will should be patient, how?
If not because of corruption, you were not deserve to be in the Super Eagles against Ghana but Amaju Pinnick again did his thing and Nigeria failed to qualify to the world cup.
To my surprise now, Amaju, Sheyi and Diko are still in charge of our sports. What are they still doing there? I don’t know.
Nigerians as usual, we can only do the talking for few days and that is it. Can’t we continue the protest?
What can we say to these leaders that preferred Ighalo to Dessers? What can we say to the leaders and the biased coaches that prepared Akpeyi, John Noble, Uzoho and Okoye to Adeleye and Osagwe? Are you people kidding me ni kę?
I am sorry for these leaders. No wonder they are still supporting Buhari and now Tinubu to continue from where Buhari will stop. Kai, Nigeria is no longer a peaceful country am afraid. People are dying unexpectedly every day.
Like Amaju Pinnick like the rest of our leaders in power. They have no shame at all. They can’t step down because of the atrocities they have committed. They will rather die there.
What a leader? He, Amaju that am talking about brought Oga Rohr to Nigeria, the gaffer couldn’t get a reliable keeper abroad and also in the NPFL rather than John Noble and Super Eagles have been struggling to produce a reliable goalie till today.
I now realize that only one percent of us wants a better Nigeria but 99 percent of our leaders/citizens doesn’t become of shabby job they are doing to put Nigeria down. Forgetting that they have pledged to Nigeria as their country. Time will definitely tell.
Hmmm. This is why they are doing samething over and over again and expecting different results. It is not possible kę.
Those who are angry to work should get the job. It doesn’t matter if the new gaffer is white, black or brown but what is more important now is how to rebuild Super Eagles because Eagles under the new coach. More so, Eagles did not have a style of play under Oga Rohr and coach Eguavoen.
Nonetheless, am talking about the positions of the NFF and the coaching crew of the Super Eagles.
If truly NFF wanted to know we still have abundant talents in Nigeria, they should make announcement on radio and TV.
The new NFF and the coaching crew should say the types of players and goalies they wants and they should throw the camp wide open for screening. But as I said above, they won’t do tgis because of corruption. We still have fantastic players in Nigeria, I am so sure of that. What us lacking is loyalty in our system.
They, our leaders/NFF don’t want the best for our country but for themselves.
The home based team that played against Mexico were not the best to represent Nigeria but if you know you know.
Ighalo, please and please, Uzoho and Okoye are not the two keepers we have. We can not be patient any longer because we deserved the best period. God bless Nigeria!!!
Nigeria is one bush country where they want to kill goalkeepers for an error. Look at the mistakes made by the Bayern and Chelsea goalkeepers in the champions League tonight! It was Aghayowa and Nwosu who started the terror campaign against Okoye and Uzoho. As ex-players I thought they knew better. But actually Nigerian ex-internationals are not very intelligent people.
To be Sincere Uzoho messed up against Ghana,the most painful part of his stupidity of goal keeping against Ghana was the Thomas Partey’s shot passed under his armpit. What a shameful goalkeeping from Uzoho. For those of you who just started watching football,it was a friendly match Abiodun Baruwa made a mistake and that cost him his place in the the National team.Uzoho was exposed by Thomas Partey….
We couldn’t even see any exclusive interview from that dunce Nwosu since our own failed woefully. See what Mendy and Neur did yesterday? That will make it 7 goals conceded within 4 days by that world class Mendy. If to say it was Okoye that conceded that ummmm. Don’t even get it when people blame both Uzoho and Okoye for our woes but we had ample time to score a goal or two in that match just that our technical bench was clueless despite having 9 consortium of them and that over hyped technical savy Amuneke. People left the main issue and start running after another thing. Heard our technical department headed by Eguavon is working they are presently negotiating with Toni Conceisao ex Cameroon coach.