Poland World Cup: Nigerians Bemoan Flying Eagles’ Performance, Call For Overhaul
By Our Correspondent
A cross section of Nigeria football followers including seasoned sports journalists have bemoaned the lacklustre performance of the Flying Eagles at the ongoing Poland U-20 World Cup and called for a revamp of the team and its technical crew, Bestchoicesports.com.ng can report.
The followers who expressed their views in various social media platforms including Whatsapp and Twitter, questioned the commitment of the players and the capacity of the coaching crew in the overall performance of the team at the championship.
Flying Eagles yesterday lost to fellow Africans, Senegal by 2-1 to crash out of the championship at the round of 16.
This is the 6th time the team is crashing out at the knockout stage of the competition out of 7th qualifications in recent times. Hence the views expressed by these Nigerians reflect the lacuna within the team.
Reacting to the results on the @thenff Twitter handle, Anthony Ade said “To be honest Nigeria never got it right at the u20 level. Since 2005 final appearance. We just cant find the right quality set of players to excute that age range.”
Abijo Segun said “We actually played way better in the second half.wasn’t a bad game just lacked the cutting edge and finish. Heads up for Okon and Makanjuola for me
Fekzey Concept commenting @oriyomiagbje “We had the best u20 team in 2005 , The Mikel generation, they played with their hearts and souls, in fact you would be happy to burn your fuel to watch them play cos (because) they (played) with vision. Having a good youth system is very important for our football to grow, the u17 has done that over the years and it should be maintained
“Our u20 system is crumbling, I remembered when Ghana had a bad national team, they built from the u17 squad that squad was the Asamoah Gyan squad if we all remembered, this team played lyk dere was nothing at stake
“NFF has to work on the u20 system, we should pick a team with the passion to succeed with deep and thorough screening cos (because) it’s our countries (country’s) identity that should be protected and represented well.”
Britology @SC_Bright0 said I just told someone about the scores of today’s (yesterday’s) game and he said “how Nigeria go win, wen na hausa Dem pack full d team”. That reaction and the mentality is awful…#U20WC,”
Ajey IK @Ik_of_today “Nff should be blamed for giving coach Paul this job. That man is not technical at all. This is the worst U20 ever.”
The reactions on Whatsapp groups are not overtly different.
According to Moomeen Tourshaw “This clueless Paul Aigbogun is the reason Manu Garba was sacked. What difference did he make? NFF is too political these day (days). I keep saying it that our grassroots teams should be led by grassroot coaches
Jerry Odung warned about the same fate visiting the Olympic team and advised “Another disaster waiting to happen is the under 23 team coached by Imama. Nigerian teams do well with coaches who were renown (renowned) in their playing days. Bring in siasia now for Olympics before it’s too late. This local coaches with no experience have nothing to offer
“Flying Eagles class of 2019 is the worst ever U20 team I have ever seen.
“It was a disgrace seeing the old men paraded as U20 dent the nation’s football status
“What hurts most is that we have a set standard at this level of FIFA World Cup and if we could not surpass the standard we should at least maintain the standard,” Prince Told Atoba said
Adewale Ajayi who is known for his outspokenness concerning Nigeria football was sarcastic in his view “Nigeria men, Russia 2018 we went out in second round. Poland 2019 we went out (in) second Round
“Now see what jedijedi is doing to our men. They cant go more than two rounds.
“Hope our girls will prove us wrong in France and show the world that Nigeria women are good on grass and can do more than two rounds. We are watching.”
Another Whatsappuser with the name Luther, said “The Nff need to re-evaluate how they appoint these coaches.
“I am of the opinion that (they) should try and check the antecedents of these coaches in terms of playing career and for those who were not Ex-players they must ensure that they have served as assistant to other national team coaches. You don’t buy experience in the market.
“And to forestall unhealthy rivalry where assistant coaches wishes the head coach bad luck so that they can take over or an assistant coach turns gossip because is (his) loyalty is to the administrators who appointed him, I suggest the head should be allowed to choose his assistant as musketeers, if they succeed they are together and if they fail they are all in the ship.
“The goalkeeper trainer Shuaibu i discovered when he was with Imama at Rangers and Elkanemi worked largely with foreign goalkeepers. If he cannot train any of the local lads, why should he be trusted with such task?”God help Nigeria.”
Jide Bodunde said “The elimination of the Flying Eagles tonight (Monday night) by their more purposeful opponents didn’t come much of a surprise to me because the team’s selection was bad from the get go. To be fair to the boys, they gave an improved performance tonight but it wasn’t going to be good enough. Let’s build on the positive from the handful of players who distinguished themselves. Players like Okon, Makanjuola and Bashiru. I think they are good enough to be invited to the U23
“We can’t wait for another two years because the same scenario would play out itself. Our National teams shouldn’t be a place where people buy and sell. If there’s any concrete evidence that suggests monies were paid for players to be picked, let’s bring it out and nail these coaches to prevent same from happening in future. I don’t have anything on the coaches, but i dare say some of the players picked were not on merit. We’re better than this shame,” he concluded.
Report coming in from Poland indicates that the U-20 lads are protesting against none payment t of their allowances, constantly they boycotted their scheduled flight back home today.