Nigeria 0-3 Spain: The Super Eagles crash out │ Mikel Obi too critical

Poor finishing 

The Super Eagles were sent packing from the confederations cup yesterday night after losing to world champions Spain. Honestly, any Nigerian supporter expecting the Super Eagles to defy the odds and qualify after their defeat against Uruguay was bound to be disappointed.

In a game of such importance, you'd expect the boys to be fully focused from the first minute but that wasn't the case as Spain were allowed too much freedom from the beginning. Iniesta was the first to test Enyeama  after going past the Nigerian defense with ease.

The Nigerians didn't take that as a warning and they let Jordi Alba get past three of them to coolly slot the ball in to the bottom corner.

We quickly got back to life after conceding and began to cause the Spaniards problems. Sunday Mba tested Valdes with a stinging drive after getting on the end of a rare Brown Ideye pass.

With some few minutes before the half time whistle, We put our foot off the gas, allowing the Spaniards numerous chances to extend their lead. Soldado failed to score on two occasions as Enyeama did well to deny him while Fabregas sent an effort crashing against the post, luckily for us Enyeama was able to gather.

The second half saw more horrible finishing from the Super Eagles as Musa got down the right flank and squared the ball in to the path of Ideye who contrived to  completely miss the ball. Soon after, the Spaniards scored a second goal courtesy of substitutes Silva and Torres who sent a flying head in to the net as a move left the Nigerian defense static.

There was still time for some shocking finishing from the Nigerian strikers as Musa and substitute Gambo wasted chances to get at least a consolation goal for their team.

Jordi Alba though, had enough of this wastefulness. He received a long pass from Silva and    had only the keeper to beat which he did quite easily slotting the ball in to an empty net.

As the referee blew the final whistle, Spain and Uruguay (After thrashing Tahiti) 8-0 are the teams to advance in the competition.

Mikel Obi played well in midfield, making tackles and often going on slaloming runs. After the match he said:

“We came out to defeat the Spanish side and I think we may have even had the better possession against the World Champions but we simply did not take our chances and they took theirs, so we paid for our mistakes and are now heading out of the championship."

I don't think there was any point in the game where Nigeria had more possession. The least possession of the ball the Spaniards had during the match was 54%.
They also had 17 shots on target compared to our 8. So we shouldn't put the blame entirely on our strikers' inability to put the ball in the back of the net.
Even though they should have done a lot better, they were playing a team that have gone 24 games undefeated. Like somebody said yesterday that it was 8 Barcelona players, 2 Real Madrid players against the Nigerians.
Steven Keshi must ensure that lessons have been learned and work on doing better in the World cup finals next year.

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Boko Haram chase thousands out of Borno villages │Preview: Nigeria vs Spain

Boko Haram: Resign or die

The Boko Haram are on the offensive again in Borno state amid the state of emergency rule imposed by the president.They have regrouped and have threatened to kill every last one of civil servants in the Towns of Bama and Gwoza. A person who fled to Maiduguri had this to say:

''They warned government officials and civil servants in Bama to resign or else face death in the next seven days. We are all scared, this could be more deadly, so we ran for our dear lives,” 

While a police officer said:

 Boko Haram fighters were ransacking homes in neighboring Gwoza district, forcing residents to hide in caves in the rocky hills.

Bama  and Gwoza are towns where the insurgents have a stronghold, few weeks ago in Bama about 60 people were killed including police men, soldiers and civilians.
After many troops were deployed in the state as the Government went on the offensive to  bring an end to the saga, the JTF raided and dislodged the terrorists from their camps.
But it seems that they have regrouped and are now issuing threats to Government officials to leave their jobs or face death.
You cant really tell what is happening. Are the JTF acquiring enough intelligence to capture these terrorists? Do they have a detailed plan of attack without resulting to massive civilian casualties? Are the security forces ready to control the exodus that will ensure in the light of the situation. We can only hope they ready and can wrestle back control of these places back in the hands of the Government.  

Nigeria vs Spain

Nigeria play World champions Spain in their final Confederations Cup Group B game at the Estadio Castelao on Sunday.

Having lost to Uruguay in their last match, the Super eagles will need to win by at least four goals to qualify or hope that Uruguay fail to beat the footballing giants Tahiti.

Nigeria is likely bowing out because Spain rested  their first team players against Tahiti ( and still scored 10 goals) and will play a fresh first 11 with the likes of Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Fabregas in the mix. Also, the Uruguayans know that they have to better Nigeria's result on the day when they take on minors Tahiti.

Although the Super eagles have a daunting task at hand, they should focus on winning the game so that they can bow out with their heads held high.

Hope the boys nick a win against the Furious reds! 

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Nigeria 1-2 Uruguay: The Super Eagles downed by Centurion Forlan

If there was any chance that the Super Eagles might make it to the semifinals of the 2013 Confederations Cup, they must take at least a point against Uruguay to do that. After yesterdays defeat the destiny of the Super Eagles in this competition is definitely out of their hands.
The match kicked off with Uruguay looking the brighter of the two sides launching waves of attack on the Nigerian defense.
Although the Super Eagles to settled down, with Ahmed Musa in particular causing problems for the Uruguayan Center backs with his mazy runs down the left hand channel. It was Uruguay who broke the dead lock when Diego Forlan found Lugano with a ball fizzed across the Nigerian box. The defender kept his composure and found the back of the net with ease.
There were very few chances for either sides after that goal with Ideye being denied by a last ditch tackle by Perreira after He has been found by a lofted pass in to the box.
A nice move saw Nigeria equalize with 37 minutes on the clock, Ideye fed Mikel just outside the 18 yard box, He took the ball to his weaker left foot beating Lugano in the process and curled a delicious finish in to the top corner.
The Super Eagles began the second half with more intent but it was the South American champions who took the lead.
Mikel lost the ball to Suarez, who then passed it to Cavani. Cavani laid the ball to Forlan who fired a first time shot in to the top corner leaving Enyeama helpless.
From then all the Uruguayans did was to protect their lead and the Eagles had most of the possession for the last 20 minutes but couldn't do much with it. They lacked fire power upfront.
It was Uruguay who had chances to further extend their but Cavani was wasteful on two occasions.
The match  ended in favour of the South American champions moving them to second in the group behind World champions Spain. While the Nigerians have an outside chance of qualifying to the semifinal.
Vincent Enyaema had this to say after the defeat.

"It's like Rome, that wasn't built in a day. We have good players and we are trying to achieve good things. [Captaining the side] is amazing. A great feeling. There is no better thing to be in history,"

"Nobody would have believed that we would play this well. The bookmakers never gave us a chance. We forced Uruguay to defend all of the game.

"We are on the same page as Uruguay. We have three points, they have three points. They have a more easy game, and we have Spain, but nobody knows what can happen. Maybe we can do it."

We had more possession but apart from the goal by Mikel we didn't create clear cut chances. We shouldn't be talking about the match as if we just lost the final against Spain Tahiti, after having 100% possession and 50 shots on target.

Hope the boys get a result against Spain.

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