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Plans Fresh Strike Options, Thinks CHAN
As Mikel rues ‘wasteful Eagles’
Super Eagles Head Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, was a sober figure after the team lost 3-0 to Spain in its last group game on Sunday and thus crashed out of the ongoing Confederations Cup holding in Brazil and has already started a post mortem.
Team’s Media Officer Ben Alaiya, quotes Keshi as saying despite his bold face on injuries to some of his key players, it turned out that injuries actually decimated the performance of the team at the tournament.
“I can’t imagine that my top striker Emmanuel Emenike will miss some of the goals that we missed and even Ogenyi Onazi was sorely missed, Victor Moses would have ruined any team here and ofcourse several other players that should have been here could not make it due to injuries. Among them United States-based Bright Dike.”
Keshi then declared that he knows exactly what to do while appealing to Nigerians to forgive the team for the less than average performance at the tournament. He promised that the team will come good in the World Cup qualifiers.
“We want to come back here next year and make an impact. This is a dress rehearsal and I can assure that the Super Eagles will be among the top nations when the Brazil 2014 World Cup starts,” he said.
Keshi also revealed that he has fresh options for the national team when the team resumes for the final World Cup qualifier match against Malawi in September.
On his next move, Keshi says he is ready to qualify Nigeria for the first time for the African Nations championships meant for players playing in the local leagues of countries in Africa (CHAN).
“We would go back home take a few days rest and prepare for our CHAN qualifiers against Cote d’Ivoire in the coming days and hopefully we should be able to make it through,” he said.
Meanwhile, Super Eagles midfielder, John Mikel Obi, has joined Head Coach Stephen Keshi in saying that the team’s marksmen at the ongoing Confederations Cup were too wasteful which contributed to the team crashing out of the championship.
Speaking after the team’s 3-0 loss to Spain in its last group game, Mikel declared that opportunities created by the team were too numerous but were simply not put away.
“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.”
Mikel says he was not taking anything away from the Spaniards whom he describes as fantastic but simply want Nigerians strikers to be more potent in from of goal. The Chelsea of England midfield star, who played the last two games with a slight fever says Nigerian will be back in Brazil next year from where the world will see the best of the reigning African champions.
Meanwhile the Super Eagles will depart Fortaleza for Sao Paolo en rout Lagos on Monday morning. The team is expected to leave its Seara Praia Hotel in Fortaleza by 10:30am local time, which is 2:30pm Nigerian time for Sao Paolo from where it will link a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa and another to Lagos.
Some of the foreign-based players will not be part of the returning party as they jet out to either meet their clubs for pre-season tours or plan for new abodes in the coming season in Europe that begins in the August.
