Obviously as a Nigerian I’m not happy that the Super Eagles lost to Spain. But the score line was a bit unfair to us, going by how the game unfolded.
I believe we got undone by the early goal Spain scored because we had to chase the game.
Spain got on top after that early Jordi Alba goal and it was tough as we tried to fight back and get the equalizer.
It was a cheap goal to give away but I was impressed with the way the Eagles responded and created chances.
But like I wrote in the past during this Confederations Cup, our inability to take our chances led to the team’s downfall.
If you don’t take your chances at this level you get punished, especially against the world and European champions.
But the defeat to Spain was not just because of the missed chances and our poor finishing. The whole team has to take responsibility.
I understand that Nigerians will be frustrated by the team’s lack of goals, but the Eagles also have to learn to defend better.
Even if you are not scoring many goals but you defend well, chances are you will not lose.
All in all, this has been a good lesson for the Eagles. Sometimes you think you have arrived only for a result like this to give you the wake-up call.
It is always good to participate in tough competitions like this, play against bigger sides and learn from your mistakes. We can go back to the drawing board, study videos of this tournament and go into tough games with the right mentality.
One thing the match showed us is that if you have a go at the Spain defence you can rattle them. The Eagles attacked Spain and the result might have been different if we had taken our chances.
If we could create chances against the best team in the world, who says we can’t compete against any team.
If we meet Spain again the result could be different, because today the major difference was that they took their chances while we didn’t take ours.
It is not surprising that people are talking about the absence of Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emenike. But even if they were available, we still have to improve our finishing before we can score goals.
We have already shown that we can attack any team in the world.
I am sure the players and the coaches are better off for this experience and it will stand them in good stead if we qualify for the World Cup.
The players and coaches should not feel bad about their two losses in this tournament. They competed till the last minute against Uruguay and they were not disgraced against Spain.
Now we have the World Cup qualifiers to look ahead to and we should go into it with confidence.
Nigerians should not take this as a letdown because we lost two games. We should regard it as a great adventure by our team, one in which they came out with their heads held high.
Spain got on top after that early Jordi Alba goal and it was tough as we tried to fight back and get the equalizer.
It was a cheap goal to give away but I was impressed with the way the Eagles responded and created chances.
But like I wrote in the past during this Confederations Cup, our inability to take our chances led to the team’s downfall.
If you don’t take your chances at this level you get punished, especially against the world and European champions.
But the defeat to Spain was not just because of the missed chances and our poor finishing. The whole team has to take responsibility.
I understand that Nigerians will be frustrated by the team’s lack of goals, but the Eagles also have to learn to defend better.
Even if you are not scoring many goals but you defend well, chances are you will not lose.
All in all, this has been a good lesson for the Eagles. Sometimes you think you have arrived only for a result like this to give you the wake-up call.
It is always good to participate in tough competitions like this, play against bigger sides and learn from your mistakes. We can go back to the drawing board, study videos of this tournament and go into tough games with the right mentality.
One thing the match showed us is that if you have a go at the Spain defence you can rattle them. The Eagles attacked Spain and the result might have been different if we had taken our chances.
If we could create chances against the best team in the world, who says we can’t compete against any team.
If we meet Spain again the result could be different, because today the major difference was that they took their chances while we didn’t take ours.
It is not surprising that people are talking about the absence of Victor Moses and Emmanuel Emenike. But even if they were available, we still have to improve our finishing before we can score goals.
We have already shown that we can attack any team in the world.
I am sure the players and the coaches are better off for this experience and it will stand them in good stead if we qualify for the World Cup.
The players and coaches should not feel bad about their two losses in this tournament. They competed till the last minute against Uruguay and they were not disgraced against Spain.
Now we have the World Cup qualifiers to look ahead to and we should go into it with confidence.
Nigerians should not take this as a letdown because we lost two games. We should regard it as a great adventure by our team, one in which they came out with their heads held high.
No comments:
Post a Comment