{"id":1571,"date":"2019-05-02T17:30:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T16:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2019-07-06T17:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T16:08:00","slug":"afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-11\/","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary – Day 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I was in charge of Nigerian football, yesterday, I would have taken some very drastic decisions on the structure of the\u00a0Super Eagles<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Gernot Rohr should thank his lucky stars I am not.\u00a0 \u00a0I shall, however, express my personal thoughts on the humiliation of Nigeria in my column this weekend. So, for those interested to know my views and what I would have done, don\u2019t miss it in any of the three daily newspapers I write for every Saturday (Complete Sports<\/i><\/b>, Guardian<\/strong> and\u00a0Vanguard<\/i><\/b>) and also on my new website: www.mathematical7.com<\/a>.\u00a0 So, what happened in the Nigerian camp beyond Amaju Pinnick\u2019s intervention in the dressing room at the stadium in Alexandra after that dreadful match, and the training at dawn of the team yesterday?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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I can now report that the players have met several times in organized and even unorganized meetings since the match that has become a nightmare that can only be exorcised by winning the next match.\u00a0\u00a0Their mood in the camp and during the meetings has been described by the fly on the wall <\/i><\/b>as\u00a0\u201c…righteous anger building up in the team now to make amends on the pitch on Saturday\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b>I am told the players actually think it is all their fault, and that they have let Nigerians down.\u00a0 There is no conversation about money in the camp anymore, even though they must be silently ruing their loss of some N162million for that lost match.\u00a0\u00a0Leon Balogun and Ndidi are particularly psychologically injured and have been rather downcast in camp.\u00a0 Leon\u2019s elementary error of moving away from a pass instead of towards it was a gift to Madagascar, who, before then, and even after, could not create a single goal scoring chance of their own.\u00a0\u00a0The second goal was another unearned gift. Ndidi came in as a replacement.\u00a0 Determined to take the battle to the opponents he started to charge like a bull in a china shop and went into a tackle that was completely unnecessary, giving away a free kick in a dangerous area close enough to the Nigerian goal for Madagascar to take a chance and shoot for goal.\u00a0 It was their lucky day. The shot was deflected accidentally by Ndidi beyond Ezenwa\u2019s reach in goal.\u00a0\u00a0It was another gift.\u00a0\u00a0Nigeria did not recover from both goals.\u00a0 They could not even create a single clear scoring chance till the end.\u00a0 They never looked capable to create and score any goal even if the match had gone on for a whole month.\u00a0 The three Nigerian players, Leon, Ogu and Ndidi must have been deeply affected by their errors.\u00a0\u00a0Gernot Rohr, who should have taken the brunt of all the criticisms has cleverly deflected responsibility for the failed match.\u00a0 He was seen on television smiling when he granted an interview after the match.\u00a0 Yesterday at training Gernot took Leon and Ogu aside and spoke to them at length. The impact of that conversation will be known soon when he fields either, or both, or none of them in the next match.\u00a0 Gernot Rohr\u2019s experimenting surely must have ended with that match.\u00a0 Everything now is on the tactical and psychological state of the best set of players he has assembled to play the, obviously, more difficult match against Ghana?\u00a0 What would be the greatest incentive to get the Super Eagles to rise above their present pain, play well and win the next match?\u00a0\u00a0That the players know they have disappointed Nigerians and want to make amends may just be the tonic.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to visit: www.mathematical7.com<\/a> for special treats on Nigerian sports seen through my eyes through the ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I was in charge of Nigerian football, yesterday, I would have taken some very drastic decisions on the structure of the\u00a0Super Eagles.\u00a0 Gernot Rohr should thank his lucky stars I am not.\u00a0 \u00a0I shall, however, express my personal thoughts on the humiliation of Nigeria in my column this weekend. So, for those interested to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-afcon-2019-daily-diary","category-featured","category-football"],"gutentor_comment":1,"yoast_head":"\nAFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 11 - Mathematical 7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mathematical7.com\/m7\/afcon-2019-daily-diary-day-11\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON 2019 Daily Diary - Day 11 - Mathematical 7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If I was in charge of Nigerian football, yesterday, I would have taken some very drastic decisions on the structure of the\u00a0Super Eagles.\u00a0 Gernot Rohr should thank his lucky stars I am not.\u00a0 \u00a0I shall, however, express my personal thoughts on the humiliation of Nigeria in my column this weekend. 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