No joking around, says Siasia
Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, is to set the ball rolling as he begins to perfect strategies for the must win match against Ethiopia on Sunday. The camping exercise for the invited players for the testy tie gets underway in Abuja later today as the Eagles camp officially opens for business.
The Eagles gaffer has given till tomorrow (Tuesday) as deadline for all invited players to hit camp or forget about playing any part in the African Nations Cup qualifying game which will be coming up on March 27 at the Abuja National Stadium. The Ethiopian game is the first real test for Siasia who was handed the Eagles job last December following the departure of Swede Lars Lagerback, and the for the Beijing 2008 silver winning coach, only a convincing victory in the game is acceptable.
“We have no choice than to beat Ethiopia and get our qualification back on track,” he said in a recent interview. The Super Eagles are in second place behind Guinea in Group 4, with three points, while the Guineans have six points with only the group leaders assured the automatic ticket to the biannual football championship to be co-hosted this time by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon
Kalika’s take on tactics
Siasia’s assistant, Simon Kalika told MTNFootball.com that they plan to put Ethiopia on the back foot as early as possible when the two teams clash on Sunday. “I don’t have any doubts that we will win,” he said. “But we need to score goals. My bigger joy would be if we can play the way we want the team to play. This means that our players should ensure that they are far away from our own goal area as they mount pressure throughout the game on Ethiopia. When we are in possession, we will open up the pitch by playing down the wings with a high ball circulation, we would try to bring out our crosses and score goals.
We want to play with a lot of movement, with a lot of speed coupled with a lot of runs on the wings. This is how we want to play not only against the Ethiopians but even if we play against world champions Spain. This time around we don’t want to fall back. We don’t want to play defensive football as well as counter football. We want to put high pressure in our play to shock our opponents. The moment the other team is building, our defenders are building too. That is chasing the ball already.”
Twenty five players, five of which are home based players, have been invited for the game. Nigeria beat Ethiopia 4-0 in a 1994 World Cup qualifying match in Lagos the last time both countries clashed at full international level.
Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, is to set the ball rolling as he begins to perfect strategies for the must win match against Ethiopia on Sunday. The camping exercise for the invited players for the testy tie gets underway in Abuja later today as the Eagles camp officially opens for business.
The Eagles gaffer has given till tomorrow (Tuesday) as deadline for all invited players to hit camp or forget about playing any part in the African Nations Cup qualifying game which will be coming up on March 27 at the Abuja National Stadium. The Ethiopian game is the first real test for Siasia who was handed the Eagles job last December following the departure of Swede Lars Lagerback, and the for the Beijing 2008 silver winning coach, only a convincing victory in the game is acceptable.
“We have no choice than to beat Ethiopia and get our qualification back on track,” he said in a recent interview. The Super Eagles are in second place behind Guinea in Group 4, with three points, while the Guineans have six points with only the group leaders assured the automatic ticket to the biannual football championship to be co-hosted this time by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon
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