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After seven
training sessions and two friendly matches with the provisional 30
players, Super Eagles coach, Lars Lagerback, dropped seven on Monday.

The dropped players are Ike Uche, Victor Anichebe, Peter Utaka, Onyekachi Apam, Brown Ideye, Bassey Akpan and Terna Suswan.

While there are no
public explanations yet as to why these players were dropped, it can be
assumed that Ike Uche, Victor Anichebe and Onyekachi Apam were dropped
because of injury concerns.

What cannot also be
argued is that Akpan and Suswan, the two home based players, had to go
because of a lack of international exposure. As for Peter Utaka, he had
not really convinced the crew, while Brown Ideye did not have enough
time to impress the manager.

But the list is
still fraught with questions: if Anichebe is not suffering any kind of
injury, then Lagerback needs to tell Nigerians why he had to take John
Utaka instead of the Everton youngster.

The exclusion of
Anichebe leaves the Eagles team with only one ‘bully’, that is Yakubu
Aiyegbeni, who will have to play a blinder in South Africa to convince
fans that he is not past it.

Then the third
goalkeeper slot should have gone to Bassey Akpan. Some countries even
come to competitions with two keepers. The third keeper is a luxury so
why not give a greenhorn from the local league a chance?

The 23-man list is
not a radical departure from Amodu’s team, but for the presence of Lars
Lagerback on the bench. The addition of Haruna Lukman is good news and
the inclusion of Elderson Echiejile is an indication that the Swede is
not totally convinced by Taye Taiwo’s performance.

Sani Kaita makes
the team because he can cover positions all over the pitch but the
inclusion of Yusuf Ayila makes it four defensive midfielders in the
team, which seems like an unwanted luxury. We would like to know more
about why Danny Shittu was included in the squad and about the
classification of Kanu as a midfielder. We would also like to know what
John Utaka did in training to convince the management to give him a
seat on the plane to South Africa. But the list is out and, at this
point, all the team needs is support from all quarters so that Nigeria
will not be embarrassed in South Africa.