Nigeria Content Online

The
senior national team – the Super Eagles seems bent on turning out one
drab performance after another as they suffered a disappointing 1-0
loss to the Syli of Guinea.

For 90 minutes, the
Eagles did not look like they could have drawn the match much less win.
From the first strike of the match, which resulted in a goal for Guinea
in the fifth minute, and a bad miss by Michael Eneramo, there was
nothing exciting about the game.

Nigeria played
without Mikel Obi, Osaze Odemwingie and Dickson Etuhu but the team that
was fielded should have done the country justice but that was not to be.

The outcome was in
contrast with the promise by the team captain, Joseph Yobo, that the
worst the team will get in Conakry was a draw.

Before leaving for
Conaky, captain of the team, Joseph Yobo had said, “We are ready and I
believe any result for now will do so long as we don’t lose the match.”

He had also warned the Guineans to beware of the attack that featured Obafemi Martins and Michael Eneramo.

“The biggest plus
we have is our attack. If you look at the fire power we have upfront, I
wouldn’t want to play against them. We may be missing one or two of the
strikers, but the Eagles attack is always a handful.”

The much hyped
attack ended up being toothless. This became glaring in the 33rd minute
when Eneramo missed a sitter off Martins’ knock down. That was the only
clear chance created by the Eagles in open play.

Traditional lineup

Austin Eguavoen had
lined up a traditional 4-4-2 with Joseph Yobo, who partnered returning
Dele Adeleye with Chidi Odiah and Taye Taiwo in the right and left
full-back positions.

But things went awry as early as the fifth minute.

Nigeria tried to
control the midfield through debutant, Sunday Stephen and Yusuf Ayila,
but the slow pace of passing and moving plus the absence of any prior
game plan to keep the Guineans at bay was immediately dashed when the
combination of Fode Camara and Ismael Bangoura opened up the defence
and Bangoura scored to the left of Vincent Enyeama.

That turned out to be the only goal of a match that can be described as pedestrian at best.

Nigeria will have a
chance to return to the summit of Group 2 when they host Ethiopia on
March 26, 2011. And maybe at that point, the Eagles will have a
substantive coach in the saddle.

Guinea leads the standings with six points from two matches having beaten Ethiopia away in the first qualifying match.

Cameroon get own-goal reprieve

An own goal by
Congo’s Eric Nkulukuta saved the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon from a
home defeat on Saturday. The 1-1 draw was their debut match under new
coach, Javier Clemente, formerly of Spain.

West Ham defender
Herita Ilunga scored the opening goal in the 37th minute but Cameroon
got an equaliser in the 54th minute as Eric Nkulukuta’s attempted
clearance went into the net.

Papiss Demba Cisse and Mamadou Niang grabbed the headlines with
three and two goals respectively as Senegal mauled Mauritius 7-0 and
they lead Group E with six points with 11 goals scored.