Lagerback Beckons On Maradona For Help

Obviously, its not a news that Nigeria lost to Greece in their second group match of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Lagerback, is now begging the Argentina side to help Nigeria scale trough the hurdle but the Swede coach has forgetting that South Korea also have a stake in the World Cup as the team's victory against Greece had spurred them to fight for a place in the second round.

The gesture in a simple language shows that Super Eagles is not strong enough to outwit the Asian side in their next outing and the statement also underrate the South Koreans who were outstanding in their first group match.

Similarly, the on going FIFA World Cup has shown that football is fast growing across the continents or how can you explain the defeat of France to Mexico or the defeat of Spain to Switzerland. So Lagerback should endeavor to work better on players psyche that overrating his players ahead of the South Koreans who are on the verge of reaching the next stage unlike that Nigeria that are yet to secure a point.



Lets assume that Nigeria will survive South Korean, is the Super Eagles of today really strong to make the country proud at the elimination stage where there is no hope for another league match, thus we should learn to accept that Super Eagles are not Supeb enough in this year's edition but the event should serve as a preparation gorund for next editions.

The Swede being optimistic is a good gesture yet he neeeds to be informed that Nigerian football players are average layers and the Asian side are more determined as they are on the verge of qualifying for the next round courtesy of their first match victory unlike Nigeria that had lost its first two matches, thus deeming its chnaces of being part of the second round.


Sincerely, the participation of Nigeria's Super Eagles is not win the World Cup but to start a build up ahead of the next World Cup through Lagerback if the NFF officials consider it necessary.NFF should take the courage and blame for the team's performance so far because it is obvious that if Lagerback has been with the team for months prior to the tourney, there would have been better cohesion among the football players.

The Swede coach indeed understands Nigerian footall as well as the football players but he needs enough time like Clemence Westerhof to build a virile squad that could face ny team in the world.The introductio of Haruna Lukman is a revealation that Nigeria's Super Eagles could still present better players in subsequent ditions if the NFF are serious about regenerating Nigerian football.

The NFF through Lagerback should beam its searchlight on other Nigerian football players in Europe and beyond and create an enabling environment for them to join the Super Eagles. The introduction of Brown Ideye and Lukman Haruna is a welcoming development and it should be sustained because it is obvious that some players after theis world Cup would step aside for young ones to redeem the image of the national team.

To this end,Nigerian soccer fans should not expect Nigeria to win or reach the Quarter final or even survive the second round even NFF manouver there way through as we all know how we qualified for the World Cup.

Sportsweight.blogspot.com, takes a look on the comments of both team during a post match interview.

Greece coach, Otto Rehhagel.

Unfortunately, the game started just like the last one and we went a goal down. My team needed quite some time to recover. We were dominant after the red card, but there are plenty of examples where the team with the extra man goes on to lose. However, we reacted well to conceding the first goal, showed tremendous passion and belief, and turned the game around. Argentina are world-class, they’re clearly better than us. We still have a chance, but it’ll be very hard. We’re the underdogs against Argentina, that’s for sure, but we’ll give it our best shot. For now, we’ll just enjoy the fact we’ve beaten Nigeria.

Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback.

The positive thing is that we still have a chance of qualifying, although we need a helping hand from Argentina. We need a fresh start, and we’ll do that by beating Korea Republic. We were comfortably in control, but we had problems reorganising after the sending-off. I’m pleased with my players’ attitude in the circumstances. We played well in the second half and managed to create a couple of decent chances.

Vasilios Torosidis, Greece scorer

I don’t care what happens now. I’m just delighted for the team, and for the fans who never stopped believing in us.

Joseph Yobo, Nigeria captain

Until the sending-off, we had the game under control. After going a man down our aim was to try and dig in for the draw. Our attitude was good in the second half and we showed character, but it’ll be very hard now. We’ve lost both matches and it looks like we won’t make it to the next round, even if we win our last game. We’re basically out of the tournament.

Picture: Courtesy of FIFA.COM