Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games gold medalist Taribo West says the Super Eagles will perform well during the South Africa 2013 Africa Nations Cup and Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifiers despite their defeat to Peru in a friendly match on Wednesday.
The Eagles fell to a first half goal from Werder Bremen dangerous forward Claudio Pizarro in the game played in Peru’s capital, Lima. It is the second consecutive loss for the Eagles-under coach Stephen Keshi- who were beaten 3-2 by Egypt in an earlier friendly.
“Some people may not be happy with the result but that is not the issue,” the former Inter Milan centre-back said.
“The idea is to expose the home-based players against more experienced teams. This is just a rebuilding process. I believe the team will live up to expectations during the qualifiers.
“This friendly match will give the players the desired confidence to play against the big teams in future. I see these boys bringing back the glory days to our football.”
News credit: Punch
Also, former Enyimba coach, Godfrey Esu, believes the long journey from Nigeria to Peru may have affected the Eagles performance in Lima.
Esu said, “I don’t think it was a bad result considering the long hours they spent flying and the altitude. Peru may not be as popular as Brazil or Argentina but I believe they will gradually get there.
“We forgot the domestic league players until Keshi came in, so we shouldn’t expect them to take over overnight. These players will travel abroad too and become better players. So we should give them the desired support.”
No comments:
Post a Comment