Draws Vs Lesotho, Zimbabwe: Egbe Defends Eagles’ Stars, Peseiro
A member of grounds Management Association in the United Kingdom, Ebi Ezekiel Egbe has stated that the problem with the Super Eagles’ performances in recent times can’t be attributed to the coaches or the foreign based players.
Last month, the national team was held to consecutive 1-1 draws by the Crocodile of Zimbabwe and the Warriors of Zimbabwe in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers which were held in Uyo and Rwanda.
But Egbe who is a pitch specialist said the players all gave in their best shots in all the games played so far adding that it will be very unfair to blame either the coaches or the players.
Egbe who shed more light on the difference between elite pitches and good pitches explained that playing on elite pitches, not good pitches will bring the best out of the elite players who are mostly based in Europe.
” Egbe stated in a statement he released to give a different dimension to reasons the national team players have struggled in recent matches.
“The transition in training from speed football to slow pace football in just few days of training before match day would kill the performance of even the best players in the world for a top competitive game like World Cup qualifiers or the African Nations Cup qualifiers.
“The transition in training from speed football to slow pace football in just few days of training before match day would kill the performance of even the best players in the world for a top competitive game like World Cup qualifiers or the African Nations Cup qualifiers.
“Football today is not about 11 aside kicking the ball on a green surface, football has gone scientific, the ball bounces, the ball rolls and biomechenics of the players foot plays a very important role in 21st century football.
“Even if we employ the services of the best coach in the world for the Super Eagles, the story will not change if we are going to be relying on our elite foreign based players to prosecute international matches.”
He therefore advised the Eagles’ coaches to start scouting for NPFL players that would be invited for Nigeria’s next World Cup qualifiers against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in June, 2024, since the home Eagles’ stars are used to playing on good pitches.
“Since our next do or die game against South Africa will be played on a good pitch in six months time we need to start looking inwards towards our NPFL for players who are playing week in week out on those good pitches for their NPFL clubs and have a fusion team of both home base and foreign base elite players
“The NFF has a very strong role to play in supporting our national team coaches if we really want to get it right.”
He called on the NFF to form a strong facilities team filled with professional groundsmen whose role will be to inspect the playing surfaces of the away teams’ pitches and make useful information to the technical crew.
“The NFF must have a very strong facilities team filled with seasoned professional groundsmen, I don’t honestly know if the NFF have such team in place, the role of this facilities team will be to act as an advance team to visit and inspect the playing conditions of the away team pitch and come up with an accessment report of the playing condition of the match day pitch.
“This accessment of the away team pitch playing condition can be an added advantage for the team formation from the coach.
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