… must step up to justify future Eagles’ invitation
Super Eagles long-standing left full back, Elderson Echiejile, must work hard to improve his game to just justify his future invitation to the national team.
The Point gathered that the arrival of Chelsea loanee, Ola Aina, is sure to give the overlapping defender a hot chase for the left full back position.
The Super Eagles have just a game to play away to Algeria in the ongoing FIFA World Cup qualifiers and Coach Gernot Rohr is poised to hand Aina his first full debut to the national team in November, with uncertainty surrounding the fitness of Sivasspor’s Elderson Echiejile.
The Monaco loanee suffered an ankle injury during the Super Eagles workout ahead Zambia’s clash, and aggravated the same injury in the closing minutes of Nigeria’s 1-0 win over Zambia on October 7.
Speaking to reporters at the NFF secretariat in Abuja, Rohr stated that Echiejile faces four weeks on the sidelines, and might not be considered for the game with the North Africans.
‘’Already, we know that Elderson Echiejile is ruled out of the game because he is out for about four weeks owing to the injury he sustained, ‘’ Rohr said.
Aina made his competitive debut for the Nigerian national team off the bench when he replaced Echiejile in the 79th minute against Zambia and will fancy grabbing the opportunity permanently with both hands as competition for places in Eagles starting line intensifies.
However, Rohr has revealed that he was pleased with how things went in the World Cup qualifiers and the players in the squad.
Nigeria’s chances of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup were slim as they were in the same pool as Africa’s most successful team in the World Cup Cameroon and North Africa powerhouse Algeria.
But the Super Eagles guaranteed their place at next summer’s festival of football with a game to spare following their 1-0 win over Zambia in Uyo on October 7.
‘’I am very excited to be working with this team: a blend of the experienced and the young and ambitious ones,’’ Rohr told The Point.
‘’They are a delight to be with at all times, and I believe we are onto great things.
‘’At the beginning of the qualifying series, many people said we were going to be chasing it. But we sat down together and we promised ourselves that we would go all out and get the ticket.’’
Rohr’s only loss since he was appointed coach was against South Africa at the start of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in June 2017.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sport and Youth Development, Senator Obinna Ogba, has called on public and private companies to come out en-masse and support the Super Eagles as the national team matches towards the World Cup in Russia 2018.
Speaking with some journalists in his office, Ogba said the players should be given kudos for a clinical finishing against Zambia in Uyo on October 7.
“What we will need to do as a country is to support them and pray for the team. Before now, what we used to do was to press the calculator; asking, how many goals is our opponent going to score?; Or how many goals will we possibly score to get to the next stage? But now, we have qualified with one more match to go; so something good has happened. It is a pointer that in Russia, so many good things will come to our favour and we will go beyond the group’s stages”.
He called on journalists reporting sport across the country to come to the aid of the NFF and give positive reportage of the preparations for Russia 2018, so that the morale of the Super Eagles could be boosted.
“What I am advocating is that private and public companies should come to the aid of the Super Eagles and donate to their cause. We should make it a jamboree like Zambia did in Uyo; they came with a chartered flight, they arrived the stadium early, drumming, until the match ended in favour of Nigeria.
Speaking on the reports that a disallowed goal was to be investigated by FIFA, Senator Ogba said all were calculated attempts to play down on the quality of Nigeria’s victory in Uyo, maintaining that despite disallowing the goal, the Zambian player should have been issued a yellow card because the whistle had already gone, yet, the player kept possession of the ball,.He, nonetheless, told Nigerians not to worry their head over such minor developments.
Already, the Russian media has profiled the 22 teams guaranteed to participate at next summer’s World Cup in Russia, and the fact that the Nigeria Football Federation changed three coaches during the qualifiers was highlighted.
For the CAF second round of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, former Super Eagles captain, Sunday Oliseh, was in the dugout when the national team beat Swaziland over two legs in November 2015.
Oliseh later resigned his appointment in February 2016, citing unfulfilled contractual obligations, and Samson Siasia took over from the former Ajax Amsterdam midfielder on an interim basis.
In the third round of the qualifiers, the NFF went for an expatriate coach in Gernot Rohr and the German delivered the World Cup ticket with a game to spare.
‘’During the qualifying period for the national team of Nigeria, three coaches changed, but this did not affect the result in any way,’’ wrote championat.com.
‘’Nigerians were the first in the African group, who secured the right to play at the World Cup in Russia.’’
