The match yesterday between Nigeria and South Africa didn't go as most of us expected despite all the banter on tiktok and other social media, Nigerian Football fans kept shouting World cup, World cup, qualifiers are here now and we are finding it hard to even take the top position on the table so we can qualify easily but everything look like an imagination. The last time I checked South Africa topped the Group C and Nigeria was in 4th position. This first banter was that Nigeria and 1:0 are 5 & 6, that was because of their wins this period is always 1 nil or 1 goal difference and people weren't happy with the result, I even asked someone what Nigeria was looking in that 4 position and yet they were hoping to top the list
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Now we face South Africa and that created the second banter, we either beat them or watch Ghana who are topping their group play at the World Cup. I had to watch the match with that hope of winning the match. When the match started, I was just laughing, the players weren't really organised especially the midfielders and forwards, thanks to the defense who tried their best in keeping the goal safe even though I trust our keeper not to fail. One guy caught my attention from the South Africa team, their Right winger who looked young and was easily intimidated by Calvin Bassey, honestly I looked down on the guy since anytime he got the ball and Bassey moved closer, he would quickly release the ball which isn't good and somehow the defenders don't rarely mark his spot till he got the ball.
I started seeing the guy differently when he started taking advantage of the fact that they rarely mark him and the defense team started seeing him as a threat when he crossed a ball that led to an own goal by our captain a defender. At some point, we started missing Oshimen our Forward who got injured in one of the games, he is sharp and always takes chances especially when it comes to crossing and heading the ball, we really had a lot of chances which we missed, the players were just doing anyhow, not organized and rarely take opportunities to shoot directly at the keeper, when they supposed to cross and head the ball they won't and I sense that is the way they could win the match.
screenshot from google
I even wished I were the coach or have a cane with me, I would flogged flog Alex Iwobi, that guy wasn't useful on the pitch, he missed a lot of passes, playing like chicken whose leg wasn't strong enough to hit the ball yet he is doing well in his club, even Ademola Lookman didn't play well, also missed 2 big chances, same chance he wouldn't miss in his club, we later scored a goal, a header by Calvin Bassey who took the risk and almost injured himself but it really worth it. After back and forth, we drew the match and got banter as a reward, well no world cup for us.