Ben Iroha, a former Nigerian international, has spoken positives of Super Eagles performance against Brazil in an international friendly match on Sunday in Singapore, completesports.com reports.
Iroha says the Nigerian team put up a remarkable improvement against the Selecao, who are five time FIFA World Cup winners than they (Eagles) did during the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and the earlier international friendly against Ukraine.
The Super Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw by Brazil after Joe Eribo scored first for Nigeria on 35 minutes before Casemire drew Brazil level early in the second period.
And Iroha, a Super Eagles defender at USA ’94 World Cup and AFCON winner in same year, reckons that the Gernot Rohr’s men were excellently set up, organised and showed lots of organisation all through the game on Sunday at Singapore National Stadium.
“I’m impressed, honestly”, Iroha snapped from his base in the United States of America when completesports.com sought for his views on the game late on.
“Not just because of the (1-1) result, no. Its just always about who win but how did the team play.
“How did they respond to the coaches match plan and how the players, as a team, respond to difficult moments.
“I must say the Eagles were good in their organisation. They showed a lot of maturity and character which to me, shows a remarkable improvement from their games at the Nations Cup and the friendly match against Ukraine”.
The for U17 Golden Eaglets assistant coach (to late Yemi Tells in 2007) that won the FIFA U17 World Cup in South Korea continued.
“Even under pressure from the Brazilians, the Eagles did not lose their character, they did not panic, neither did they lose concentration.
“They played as a team, defended as a unit and going forward together. It was good and I really enjoyed the way they played”.
The 1-1 draw against Brazil was the second in the Super Eagles rebuilding process after the 2019 AFCON in which they finished as third best.
They had earlier played out a 2-2 draw against Ukraine as Gernot Rohr continues preparation for the 2021 AFCON qualifiers.
By Sab Osuji
27 Comments
Great effort. But we must learn to pass and wait for opportunities rather than send long balls and hope.
A real legend has spoken,
Nigeria vs Brazil key battles won and lost:
Osimhen vs Ederson:
Ederson was able to cope with the in form striker. Winner Ederson. One of the top keepers in world football was not unduly troubled by Osimhen.
Moses Simon vs Dani Alves:
Alves schooled Simon. Not for nothing is Dani regarded as one of the best right backs in world football. The only player who has gotten past Dani with any success is C Ronaldo and it showed why. Moses restricted to passes rather than dribbles. One assist. Winner Dani.
Chukwueze vs Lodi
Samuel troubled Lodi throughout the first half and Lodi only came into the game as Samu tired in the second half. Winner Samuel
Iwobi vs Casimero:
Iwobi did not have his best game although apart from the goal he created a couple of chances. He came up against a DM on form. Casimero only shades it as he scored the equalising goal.
Aribo vs Arthur:
Aribo wins this one, losing Arthur for the goal and covering every blade of grass in the cause. Aribo wins
Ndidi vs Neymar/Coutinho:
Having dispatched Neymar back to the bench, Ndidi also restricted Coutinho’s chances to few and far between. Ndidi was the defence minister organising those behind him regularly. Ndidi wins
Awaziem vs Jesus/Parqueta:
Chidozie hardly put a foot wrong. Yes once he went to ground too early and was beaten, but once only in the match. He won most tackles and Jesus changed wings to see if he could get more joy attacking Collins. Was Parqueta even in the match? Awaziem hands down
Troost-Ajayi vs Firminho/Barbosa:
The centre backs put in a massive shift and almost shut out Brazil. Bobby Firminho gave way to Gabi-Goal Barbosa but still no joy. Took a chance from Casimero to equalise. Troost-Ajayi shade it against a fearsome attack (on paper)
Collins vs Everton/ Richarlison/Jesus:
Boy was he put under pressure. A few needless fouls and he was targeted as the weakest link in the defence. He stood up to all that was thrown at him and he will have some aches and pains this morning. I have to give this to the Brazilians for their sheer tenacity. Them bombard our guy
Uzoho vs Brazil
A 1-1 draw on this match. Uzoho made some crucial saves and was impressive until he went off injured. Yes he was beaten, but he put in a good shift. Honours shared.
Nice analysis @ BigD albeit hilarious. To be honest, Awaziem, Ajayi, Ekong n Aribo were my top pick in yesterday’s game. This Awaziem is really strong on d ball. Other players need to borrow a leaf from his game.
My bruh,Awaziem is a class act.
I wonder why he’s consistently sent on loan by Porto.Im sure Porto could do with a reliable defender like that.
Awaziem was a rock just like he was at the Afcon.No wonder he is a first team player everywhere he been on loan and has always made headlines for great performances
Its quite funny ey….In central defence, Awaziem is always horrible, but shift him to the full back position and he becomes a beast of some sort. At afcon, no man born of a woman could go past him. Against Brazil, they tried him and failed but saw a hapless Colins as easy meat and almost killed the kids career…Lolz
Hahahaha…..Infact at one point, e b like say Jesus disappeared from Collins front n appeared for him back.
Comment from someone who played football will always be different from on the prints/ text footballers/ coaches. God bless to Ben Iroha.
Everybody entitled to is opinion. I respect that. I love Ben Iroha a lot and that reminds me back then chai, I played this game of football węla with my left foot. Ah, I dribbled a lot and Ben is my photocopy.
However, I appreciate coach Rohr efforts. He has done well so far.
On the other hands, I disagreed with Iroha. Though he played this game of football to the highest level but that doesn’t mean he got this right.
No1, let me start from 1st half.
That first half wasn’t bad but that was where we wound have finished the Brazilian team after the first goal of the match.
When you are playing a big team like that, you take half chances that comes your way to win the game.
If we all noticed, Brazil was no where to be found after the 1st goal and Selecao was shaking and Oga Rohr would have buried the match at that time.
No2. What is the purpose of friendly match? To take the match to accessing your team and to play good game for the fans of the team to enjoy.
So, why defending instead of attacking the Selecao? Hmm… wrong tactics again. Oga Ben, are you watching?
Mr. Iroha failed to realized that Super Eagles gave Brazilians too much respect and the coach couldn’t do anything about it. Again, Mr. Iroha, can you see that?
Some of us are getting something wrong here. Let’s put the name “Brazil” aside and pin points the whole team of the Brazilians.
Now, the team we played yesterday didn’t play as a team and were not better that us in that match.
Again, wrong tactics, late subs coursing our to beat Brazil inside out.
Its happened Against Argentina, Ukraine and Algeria and still happening and we are still celebrating the same results. Hmm…. customer da a da mi lol. How market o? Lolz.
Against Brazil, Oga Rohr failed again in that match. If you enjoyed watching that match, I’m not sorry, you don’t know much about football.
He waited almost the end of the match to ring changes but why? Because the coach didn’t believe in his team.
However, some people still believed I will join their cabal group, ah… ofe e fe lol. That means they don’t have the love of our Country in minds but themselves.
I’m doing this because I love my Country so much. As usual, a I no bi so ni?
I’m sorry for this group. Is it by false ni? lol. Ajęgbodo nwęnikunra lolz. If I may ask, what has this group achieved or did for the Super Eagles and coach to make the team better?
I’m a patriotic Nigerian and ready to support our lovely team to achieve something meaningful in football.
I introduced Aribo, Onuachu and so on to the coach and by God’s grace, I will get him more players and goalkeepers. Keep calling me names while I’m progressing. No wahala.
Section 419 in my constitution says, if you can beat me then you join me because I’m doing this for the betterment of our Country. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Here we come again with this man. Omo9nja, you nor know nothing about football. You just make Nigerians sick whenever they see your posts and always wish you will just go away to your village in the tick forest.
Thanks @Ben Iroha I just hope omo9ja will be humble enough to learn from experts like you that unnecessary criticism
Omo k’omo will soon find himself ON HIS OWN regarding Rohr. A lot of his former henchmen are now DECAMPING from his party to the ROHR SUPPORTERS (THE PROGRESSIVES).
Hehehehe! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some comments I’ve been reading. I won’t mention names, but some DIE HARD ROHR HATERS have been singing Rohr’s praises. One even said Rohr has WON HIM OVER with yesterday’s result, and that he is now a ROHR CONVERT. You are welcome, brothers. Hopefully, Omo k’omo too will evetually come around!
Bros, even me shock o..! Lolz
Except the one wey dey claim say in sabi ball pass ben Iroha (ex-international and golden eaglets coach)….All the rest of the haters have suddenly gone silent.
Persin wey masqurade dey pursue make e presevere….and earthly beings dey tire na so ‘heavenly beings’ sef dey tire.
The Ukraine that forced us to a draw with the aid the referee in front of their home fans just defeated a complete Portugal team with CR7. Coach Fernando Santos must be more useless and tactically inept that our own Gernot Rohr….LMAO
Hi BigD,
I was left rather pleased and delighted to read your creatively crafted piece above. Nothing delights me more than to read contributions rich in background work and delightful in delivery (also, one totally devoid of crass).
Allow me to build on your key battles with my Caveats or Observations for each:
1 ) Osimhen vs Ederson: [Caveat]The Lillle man did show his qualities with some decent efforts on goal.
2) Moses Simon vs Dani Alves: [Caveat] Eloquent ball control and sublime pass from Simon led to the goal that left Brazil and their fans fearing for a humiliating defeat before their lucky second half goal.
3) Chukwueze vs Lodi: [Addition] Chukwueze showed another dimension to his game with delightfully frightening in-swinging crosses.
4) Iwobi vs Casimero: [Caveat] Iwobi’s focus when Nigeria was without the ball was crucial to keeping Brazil at bay.
5) Aribo vs Arthur:[Addition] The night belongs to Aribo who sliced through the Brazil defence to score a goal worth its weight in goal.
6) Ndidi vs Neymar/Coutinho: [Addition] Ndidi showed supreme composure on the night.
7) Awaziem vs Jesus/Parqueta: [Addition] The experience of playing as makeshift right back in the Afcon have come to serve him dearly.
8) Troost-Ajayi vs Firminho/Barbosa: [Addition] Restricting Brazil to just one equalising goal, it is hard to criticise Ekong even if though the quality of his performances have clearly dipped in recent times.
9) Collins vs Everton/ Richarlison/Jesus: [Caveat]for weathering tsunami of Brazil assaults (particularly in the first half), Collins deserves high praise.
10) Uzoho vs Brazil: [Caveat: Uzoho] Deflected 2 clear goal scoring opportunities that he would not have been blamed had either scored. Uzoho is clearly Super Eagles Numero Uno
@Deo, many thanks for your additions. To be honest I was so upbeat after the match that it took me until the next morning to craft my comments. May have been tempered by my calming down after.
I had the match on three screens as the last of secunda was doing my head in. I wanted to be right at the cutting edge and watched every replay almost six times to make sure that I don’t miss any detail Lol
More of such write-ups BigD; I love it.
Dee Iroha , delight to hear from you. we need people like you as National Team not the likes of Salisu, danjuma, aigbodun and imam.
Just passing by. How una Dey? I’m glad to see some of Rohr’s critics being won over by the incredible performance of our darling SuperEagles yesterday. SuperEagles stood tall against the Samba Boys. SuperEagles caged the Jogo Bonitos. More to come. I haven’t had time this days as I’m on international business around the world. But I have to come out to say a big thank you to the SuperEagles for showing the world what we are capable of against arguably the greatest football team in world football. PERE! PERE! DA EAGLES PERE! PERE! DA EAGLES PERE! SuperEagles on the ascendancy.
PERE! PERE! DA EAGLES PERE! PERE! PERE! DA EAGLES PERE!
Everybody entitled to is opinion. I respect that. I love Ben Iroha a lot and that reminds me back then chai, I played this game of football węla with my left foot. Ah, I dribbled a lot and Ben is my photocopy.
However, I appreciate coach Rohr efforts. He has done well so far.
On the other hands, I disagreed with Iroha. Though he played this game of football to the highest level but that doesn’t mean he got this right.
No1, let me start from 1st half.
That first half wasn’t bad but that was where we wound have finished the Brazilian team after the first goal of the match.
When you are playing a big team like that, you take half chances that comes your way to win the game.
If we all noticed, Brazil was no where to be found after the 1st goal and Selecao was shaking and Oga Rohr would have buried the match at that time.
No2. What is the purpose of friendly match? To take the match to accessing your team and to play good game for the fans of the team to enjoy.
So, why defending instead of attacking the Selecao? Hmm… wrong tactics again. Oga Ben, are you watching?
Mr. Iroha failed to realized that Super Eagles gave Brazilians too much respect and the coach couldn’t do anything about it. Again, Mr. Iroha, can you see that?
Some of us are getting something wrong here. Let’s put the name “Brazil” aside and pin points the whole team of the Brazilians.
Now, the team we played yesterday didn’t play as a team and were not better that us in that match.
Again, wrong tactics, late subs coursing our to beat Brazil inside out.
Its happened Against Argentina, Ukraine and Algeria and still happening and we are still celebrating the same results. Hmm…. customer da a da mi lol. How market o? Lolz.
Against Brazil, Oga Rohr failed again in that match. If you enjoyed watching that match, I’m not sorry, you don’t know much about football.
He waited almost the end of the match to ring changes but why? Because the coach didn’t believe in his team.
However, some people still believed I will join their cabal group, ah… ofe e fe lol. That means they don’t have the love of our Country in minds but themselves.
I’m doing this because I love my Country so much. As usual, a I no bi so ni?
I’m sorry for this group. Is it by false ni? lol. Ajęgbodo nwęnikunra lolz. If I may ask, what has this group achieved or did for the Super Eagles and coach to make the team better?
I’m a patriotic Nigerian and ready to support our lovely team to achieve something meaningful in football.
I introduced Aribo, Onuachu and so on to the coach and by God’s grace, I will get him more players and goalkeepers. Keep calling me names while I’m progressing. No wahala.
Section 419 in my constitution says, if you can beat me then you join me because I’m doing this for the betterment of our Country. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
I think the Super Eagles need a good left back as a back up to Collins.
No doubt that Collins is good but he needs competition in that position. A natural left footer as a left back is required urgently. The team is gradually taking shape.
Kudos to the NFF and Rohr.
No distractions please, be focused. Continue to hunt for the best legs of Nigerian descent all over the globe.
Rohr should also know that African football is slightly different from European one. He is not too new to it I presume. It’s more about power. People like Esiti, Etebo and the like with the needed physic MAY be needed but it’s all up to the Technical crew.
Talking about a good left back, what is the current situation with STANLEY AMUZIE? This guy did pretty well in the 2016 Olympics, and also against Mo Salah in the 2017 qualifiers (home and away against Egypt). What I really like about this guy is his overlapping. Very powerful direct running, and packs a heavy shot, reminiscent of Taye Taiwo. I don’t know why he is no longer in the reckoning. Loss of form or clublessness?
Moses Simon can also play as a left back or left wing back.
Ebuehi and Aina are also players that can play as right and left full backs comfortably.
You are right Pompei. Both players are good full backs.
Stanley Amuzie… Is far better than Jamilu Collins… I have wondered why they continue to ignore him… He was at Sampdoria and went to… Lugano… Collins is too slow and fast players… Can easily eat his lunch on a match day!
Guess I am late to this party.
The match has been played and we have drawn our own perceptions of the game. Rohr’s haters,Rohr’s lovers,Rohr’s critics,Rohr’s converts; it matters not; opinions would differ,opinions would still be given and something have to give.whether it is for or against.
For me, I criticise by what you bring to the table.and I stand to be corrected,Rohr’s approach to games is too conservative,and even if it seems results have been going our way,it has also cost us. And this is the truth.
I am not a coach,neither did I play the game professionally and I not a sports critic but I am a advent football fan and I watch the game, plus I have common sense. Games against Algeria,argentina,Ukraine are games we could have won if Rohr was a bit adventurous rather than being too cautious. And we allowed teams like Ukraine,South Africa,Cameroon back into the game cause we were too cautious. Yes we won the last two but it could have gone the other way as well.
Every coach come into a game with a game plan but once the game starts you move and change plans according to how the game swings in your favour or not.sometimes you don’t switch plans if it is favourable.but Rohr never does these,whether we are been pummeled. It shows tactical doggedness.and such has its flaws.
That said,before the wolves comes out and call me a hater,my allegiance is to Nigeria and would always call out the negatives for correction. You can’t quiet because the numbers say right is wrong.the mob don’t always rule and facts care less about emotions,and that goes for me as well.
I am a fan of Rohr’s man management skills,his humble Demeanor and his willingness to learn.for that I want him to stay and keep doing him on these levels, But not a fan of his tactics and changes most of the time.
Just my take..
Hahahaha, Mr. Hush, why are you on the run, when nobody is pursuing you?
Please refrain from calling your fellow human beings WOLVES, just because they disagree with you on issues. Your write ups suggest that you should know better.