BY KATE OBODO
Former Cycling Federation President Rev. Moses Iloh has said that the Flying Eagles defeat by France last Sunday at the on-going FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia was as a result of complacence on the part of the players.

Rev Iloh said that the players became too confident of themselves and believed they could overrun any team following their 100 percent record before the quarter-final encounter.

“I observed one thing there, at one stage they suffered from self defeat. They became so confident especially when they scored the last minute goal. In scoring that goal, they felt they could win the match and because of that they relaxed as if nothing was at stake. What people do not know is that, you never stop until you win the game. I also noticed that they were no longer thirsty and hungry to win again, if not they would have won.

“The coach (John Obuh) on his part, should have been able to tell them that this is a life time event and they should act as if their life depended so much on it. But they got to a level when they became confident and deceived themselves thinking that they had control of the game. And their opponent (France) immediately noticed it and put in their best as if it is a matter of life and death but our boys felt complacent. So we got what we wanted,” Iloh said.

On the performance of the coach in the competition, Rev. Iloh opined that the coach did well and should be encouraged rather than criticised.

“The coach has done well and should be encouraged. Personally I feel when a coach is given a job and after he has done it he should be sent to any part of the World for a three or six month course to improve on his coaching career instead of changing him as we always do when they do not meet our expectations.

I do not believe in changing or kicking them out the way we do our indigenous coaches whenever they fail to deliver in competitions like this. He has done well so far, but then there are some things he still needs to know to impart on his boys. We can not win at all times but we must draw a lesson from our defeat in order to do better next time. Continuing, Rev. Iloh said: “ He (Obuh) is a Nigerian and he is coming back home to be an asset to us, so we need to invest in him.

If we do not do that and instead criticise him, it will not be too good for our football. Supposing he was not too good a coach and yet we won the match? Do we say he is good? No. The point is that as it is now, all we need to do is to send him out for three or six month for a refresher course”.