By Solomon Nwoke
Ex-international, Garba Lawal and former Secretary General of the Nigeria Football  Association (NFA), Fanny Amun have thumbed up for Eagles in their friendly match against Peru Thursday morning.

Both  applauded  the re-building exercise of the senior national team. They said  that the team, made up of mainly home-based players, was beginning to rise to the challenge of big-time soccer.

The Eagles’ former utility player, speaking with Sports Vanguard in a telephone chat yesterday from his base said though, a win for the Eagles would have been a morale booster as they prepare for  their FIFA World  Cup and African Cup of Nations’ qualifiers but opined that the essence of the game as  a tune-up for the qualifiers was served.

“The focus of the friendly match should not be based on the result, but performance”,

“I know games like this are not just meant to be won, but also to watch out for lapses and put a good team together”, Lawal said.

He however advised the local players to be focused and take their chances in matches. He said, sometimes players cannot be judged with friendly matches as they are different in ‘real’ competitive situation,  adding that the essence of using a bulk of them in the friendly match was to build them and not that Nigeria didn’t  need the foreign players.

Also in his summation, t coach Amun gave kudos to the courage of the players who featured in the game against Peru.

“The way they played was more important than the result they came out with. I am impressed with their performance,” Coach Amun said.