By Jacob Ajom, Uyo

Super Eagles head coach, Gernot Rohr looked very sober after his team went down 2-0 at home to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in a 2019 AFCON qualifier in Uyo last night.

Gernot Rohr

For a man who was yet to taste defeat after over eight straight matches, the loss to South Africa was like an anti-climax in his effort to build a young team for Nigeria. Yet he remained resolute in his support for his team.

“We had a fantastic first half. It was just that the boys could not convert their chances. And it is not nature to blame any single player for a loss. We played a very young team whose age average was 23, the youngest team in Africa. Because of their age, when they are winning, everything is fine but when they are losing they get frustrated. It is always like that with a young team.”

Obviously aware of the team’s lack of experience, Rohr refused to admit that the team missed the services of the likes of Mikel Obi and Victor Moses. “I don’t want to search for excuses and say we missed this player or that player. We played the best we could and we lost. We can’t win every time. We can take some positives from this result as well.”

He absolved goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi from blame, saying the goals conceded were as a result of the failure of the whole team. “It wasn’t his fault. He had a difficult game. Like the second goal was a gift. Only one player was at the back and under such a situation, what can the goalkeeper do? It was a loss by the whole team.”