The much-hyped Super Eagles Russia 2018 World Cup campaign came to an abrupt end Tuesday night when the Nigerian team fell 1-2 to Argentina in the epic final Group D match at St Petersburg. It was a match the Nigerians needed at least a draw to keep their World Cup dream alive. Somehow, after the Super Eagles put up a show that kept Nigerians hoping that perhaps time had come to put a halt to Argentina’s dominance over the Super Eagles. They held on to a 1-1 scoreline till the 85th minute when the bubble burst. It wasn’t s Lionel Messi’s strike. Not Aguero’s nor Higuain’s! It was Marcus Rojo’s unstoppable strike in the 85th minute that did the damage. For the Eagles and their travelling fans it was a dream 5 minutes too far.

Gernot Rohr

Coach Gernot Rohr has received a lot of flak as critics were quick to point out that the coach mismanaged the game. Writing on ‘why Eagles lost’, on his Facebook wall, former Green Eagles captain, Chief Segun Odegbami said they lost because of the inexperience of some key players and the inability of the coach to manage the last ten minutes of the game.

Without mincing words, Odegbami said, “The inexperience of some players at key moments, the coach who ran out of ideas about how to manage the last 10 minutes of a match that was not really difficult, and the reality that the best effort by the Eagles was just not good enough on the night, made the end rather painful and sobering,”

On his part, former Green Eagles captain and Odegbami’s contemporary, Christian Chukwu rests the blame on Eagles ouster from the World Cup on the coach and the football federation. He said. “in as much as I blame the coach for reacting late in effecting changes when it was glaring some players were not in the game, I will implore the Nigeria Football Federation to develop the local league because the absence of truly developed home grown stars in that team influenced the outcome of Nigeria’s campaign at the World Cup.”

Continuing, Chukwu who captained the Eagles to their first AFCON title in 1980 said, “anytime we have a team full of players who started here before going abroad, our team is always stronger because they combine the ruggedness and finess they acquired here before going abroad.”

Chukwu went down memory lane: “During the Westerhof era,” he said, “because the team was dominated by home based players, the coach would release them on Wednesdays and Thursdays to go feature for their clubs during the weekend so they could return to camp Monday. That gave the national team the desired foundation from the domestic league.”

Chukwu advised the NFF to reorder their priorities on how Nigeria can get a better national team. “Like I said earlier, that begins with the domestic league,” he said, arguing that the amount of money spent on flight tickets alone to bring home Eagles in the diaspora is enough to put players from the home league in camp for a year.

Another Nigeria ex-international, Peterside Idah said the Eagles lost to what he calls self-unbelief. He said the loss to Argentina which spelt the end to Nigeria’s World Cup campaign was self-inflicted.

“The phobia that Nigerians had because of previous losses to Argentina created lack of self-belief and possible phobia ahead of the crucial encounter,” he said.

Rohr has admitted that mistakes were made, first by fielding some players that were not fit and should not have started the game.