Eagles’ performance bad for African football –Onigbinde

Chief Adegboye Onigbinde

Former Super Eagles’ Head Coach Adegboye Onigbinde has said that the Super Eagles’ performance against Cape Verde, tells a bad story about African football.

see more after the cut... Onigbinde told the News Agency of Nigeria in a telephone interview on Thursday that there was a need for the technical crew to improve on the team. The former Eagles coach was reacting to the team’s 0-0 draw against Nations Cup debutant, Cape Verde, in a friendly match on Wednesday.

In their first friendly match on Jan. 3 in Spain, the Eagles held the stars Catalonian side to a 1-1 draw. The two matches were part of the team’s build up for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to hold in South Africa from Jan. 19 to Feb.

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He said, “I did not see any exciting moment throughout the game and that tells a bad story about African football. But I hope the technical crew will work on the team and make them improve.’’

Onigbinde, who is a CAF and FIFA instructor, added that the team’s performance against Catalonia was a fluke and should not be used to assess it.

“The match we played against Catalonia was a fluke. Fluke in the sense that all those stars paraded in the opponent’s side had another match for their club the following day. So, they did not play with full zeal which we saw on the pitch; we shouldn’t use the match as an assessment of our team in anyway,” he said. He, however, expressed the hope that the team could lift the trophy.

“My expectation of the team as a patriotic Nigerian is that I am waiting for them to come back with the trophy. But I know it does not come with magic nor by talk, but by hard work,”  Onigbinde said.

Reacting to the 23-man final list released by Coach Stephen Keshi, Onigbinde said the coach had the exclusive right for the choice he made.

“He is in charge of the team also, he is the only one that knows the system he wants the players to play and I am sure he made his selection based on that,’’ he said.