The Nigeria U20 team picked up the bronze medal at the recently concluded U20 AFCON in Egypt by beating the host 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Led by Aliyu Zubairu they were widely expected to follow up their feat of winning the WAFU tournament by extending Nigeria’s dominance at the tournament but fell 0-1 to South Africa in the semi final.
We pick five reasons why they failed to match expectations at the tournament.
1 . Lack of Goal Scorers- It’s alarming that the team created the highest XG ( Expected Goals) in the tournament but only scored four goals. Alarmingly they won only one game in open play which was the first game against Tunisia. As good as Kparobo Arierhi was at the tournament he didn’t match his performance with goals.
2. Lack Of Depth – One thing that was evident all through the tournament was the identical nature of the substitutes introduced by the coach. He somehow had a pool of decent 13 players with the others making up the numbers.
3. Poor Goalkeeping – While Ajia Yakubu made amends by making good stops before making way for Rufai Abubakar who stopped two penalty kicks yesterday in the third place play off. It’s worthy to note that his error denied the team a spot in the final.
4. Failure To Shoot – How a team that created opportunities to shoot refused to take it is one thing that many don’t understand about the Nigerian team at the U20 AFCON. In several situations particularly around the box they were guilty of over playing with so many passes mostly over hit or under hit. No one was willing to seize the initiative and take responsibility.
5. Too Many Similar Players In Same Position – There was nothing different in what the substitutes offered when they were introduced. It means opponents were dealing with the same issue with the player subbed off. A consequence of picking players with similar attributes in the same position.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
