Osaze booed as Rwanda holds Nigeria

Posted by admin Headlines, Soccer, Sports Thursday, March 1st, 2012

NIGERIA’S striker, Osaze Odemwingie was singled out for jeers after he failed to impress in Nigeria’s goalless draw against Rwanda in a 2013 Africa Nations Cup qualifier decided yesterday in Kigali.

Odemwingie had come to the match on the strength of five goals in two matches for his English Premier League side, West Bromwich Albion and was expected to replicate his scoring instinct yesterday but the forward’s faint goal attempts failed to impress the crowd who jeared as he was substituted for Ike Uche in the 73rd minute.

The Super Eagles fielding eight foreign based players and three Nigerian League stars were considered favourite for the game having posted impressive friendly results against African champion, Zambia, Angola and Liberia, getting 2-0, 0-0, and 2-0 results respectively but the Nigerian team found the home side impregnable.

Substitute Ike Uche’s goal was overuled in the 83rd minute as the player was caught in an offside position.

Highly-rated Yakubu Aiyegbeni also failed to justify his recall to the Super Eagles firing blank despite being left on the pitch for the 90 minutes duration.

Keshi also successfully capped Victor Moses of Wigan Athletic who came in as a second half substitute for Ahmed Musa.

Moses had previously played age grade football for England and desperate attempts by former coach, Samson Siasia to cap the player failed due to FIFA’s stringent eligibility rule. Tribunesports was reliably informed by one of the top football officials who watched the match live that Odemwingie’ substitution was greeted with abuses and boos by the disappointed fans for his lacklustre and below par performance in the match he was highly rated.

”He was a flop and a disappointment in the match to the extent that he was booed by fans when he was substituted. Even Yakubu Aiyegbeni was a disaster that one wondered why he was recalled to the national team by the coach. With the match there is still a lot to be done in the team, we do not have any team,” the source said from Kigali.

”Majority of us here in Kigali cannot understand the decision to benched Ike Uche for Odemwingie or Yakubu because the young player made the difference when he was introduced into the game while Odemwingie and
Yakubu pairing was a disaster that could not yield any results.

The issue is that we still have a long way to go,” he said.

-Tribunewp_posts