SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, (THEWILL) – Former super Eagles winger, Finidi George, says that the Super Eagles could have defeated the Italians at the USA1994 World Cup Round of 16 stage and advanced to the quarter–finals of the competition but for some issues with the team before the game and nervousness amongst the players.
The Italians came from a goal down to defeat the Super Eagles 2-1. Roberto Baggio scored a brace to secure victory for the Italians.
“That game against Italy, we would have won it but we had some issues before the game whereby (Clemens) Westerhof was not happy with the situation in the hotel. Too many visitors at every given time”, Finidi said in a Brila FM progamme “Take One” on Wednesday.
“So he wanted to move the team from that hotel but did not consult the players and we didn’t want to move. He told us just an hour before that we would be leaving but it was too short a time to do that. We didn’t want to leave so Westerhof left and said he was going to resign, he left the hotel and they looked for him and brought him back.
“That was an off field problem we had during the game. We should have done a better job. I don’t know maybe because of experience we didn’t know what to do, maybe we felt a little bit nervous and they had their opportunity and scored.
“After the game we were all sad. Some players were so angry that they confronted Westerhof. They felt the choices he made for the match were not the best.”
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Responding to a question about what he could have done differently if he was Westerhof, Finidi said: “If I was the coach, the starters would have been different. Though we’ve been winning before the Italy game but for me in a crucial game I would have kept the team. I wouldn’t have made a change, maybe one or two changes.
“I would have kept the team the way it used to be. As a coach, what is working you keep it that way, you don’t change things in a crucial game like that.”
