July 04, (THEWILL) – In one of the heaviest defeats of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, the largely home-based composed senior men’s national team suffered a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of the El Tri of Mexico at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday morning in the advertised international friendly.
Contrasting sharply with previous meetings between this pair of footballing nations, the decision of Nigeria to go into the friendly with a largely untested crop of domestic league squad selected by NFF Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen, but handed on to German Manager Gernot Rohr, assisted by Paul Aigbogun, backfired.
From the onset, the gulf in tactical quality was obvious because apart from Ibrahim Sunusi, striker of the Major League Soccer side CF Montréal, the rest of the Super Eagles squad came from a selection of players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), which was already claimed to have excluded some of the best and finally placed under Rohr.
Any doubts in the minds of football fans in the country that the selection of solely NPFL players, instead of a balanced mix of foreign and domestic players was a regrettable decision, even as a learning experience, was clear from the start to the finish, with the backline unable to contain the experienced attack lineup of the Mexicans.
If the defense was poor as the results testify, the attack did not have the creative industry of a lacklustre midfield to provide the opportunities for even a single goal to make a difference and galvanise the team to push for a result that could have been different from what came to be.
Instead, it was the Mexicans who dictated the pace and outcome from the start. There were only two minutes on the clock when the Mexicans fired the first salvo as an unambiguous warning of things to come. A header from a Mexico corner allowed Atletico Madrid’s Hector Herrera open the scoring.
The North Americans were rampant in attack as they drew circles around the pitiable defense of the Eguavoen-picked team that they added to their advantage two minutes after taking the lead. Argentinian born striker for C.F. Monterrey, Rogelio Funes Mori finished the fine set up of Napoli winger Hirving Lozano, to score from close range.
Though they had opportunities to heap more misery on the hapless backline of Nigeria’s Super Eagles after two goals inside the first four minutes, the first half had no more goals to speak of and nothing to say of Nigeria’s advance forward to bother the Mexican bench enough to consider effecting tactical changes.
Rohr watched from the sidelines as Aigbogun, who was tasked to be in the managerial dugout, sweated the inability of the players to register a shot on target as it was all they could do to keep from a complete trouncing with the frequency of the Mexican attacking play of the first period.
The resolve of the Super Eagles to arrest the marauding frontline after the first four minutes of the first half lasted only six minutes of the second half before the Mexicans resumed their scoring ways. It came as a gift from a defensive error of Stanley Nwabali, the Nigerian keeper and Herrera was at hand to net his brace.
Things were not looking to improve for the Nigerian team when Adekunle Adeleke and Uche Onwuansanya were stretchered off for injuries that meant they needed to be substituted. Mexico also made substitutions of their own to finish off the game in the 66th minute.
In a triple player exchange, double goal-scorer Herrera was replaced by Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos. It was an inspired substitution as dos Santos added gloss to Mexico’s victory with a fourth goal in the 77th minute.
The Gold Cup champions extended their winning record against Nigeria to three out of six meetings. The Super Eagles have managed three draws in all but remain without a win against the North Americans. It was a good way to prepare to defend the CONCACAF Gold Cup which will begin on July 11.
For Nigeria, Rohr will have to pick up the pieces of this loss when the full squad of the Super Eagles return to competitive football for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers which begin in September where the three-time African champions are contending for qualification against Cape Verde, Central African Republic and Liberia in Group B.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
