{"id":1584,"date":"2014-09-08T08:24:07","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T08:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2014-09-08T08:24:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T08:24:07","slug":"erico-blames-nff-crisis-for-eagles-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1584","title":{"rendered":"Erico blames NFF crisis for Eagles defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Super<\/a>
Super Eagles players<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Super Eagles\u2019 assistant coach, Joe Erico, has identified the leadership crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation as the distraction which caused Nigeria\u2019s 3-2 loss to Congo in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Calabar on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Nigeria are currently third in Group A of the qualifiers behind South Africa, who beat Sudan 3-0 on Friday, and Congo who also have three points from their victory.<\/p>\n

It was the second time in history Congo would defeat Nigeria in ten meetings; Nigeria have beaten the Red Devils five times in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team played well, and the loss was just a goal margin. But I believe they can play better and show more determination,\u201d Erico told the News Agency of Nigeria. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess part of the reason for the loss was the fact that the boys were not focused, in view of the power tussle in the Nigeria Football Federation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Erico said with teamwork, the team would rise up to the occasion and would get back to winning ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that there is still room for improvement. I think it is not over yet, the boys just have to believe in themselves with defensive solidarity and teamwork,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Former Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh, said it would be harsh for anyone to blame coach Stephen Keshi for the defeat, pointing out that the players failed to raise their game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for fans to crucify a coach after such defeat at home, but judging Keshi, who brought Nigerian football out of the wilderness it found itself, by a game is harsh, very harsh,\u201d Obuh told SL10.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good thing to have another game immediately after such an unbelievable result, it\u2019s an opportunity to respond to the setback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy in South Africa, but I believe the boys and the technical crew are well aware that a good result will help win back public support and confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Super Eagles stand-in captain Austin Ejide has admitted the African champions paid dearly for underrating Congo in the Saturday match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say we underrated Congo and we paid for it. We were not aggressive. Had we played the way we did in the second half right from start, it would have been a different story,\u201d the Israel-based goalkeeper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongo were better prepared than us, they came at us; there was fire in their eyes. They played like they were playing at home. Our reaction was poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to reclaim our three points in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Nigeria will be away to Group A leaders South Africa, who won 3-0 in Sudan on Friday, while Congo welcome Sudan.<\/p>\n

Nigeria will meet South Africa on Wednesday in Cape Town, while Congo will host Sudan same day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Super Eagles\u2019 assistant coach, Joe Erico, has identified the leadership crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation as the distraction which caused Nigeria\u2019s 3-2 loss to Congo in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Calabar on Sunday. Nigeria are currently third in Group A of the qualifiers behind South Africa, who beat Sudan 3-0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Super-Eagles-players-360x237.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-py","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1584\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}