{"id":1829,"date":"2014-09-15T07:46:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T07:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2014-09-15T07:46:39","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T07:46:39","slug":"martins-hopes-for-eagles-recall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=1829","title":{"rendered":"Martins hopes for Eagles recall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Martins\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Seattle Sounders striker Obafemi Martins hopes his form in Major League Soccer will earn him a Nigeria recall, BBC Sport<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

Martins again struck in Sounders\u2019s 3-2 home victory over Real Salt Lake on Friday night for his 13th goal of the season, and also boasts an impressive nine assists.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old wants to help the club to the MLS title and is hopeful a successful campaign can earn him a Super Eagles recall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said at the start of the season if I was doing well for Seattle and scoring goals, I\u2019d have a chance with Nigeria,\u201d he told BBC Sport.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut firstly, I want to play regularly here and try to help Seattle Sounders win a trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martins, who has scored 18 goals in 39 international matches for the African champions, was called up just once last year, against Kenya in a 2014 World Cup qualifier.<\/p>\n

But the former Newcastle United and Birmingham striker was omitted from the squad for the finals in Brazil by coach Stephen Keshi.<\/p>\n

With the Eagles struggling for goals and results in their 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Martins hopes his form has caught Keshi\u2019s eye and can earn him a place in the squad for October\u2019s double header against Sudan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the coach\u2019s decision to invite players but if I can get a recall to the national team, I\u2019ll be honoured,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just need to continue my form here in the United States, give my all to this club and let other things happen naturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my country and I always want Nigeria to do well with me in the squad or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get another chance, great, and if not, I can only wish my country all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Saturday Congo Brazzaville produced a shock victory in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, beating Nigeria 3-2 in their Group A match in Calabar.<\/p>\n

It is the first time Nigeria have lost a competitive home game in 33 years.<\/p>\n

And on Wednesday Nigeria played out a frustrating goalless draw in Cape Town against South Africa, while Congo continued their impressive start to the campaign with a 2-0 win over visiting Sudan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seattle Sounders striker Obafemi Martins hopes his form in Major League Soccer will earn him a Nigeria recall, BBC Sport reports. Martins again struck in Sounders\u2019s 3-2 home victory over Real Salt Lake on Friday night for his 13th goal of the season, and also boasts an impressive nine assists. The 29-year-old wants to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1830,"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-1829","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\/Martins1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-tv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829","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=1829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1831,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1829\/revisions\/1831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}