Goalkeeper incompetences, yet unfixed has Super Eagles in familiar territory ahead of AFCON

In the penultimate international break before the African continental competition at the turn of the year in Ivory Coast, Nigeria sealed a somewhat unimpressive win to wrapup preparation before the pre tournament friendlies later in the year.

It was an unconvincing performance against a 10man Mozambique, and ranked 20 places below them in the most recent FIFA ranking.

The Super Eagles, who missed out on the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar sealed the ticket to the African Cup of Nations next year following a group campaign, where they picked up 15 points from possible 18 to finish top of Group A, in the company of Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.

Their group run was highlighted by their only defeat, which came on home soil to Guinea-Bissau, a blemish that will not be soon forgotten by fans, after the Jose Peseiro’s side failed to respond for over 60 minutes after going down to a Mama Balde’s strike just before the half-hour mark.

Super Eagles’ fans will always hold the flaw in one position as the major reason for the failure in Cameroon but even after almost two years, solution is yet to be proffered to it.

In the final minutes of preparation for the previous AFCON tournament, Nigeria experienced a change in management as Austin Eguavoen was appointed late December as the replacement of Gernot Rohr after more than five years of the German.

The decision proved a great deal early in the tournament as the Super Eagles conquered heavy favorite, the Pharoahs of Egypt in their opening game before going on to beat Sudan and Guinea-Bissau to complete a perfect group run.

However, their nightmare came in their first game after the group campaign as they fell to a Youssef Msakni’s 47th minute strike, which many believe Goalkeeper Maduka Okoye should have kept out.

In the end, the Eagles were unable to respond and even went a man down late in the game, as Alex Iwobi was shown a straight red card for a violent tackle on the Goalscorer, compounding a woeful night in Garoua for the three time winners of the competition.

The Goalkeeper cost us in what could have been a memorable tournament. That was the highest talking point around the country a little less than a year back. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have been done to fix the leaks so so.

Austin Eguavoen decided to go with Francis Uzoho for the two legged FIFA World Cup play-off with Ghana and the Omonia Nicosia man was a menace between the sticks in Kumasi, and was the best rated player in the match.

However, upon return to Nigeria for the return leg, he was the lowest rated player as his blunder allowed Thomas Partey gave Ghana the lead, a goal of enormous consequences as it spelt Nigeria’s elimination from the global showpiece in Qatar.

In spite of that, Uzoho continued in goal for the Super Eagles and went on a run of four games without keeping a clean sheet before the 10-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe in June 2022.

The only game he has missed since was the 3-2 away win in Sierra Leone, where and when Adebayo Adeleye was given the nod for his international debut back in June this year.

In consecutive games, also in the penultimate international break before the AFCON, Francis Uzoho made errors leading to goal for the opposing teams, yet he appears as the undisputed starter in goal for the country in next year’s AFCON in Ivory Coast.

Despite the form, talent and reputation of our strikers abroad and whenever they come home to represent the country, it is the poor performance of the Goalkeepers that continues to darken their impacts.

Nigeria has been one of the top scoring African nation heading into the AFCON, in fact, no country came close to their goals scored in the qualifiers (22), which is seven more than managed by the next top scoring country, Mali (15).

The trouble had been identified long ago but the management has failed to fix it and we head into the AFCON at the mercy of an unreliable Goalkeeper.

How will the fare with Francis Uzoho in goal in the AFCON ?