Tag: Stephen Keshi

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi resigns after exit

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has stepped down from his position after the Super Eagles’ exit from the World Cup in Brazil.

France scored twice in the last 11 minutes in Brasilia on Monday to reach the quarter-finals at their expense. The 52-year-old was appointed Nigeria boss in 2011 and helped them become African champions two years later.

Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo also retired from international football following their exit. Fenerbahce’s Yobo, 33, scored a late own goal after Paul Pogba’s header had broken Nigerian resistance.

Keshi offered his resignation after last year’s Africa Cup Of Nations triumph, citing a lack of support and respect, although he was persuaded to stay by Nigeria’s sport minister.

A group stage win against Bosnia-Hercegovina helped Nigeria reach the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1998, despite the players being involved in a row over bonuses.

He becomes the sixth manager to leave his job during the World Cup, following the departures of Honduras’s Luis Suarez, Iran’s Carlos Queiroz, Japan’s Alberto Zaccheroni, Italy’s Cesare Prandelli and Ivory Coast’s Sabri Lamouchi. Keshi, who captained Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup finals, was previously in charge of Mali and Togo.

Iran and Nigerian played a goalless draw in Curtiba. It was Iran’s only point in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

In contrast to the highly successful campaign by Nigeria under Keshi  in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, many people in Iran demand that Queiroz stays as head coach  , which achieved poor results and well below public expectations!.

Nigerian Football enthusiasts urge Keshi not to underrate Iran

OKITIPUPA – Football fans in Ondo State on Friday, urged Coach Stephen Keshi of the Super Eagles not to underrate Iran at the ongoing 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The super Eagles will take on their Iranian counterparts on June 16 in their first Group F game. They will later meet Bosnia-Herzgovina and Argentina.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Okitipupa, the fans called on Keshi to make use of his best players in the first half.

According to the fans, Eagles will triumph over Iran if they discharge their best, especially in the first half.

Tunde Ogunja, a former Director, Ondo State Football Academy, expressed concern that Iran could spring surprises if they were not adequately tackled.

I think the Eagles need to work on their coordination and they must not underrate Iran because they have some good players who can spring surprises,” Ogunja said.

Idowu Akinbulumo, the General Manager, Ondo State Sports Council, advised the Eagles to imbibe “Team Spirit” for them to be able to dislodge the Iranians.

He, however, noted that the Eagles did not exhibit team spirit in their friendly matches, saying that they needed to work hard during the tournament.

“Eagles need team spirit and hard work for them to surpass difficulties at the World Cup,” Akinbulumo said.

A sports analyst, Oluwatoyin Olafusi, also advised Keshi to ensure that the best players were featured in the first half of the match against Iran.

Damola Olasanmi said that the coach should work on the midfield and defence for them not to concede early goals.

“The midfield is too loose without coordination, while the defence is porous too, I think these are the areas that Keshi needs to work on for the success of the team,” he said.

Kehinde Akinusi also predicted victory for the Eagles but urged them to work hard. (NAN)

Keshi dismisses Argentina, focused on Iran

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi focusing on Iran first

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi says his focus at the moment is his opening World Cup match against Iran.

Keshi’s team also play Bosnia-Herzegovina and Argentina, but most of the focus has been on the South American giants.

The Nigeria coach insists that the first game is the most important one of all. “The Argentina game is not important right now,” Keshi said.

“The most important game is against Iran and when I finish playing against Iran and Bosnia then I can have an answer to that.”

Keshi also dismissed injury concerns to his players, claiming he has spoken to them and received assurances.

“There are no injuries. I have called Austin Ejide and he made it clear that he was never injured.

“Ahmed Musa had a minor injury and l spoke to the club doctor who said in two or three weeks he would be fine.

“Musa played in the last minutes for his Russian club in a league game. I called Oduamadi and he dismissed the report of his injury. In fact he told that he had a match that same day, so I don’t know where all these rumours emanated from.

“But we will assess everyone very well when they come for the training camp.”

Former Nigeria coach ” Iran may be Nigeria’s toughest challenge”

Former Super Eagles coach, Samson Siasia, has said that the Iranian national team, may be Nigeria’s toughest challenge in the group stages of the 2014 FIFA world cup championship in Brazil.

The Keshi-led team will play Iran in their first game of their campaign at the mundial in the summer.

Siasia expressed the need for the technical crew of the Nigerian national team to get a compilation of the videos of the world cup debutants so as to help with tactical strategies when they eventually clash.

“Now is the time for the compilation of videos and data that can truly reveal the Iranians” Siasia said in an interview with 365footballnews.com.

“I am not afraid of Argentina. We really don’t know much about Iran and if you are going to fight an enemy, then you should know the kind of enemy you want to fight. You have to know their strength and weaknesses but what we know about Iran is zero”.

“As far as I am concerned, that will be the most difficult game we are going to play because we don’t know them much”

Nigeria is in Group F together with Iran, Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Stephen Keshi is expected to navigate the team through to the knock-out stages.

Iran coach threatens Keshi.

Iran coach, Carlos Queiroz will come face to face with Coach Stephen Keshi on June 16 in a Group F opening game of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when his team take on the Super Eagles.

After the World Cup, the Portuguese born Iran trainer has another battle to contend with his Nigerian counterpart, this time in the African continent.

With Carlos Queiroz strongly rumored to be linked with the Bafana Bafana job when Gordon Igesund’s contract expires, it could be that the Portuguese will be auditioning for the role when he leads Iran at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The 61-year-old led Bafana Bafana from 2000 until 2002 where he enjoyed a reasonable amount of success. However, he cut his time short after reportedly falling out with the South African Football Association.

Earlier reports in Nigeria and South Africa had linked the Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi with the Bafana Bafana job but with the latest reports from South Africa, where Queiroz and his Iranian squad for World Cup have been camping for the past two weeks, it appears the battle for the Bafana job will be keener than expected.

Although Keshi insists that he has not been contacted by the South Africa Football Association, it is strongly believed that his romance with the Nigeria Football Federation would come to a soothing end after the World Cup and the next destination for the Afcon winner is thought to be South Africa.

While Keshi who led modest Togo to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and led Nigeria to the Africa Cup of Nations crown in 2013 is regarded as the most successful Nigerian tactician in history, Queiroz boasts experience of coaching at some of the best teams in the world like Manchester United, Real Madrid as well as the Portuguese national team.

Queiroz’s recent stint with Iran has also proved to be a huge success. He successfully led the lesser-known football nation to only their fourth appearance at the world’s showpiece tournament. The Lions are in a tough group alongside Argentina, Nigeria and Bosnia.

Culled from The Nigerian Vanguard.

Why Team Melli stands a good chance against Nigeria?

The Nigerians have a great belief in their football team nicknamed “The Super Eagles” and are pretty confident of qualification to the next round to the extent of arrogance. Majority of the Nigerian experts and analyst dismiss Iran as a serious opponent, focusing instead on Bosnia and Argentina. The World Press seems to be following that inclination. With many of their players making their living in European leagues, Nigeria seems to be favored against the lessor known Iranians who have a handful of players. All The Iranian players in European league play in very modest teams, with every single one of them struggling against relegation. Even with such teams, Only Davari and Dejagah feature regularly in their teams while the other two are peripheral players.

So , it is no wonder that Nigeria is considered to be the favorite to beat Iran.

Here is one analysis to support the belief that Nigeria is one of the top 10 Dark Horses teams that might surprise the world:

This may be a slightly odd selection, especially since Nigeria will have to withstand Argentina and Bosnia/Herzegovina to have a chance at even making the Round of 16. However, the defending Africa Cup of Nations champions have a decent array of weapons at their disposal, with John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses expected to lead their midfield and Emmanuel Emenike as arguably their top striker, as well as Vincent Enyeama having put up solid goalkeeping performances for Lille this past year. Especially since their draw could have been a lot worse – just ask Ghana – don’t be too surprised if the Super Eagles put up more of a fight in Brazil than you’d expect.

However , Team Melli is much stronger than what the Nigerians think. The African Champions self-belief perhaps even over confidence, might nicely work for Querioz’s men. None of the star players mentioned in the above brief is a regular starter for their teams. Obi Mikel has only a handful of matches with Chelsea , so has Moses who seems to be a permanent sub at Liverpool. Emmanuel Emenike whose nickname is the Beast , has hardly set the Turkish League alight , although he did suffer some injury , yet his 3 goals in the season 2013-14 for Fenerbache, is hardly a record that can be frightening for his opponents.

Nigeria has some hard working midfield players and a good defense line, but they are not formidable as seen in the African Cup and the qualification rounds. The teams plays physical football and at times rough and reckless. They have weaknesses that Queiroz can work upon. One of which is if Nigeria falls behind, their players tend to panic. They have also shown traces of indiscipline tactically and on individual basis.

The squad itself is not at its ideal conditions with Head Coach Stephen Keshi, and his employer, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) having differences. Believes that Keshe needs the support of assistance coach with experience, while Keshi sees that as a threat to his authority. Such quarrels has already trickled into the camp. Some of Nigeria’s recent shortcomings were apparent during the match vs. Ghana in the CHAN semi-final match. Although the Ghanaian team was reduced to ten men, the Super Eagles could not find an answer to their power game and eventually lost to them. It was also alleged that during the CHAN match with Zimbabwe for the third place, the Super Eagles could again not find a way to convincingly overwhelm the team despite the fact that one of their players got a red card in the 17th minute of the game.

The strength of Iran against Nigeria will be in the tight defense that will not allow the Nigerians to breathe, a similar tactics that Carlos Queiroz deployed against a much organized South Korean team at home and away during the World Cup qualifiers. Iran has also several individual talented players who can produce some magic and surprise the Nigerians.

There are quite a few good lessons that Iran has learned from the defeat against Nigeria in the FIFA U-17 World Cup, mainly is the ability of the Nigerians to run tirelessly.

In brief, both teams have equal chances of winning. The so-called expertise who claim Nigeria as being superior to Iran, based such judgment on superficial information of Iranian football , and that is expected because of Iran’s low profile in European football scene.

Reality is something else. Iran has the strength in depth to defeat Nigeria. The onus is on Queiroz to use his expertise and motivational power to make his players believe in their ability and their capacity to surprise their opponents.