Daily Independent Online.
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Monday, July 05, 2004.
Okocha admits poor Performance
By Orkula Shaagee
Correspondent, Abuja
Super Eagles coach,
Christian Chukwu and the team’s Captain, Austin Okocha held different
opinions on the performances of the Super Eagles against the Desert Warriors of
Algeria in last Saturday’s Germany 2006 World Cup qualifier.
The two Super
Eagles helmsman spoke at a post match press conference held at the media centre
of the Abuja National Stadium after the tension soaked encounter Saturday
evening.
While Chukwu
insisted that the unimpressive performance of the team against Algeria and his
decision to make late changes to the team was on technical grounds, Okocha
admitted that the team did not play well.
According to the
Bolton Wonderers of England captain the poor performance was due to fatigue,
occasioned by their on-going holidays.
“ I apologise
to Nigerians over our poor performance today, we have not played our best and
this is as a result of the fact that most of the players have not been playing
for the last few weeks because their clubs are on league break”, Okocha
said.
He said however
said that, he was happy because the Eagles were able to pick the three maximum
points at the end of the encounter, which according to him is the most
important thing in the competition.
Okocha who blamed
the Nigeria Football Association for poor planning, advised that in future, the
football ruling body should strive to make available, replacements for players
in case of those who would not be able to honour invitations extended to them.
Chukwu on his part
assured that the Super Eagles would qualify for the Germany 2006 World Cup,
insisting that, “as far as I am concerned, I know what I am doing, and
the substitutions I made were correct”.
