Thursday, November 20, 2014
Former Super Eagles player, Okocha questions players' passion following AFCON failure
Former Super Eagles star Jay-Jay Okocha questions the passion of the current national team following Wednesday performance which led to the reigning AFCON champions crashing out of the 2015 Nations Cup qualifiers. Nigeria failed to qualify for next year's Nations Cup after drawing 2-2 against South Africa in Uyo, marking their second exit before the tournament in three editions.
South
Africa's Tokelo Ranti scored twice in both half of the game, they
however slipped after a late equalizer by the Eagles denying The
Bafana Bafana any chance of a first ever win in Nigeria.
Nigeria
who were tied in second place with Congo in Group A of the Nations
Cup qualifiers failed to book their place in next year's competition
which will be held in Equatorial Guinea as Congo went on to secure
their place with a 1-0 victory over Sudan, and, Nigeria, well,
crashed out with their 2-2 draw with S/Africa.
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Seasoned
footballer Okocha questions their passion and believes that the
players in the current team should show have shown concern, speaking
to Goal.com he said:
“ I
think, to be honest, we will always produce talented players. But
perhaps the question is whether they have the same passion that they
used to have, People are pressuring them about that, you know,
because sometimes it seems as if they don’t really care much about
the result.”
Although the 41-year-old player who won 75 caps during his time in the national
team still believes they would have performed well in the competition
if they qualified, he insists the Eagles made it difficult earlier
in their campaign: “Of
course it was down to our bad spot, even if we were still in with a
chance,” he also added. “I think sometimes players must have a
wake-up call before they realize they are back in African football.
They left themselves get into a difficult position.”
“I
have no doubt that had we managed to qualify we would have had a good
tournament, because you have to play really well once it comes to the
tournament itself. The qualifiers are sometimes a bit tricky here in
Africa, so I think if they had qualified they would have had a good
tournament.”
Congo and South Africa will join
the 16 nation competition which will be held next year.
Source:GOAL.COM
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