Former under-23 national team star and ex-Super Eagles’ defender, Abiodun Obafemi has reeled out a number of things that the home-based national team should do in order to defeat Sudan in their second math at the Championship of African Nations (CHAN 2024).
Sports247 reports that Obafemi was disappointed with the CHAN Eagles’ performance in their 1-0 loss to Senegal on Tuesday, and opined that it was because the players were too slow, afraid to attack, unable to run and always reactive in the course of the game.
While picking each point one after the other, Obafemi, who played for Fortuna Dusseldorf of Germany at the height of his career, warned that Eric Chelle’s team needs to defeat Sudan on Tuesday in order to qualify from their group.
Obafemi added, “If we don’t get a very favourable result in the second match, then the team’s qualification will be difficult. But our approach to the match against Senegal was too reactive.
“I was expecting us to be proactive, but we were not. On the other hand, the way the Senegalese played, their transition was quicker and faster.”
The former centre back, who was part of Nigeria’s gold medal winning under-23 squad at Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games, further pointed out that the CHAN Eagles lacked proper coordination in their game against Senegal.
Obafemi noted, “The Senegalese committed more men into attack whenever they had the ball. But, for our team, the coordination wasn’t there.
“They wanted to play, but our build-up was a little bit too slow. So, we need to commit more men up front, and our wingers need to run.”
He concluded by declaring that the CHAN Eagles must be smart and run fast during their next game, because modern football is mostly about speed and quick transitions.
“They were not running as a team; but a team that doesn’t want to run can’t win matches. Nowadays, football is about running. Those were the things I noticed about this team,” Obafemi submitted.
