Akwa United were the most comfortable team among the Nigerian teams on the Africa continent after winning 1-0 away in Congo against Vita Club Mokanda.
However the Promise Keepers as Akwa United are fondly called failed to keep to their promise of progressing to the next round after losing by same scoreline at home before finally bowing out 5-6 on Penalties.
Owngoalnigeria.com take a look at five possible reasons why they crashed out.
1. Complacency: The way they approached the return leg tie was far below how they were fired up in the first leg, the victory they secured away made them feel they just have to turn up to win.
2. Poor Finishing: Even before the visitors scored their first goal Akwa United had chance after chance to put the game beyond the visitor’s reach but poor finishing in front of goal cost them.
3. Poor Game Plan: One thing that is very obvious about teams handled by Maurice Cooreman is how poorly they are set up defensively, all teams he has lead to the Africa continent have always lost out by that odd goal his team failed to defend.
4. Never Practiced Penalty Shoot-Out: As one of the players told owngoalnigeria.com in the build up to the game they never thought of it heading into penalty shoot out, a sign of how confident they were that they will beat the Congolese.
Little wonder they missed their kicks both in the game and during the spot kicks moreso names of those who played the kicks was taken on the pitch as they didn’t have any pre planned penalty takers.
5. Over Reliance On Long Range Efforts: Due to their lack of cutting edge upfront they were eager to shoot from afar although it’s also so because they have very good shooters.
However Vita’s goalkepper, their hero of the tie was equal to all that was thrown at him from range not because they were not well hit but the distance gave him time to study the flight of the ball and make saves.
