The error made by the goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria Francis Uzoho which led to the only goal scored by Seychelles in the 1-3 loss they suffered against Nigeria has been described as unfortunate by the coach of the Nigeria national team Gernot Rohr.
Uzoho dropped a harmless ball into the box onto the path of the Seychelles forward who scored the only goal for his team. The error has provoked backlash from fans of the team.
However Rohr who has persisted with the 20 year old as his first choice since the friendly game against Argentina prior to the World Cup in Russia has leaped to his defense over the latest blunder.
” When you have a young goalkeeper you have to be patient. I believe he is learnt from the mistake and hopefully it won’t happen again. The error can be made by any goalkeeper, he has to put it behind and focus on the future “, Rohr told Owngoalnigeria.com after the game.
Speaking further the coach said he has the option of playing other goalkeepers in his team with the duo of Daniel Akpeyi and Ikechukwu Ezenwa set to slug it out for who will be in goal against Egypt following the secondment of Uzoho to the U23s for the return leg of their Africa U23 Cup of Nations Qualifiers game against Libya.
” We’ll see the other goalkeepers against Egypt. They will play and we are confident that they won’t disappoint when they play on Tuesday. Akpeyi or Ezenwa will play the game”, he concluded.
Ade Emmanuel