The defensive issues of the Super Eagles of Nigeria is slowly becoming a thing of the past as coach Gernot Rohr appears to be close to finding a permanent solution.

Rohr has settled for the duo of William Troost Ekong and Leon Balogun as his preferred central defence partners but it was only arrived at after series of training drills.

Balogun’s aerial abilities and calmness in playing out of the rear, is well complimented by the pace, power and tenacity of Ekong. The combination has earned them the nickname “Oyibo Wall”

Upon taking over the team as coach, he introduced special sessions for the team in training with emphasis on defending deep and in blocks. As well as drills on cutting out crosses and set piece.

The coach who was a defender in his days made Balogun, the leader of the Super Eagles defence and his abilities in dishing out commands to help the team maintain it defensive shape was well on display against Algeria.

Still a work in process, the manager’s bext big task is to fix up the full back issues of the team, as he is currently having dearth of options in the left and right full back spot of the team.

Coach of the Cameroonian national team Hugo Broos says he is happy his team won’t be playing Nigeria this year, due to the fact that the Super Eagles are on a high at the moment.

Cameroon are in the same group with Nigeria, who are top of the group after two wins from the first two games of the group while Cameroon are yet to pick a win, with two draws from their opening ties.

Nigeria are currently four points ahead of Cameroon but both teams won’t be meeting each other until August next year, and Broos said the timing couldn’t have been any better.

” They (Super Eagles) are on a high, hard to find any weakness in them at the moment, maybe we are lucky because we don’t play them until next year. Hopefully we would have build up confidence to explore any weakness”. He said.

” We will approach both tie against Nigeria with the seriousness it deserves, they are beatable no doubt, and after our not too impressive start, we need a very good result against Nigeria”.

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has opened the door towards a potential recall for Nigeria AFCON 2013 hero Sunday Mba.

Mba has been in the international wilderness since failing to make the cut to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but Nigerians still hold him in high esteem after his goal in the AFCON final against Burkina Faso ended a 19 year wait for the Africa Cup of nations title in 2013.

A wrongly advised move to French second division strugglers CA Bastia, didn’t help his cause especially as they got relegated to the third division six months after he joined them.

He left the team two summers ago, following the expiration of his contract, and joined Yeni Malatyaspor in Turkey, where he appears to have regained the form that made him a firm fan favourite with Nigerians.

His new found form lead to a contract extension as the second division side are currently leading the log and are tipped to gain promotion to the top division in Turkey.

Rohr will tour Turkey before the end of the year to check on Nigerian players playing their trade in the country and Sunday Mba is reportedly one of the players, he will meet while in Turkey.

The manager will also made checks on Azubuike Okechukwu who is at the same club and other Nigerian players in the country with players like Godfrey Obaboana, Kenneth Otigba, Kenneth Omeruo, Raheem Lawal and Austin Amutu.

Highly rated Nigerian full back Nura Abdullahi could be the long term solution to the right back issues current bedeviling the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Nura, who is highly rated around the corridors of Italian side AC Roma has been plagued by two serious injury since joining the Serie A side on a permanent transfer from Spezia, after a fruitful loan spell alongside his child hood friend Sadiq Umar.

However he has returned to full fitness and will officially mark his comeback with a game for the Primavera sie of the Rome based outfit, which could be the spring he needs to make a first team appearance for the team.

Quick and strong in tackle, the 19 year old was heavily linked with a move to Barcelona before he suffered a minor cardia issue last year that required surgery.

Pictures of his return to training was posted by the club on their website, a sign of how high the club rates the defender, who at a point in time was voted the best right teen back in Italy, while at Spezia.

Coach of the Nigeria senior team Gernot Rohr is short of options at full back, particularly at right back, where he has used three different players in the three games he has handled Nigeria.

Out of the three players, the coach has used only Musa Muhammed is a natural right back but his lack of game time at Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir, means the duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Kenneth Omeruo have been deployed to his role despite their natural positions as central midfielder and defender.

Coach of the Nigeria U19s Manu Garba has defended his team poor outing at the recently concluded Suwon Invitational tournament in South Korea.

The Manu Garba lead team played three games at the tournament, scoring just once while they conceded 12 goals in games against England (1-8), Iran (0-1) and South Korea (0-3).

However the coach is adamant that his team performed way above his expectations based on the opponents they faced at the tournament in Korea.

” We had school kids picked from grassroot teams and Academies in Nigeria up against some players of other nations, who have played in the UEFA Champions League for top teams” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” Against England 75% of the players we played against have all represented top clubs in the English Premier League at senior level, against Iran we missed a penalty and lost via a controversial penalty.

” In our last game against South Korea, we lost 0-3, are you aware they had two players who are close to the main team of Barcelona?, it’s a learning curve for my boys. In a year or two time Nigerians will understand better”.

On loan Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Nabil Bentaleb who scored a screamer against Nigeria has revealed the secret behind his well hit drive, which ended up as a consolation for Algeria in their 1-3 loss to Nigeria.

Bentaleb took advantage of a space in front of the defence of Nigeria, to lash in an unstoppable drive from over 30 yards pass goalkepper Daniel Akpeyi in goal for Nigeria.

The goal stunned the entire stadium into silence as it brought scores to 1-2 and most feared it has given the Foxes a lifeline to crawl back into the game.

However it turns out not to be so, but the Schalke 04 man has revealed he took advantage of the poor positioning of Akpeyi as noticed by his coach before driving his effort home.

” We were told about his poor positioning by our coaches during the half time break, and when the space opened up I tried my luck from range. I won’t say I expected it to go in but it was worth the try” he told the Algerian press.

An online petition set up by an agitated fan of the Algeria national team aimed at preventing Gambian referee Bakary Papa Gassama has gathered momentum, with over 100 people putting their name to it.

The 37 year old is allowed John Obi Mikel goal, which was seemingly scored from an offside position to stand as Nigeria secure a 3-1 win over Algeria in the CAF 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Coach of Algeria Georges Leekens has narrowed his side defeat to that second goal scored by Mikel few minute to the half time break, as it somehow killed the game off as a contest after 45 minutes.

Video replays analyzed by soccer experts in Algeria proved, Mikel was indeed offside when he scored the second goal for Nigeria and it has lead to the online petition.

They want FIFA to ban Gassama from games in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers particularly games against them as they are yet to win a game he has handled.

Captain of the Super Eagles of Nigeria John Obi Mikel who scored the second goal for Nigeria, in their 3-1 win over Algeria has posted video of where he got the inspiration to score the goal.

The 29 year old who has been frozen out of the first team set up by coach Antonio Conte scored Nigeria’s second goal from a position that looks like he was offside.

Players of Algeria stopped playing anticipating the offside flag, Mikel also stopped for a while but upon seeing that the flag of the assistant referee was down, he finished off the move for Nigeria’s second goal of the game.

Mikel posted a short video of West Ham legend Paolo Di Canio who scored a similar goal few year ago in a English Premier League game against Manchester United.
” @OfficialDiCanio thanks for the inspiration this weekend”, Mikel posted on his official twitter account.

Just like players of Algeria, Manchester United players stopped playing, Di Canio just like Mikel as well stopped playing but after seeing that the flag is down, he side footed his effort past Fabian Barthez into the net.

Coach of the Nigeria senior national team Gernot Rohr has spoken of his admiration of the qualities of goalkepper Dele Alampasu, who was with the Super Eagles before the clash against Algeria.

Alampasu didn’t get to play in the encounter as Rohr went for the experience of Daniel Akpeyi over the 20 year old, and Ikechukwu Ezenwa who is lacking match sharpness following the conclusion of the Nigeria Premier League.

However the coach appears to have seen a lot of the goalkepper who was voted best goalkepper at the U-17 World Cup in 2013, and he has tip him to be an excellent goalkepper for Nigeria in a not too distant future.

” He did very well in training, brave and commanding. Very athletic as well. He will in no time be a regular goalkepper for Nigeria but for now he needs games to reach his sharpness”, he told owngoalnigeria.com

” We have goalkeppers coming through at a very young age these days like the Italian kid (Gianluigi Donnaruma), He could do same for Nigeria, if he maintains his hardwork and focus”.

The proposed friendly game between Nigeria and Egypt will see coach Gernot Rohr hand invitation to some players who have not been given a look in since he took over the team.

Although the list is expected to be dominated by players from the Nigeria Professonal Football League, some foreign base stars are lined up for the game as well.

Owngoalnigeria.com reliably gathered that Rohr has already concluded plans to call up Olarenwaju Kayode who has been doing very well for Austria Wien of Austria, while Gbolahan Salami who finished as top scorer for Finnish side KuPS is also been considered.

Goalkepper David Nwokolor who keeps goal for Bosnian side Vitez will be called up by Rohr for the friendly game against Egypt on the 9th of January, while unconfirmed reports has it that Godfrey Obaboana could be called up as well.

Obaboana’s inclusion could depend on some many factors but with the Turkish league expected to be on break, he could be considered for a call-up to the team.