Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh has described
the 0-0 draw against Tanzania as satisfactory while promising Nigerians
that the next game will be better than what was seen of the Super
Eagles against the Taifa Stars of Tanzania on Saturday in Dar es Salaam.
Oliseh who spoke with reporters said he
was okay that his team did not lose the game given the short time they
have been together so far.
He said, “I can describe the match as a
game of two halves because we struggled in the first half but came back
strongly in the second half containing the Tanzanians, who also played
very well.
“We
only had two days to train together just as Ahmed (Musa) said and I am
impressed with the way we played even though the striking was blunt but I
am optimistic we will work on those mistakes step by step.
“This is far better than game that what
we had in Abuja on Wednesday as our first friendly match. With what I
have seen of this outing and the period leading to this match, I can
confidently say that the third game will be better. And that’s what
we’ll keep doing with subsequent matches.”
On Saturday, it was glaring that the Super Eagles had problems with their midfield as soon as the match started.
“Our midfield was not covered properly that is why I decided to do some early changes but I don’t want to point at any player.
“Things did not work as planned that’s
why I decided to make the change but I don’t want to be negative because
I will have time to talk to the player and see how we can correct the
mistakes we saw but if we hadn’t made that early change, we would have
lost,” the former Nigeria captain said.
“In the second half, we organised
ourselves better but lacked that quality supply from the midfield to the
attack. But we will get better as we progress.
“We have to continue to build the team.
We barely had two good days of training before this match so I am happy
with the one point.”
The coach was also full of praise for
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme, who won his first cap
for the team in Dar es Salam when the media unofficially named him
Man-of-Match.
Oliseh said, “I don’t like to single out
players from the team but I have to admit that Carl Ikeme had a great
game for us today. It can’t be described decent as you just said; that
will be unfair. I think Carl had a very fantastic debut today.”
The Eagles will play their next match in
the qualifiers against Egypt at home in March 2016. Egypt defeated Chad
5-1 on Sunday to maintain leadership of the group.
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