5th December, 2011
Nigeriaâ€
Coach Austin Eguavoen and his team crashed out of the Africa Qualifying Championship for the Olympics in Morocco after losing two matches and winning one. The victory over Algeria on Friday was not enough to take them to the semi finals of the qualifying tournament.
While Eguavoen resigned following the poor outing, the players are begging soccer loving Nigerians to forgive them for failing to live up to expectations.
Omoh Ojabu, Dolphins FCâ€
“To be honest, we did not know what really happened. I will only appeal to our people to forgive us for failing the nation,†said former Golden Eaglets player to Nigeria 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Kayode Olanrewaju, one of the five foreign based players who made Eguavoenâ€
Meanwhile, Former Nigerian coach, Paul Hamilton, has described the current slide being experienced by the nationâ€
“Itâ€
“We have to start off again. Such things have happened to other countries and they later came back stronger. I see our situation as a passing phase. “There was a time we were labelled Papa Eagles during the late coach Chris Udemezueâ€
“Someone else took over and we moved from Papa Eagles to Super Eagles, he said.
“What we are experiencing is part of history, it will get to a point where we will start to laugh again once we are able to learn and put a solid structure in place,†he told SuperSport.com.
— Olusegun Abidoye