Excitement was in the air among the Super Eagles, the technical crew , backroom staff and the entire Nigerian contingent to Yaounde after the Super Eagles were forced to 1-1 draw by the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
Looking around I saw Gernot Rohr sitting with one of his foreign assistant coach and I walked up to him and the following conversations or should I say the exclusive interview began as yours truly , Francis Achi and Gernot Rohr engaged ourselves in a chat… Read on
Me : World Cup coach congratulations and a very good evening
Rohr : Good evening, but not World Cup coach..no no not yet. The team has not qualified yet
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Me : But from all indications, there is nothing stopping the Super Eagles from 2018 Russia World Cup
Rohr : In our case I think we should celebrate qualification for the Russia 2018 World Cup in Uyo after our game against Zambia in October.
Me: Your invitation and selection of players for the Super Eagles against indomitable Lions was very strong, stronger than the team selected to play against Bafana Bafana in June. How will you approach the game against Zambia ,not only you, but the players also.
Rohr : We will approach the game against Zambia just like we did against Cameroon in Uyo. It will be very difficult game. Zambia are the champions of Africa at Under 20 and a lot of the players that won the African Youth Championship are now in the first team of Zambia. This is another team of Champions we must beat in Uyo and it is not the same team we played last year in Ndola, which Nigeria defeated 2-1 when the World Cup qualifiers started in October. Zambia were not so good then like the present team they have now and right now they have the arrivals of very young , quick and dynamic strikers from their Junior team and it will be much more very difficult now than it was in Ndola last October , but if you have the possibility to qualify at home even against a good team like Zambia , you must get the result in this nice stadium in Uyo before a good public , so everybody must make sure that this will be possible to get a good result and go to Russia after the game against Zambia in Uyo.
Me : Nigerians were shocked that Aaron Samuel left the camp and will want to know what made him to leave the camp. Was he decamped or what?
Rohr : No. Aaron Samuel left the camp because he requested for permission to attend to private matter , very important things to do and I agreed because we have the qualification of Ola Aina to play for Nigeria from FIFA and we need more defenders in the team. Ola Aina is a defender .We had a lot of strikers that was why I accepted Aaron to leave. He is a good striker , but we needed another defender to make the team stronger in Yaounde.
Me: Anthony Nwakaeme never played a part in the double header against Cameroon. A lot of Nigerians were hoping that since he is a big attacker that he could feature
Rohr : You know a game for a big guy like Anthony is not easy for him to come into such a game at away . Kelechi had played a lot of games already with us and it is much easier for Kelechi to play ahead of Anthony in Yaounde. I felt it may not be good to play his game for Nigeria in such condition especially in Yaounde and to replace Jude Ighalo I preferred a player with an experience of the first game against Cameroon in Uyo and I played Kelechi.
Me : What are your fears regarding the form of the players ahead of the game against Zambia.
Rohr : The players must continue to play for their clubs , but I had my fears playing against Cameroon in Yaounde. Yellow cards . My key players – Mikel Obi, Jude Ighalo and Victor Moses were on Yellow card from the game in Uyo and if they picked up another yellow card in Yaounde, they will be suspended for the game against Zambia, but the yellow card picked up in Yaounde were from Leon Balogun and Ogenyi Onazi, so none of my players will be suspended in the game against Zambia due to yellow card. I am happy.
Me : Nigerians are now seeing you as a World Cup coach.
Rohr : Not yet my friend, not yet World Cup coach, not yet until we win Zambia in Uyo.
Me : We will surely win Zambia. Thank you very much.
Rohr : Yes we hope to win the game . Thank you too.
