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Nigeria could only draw 0-0 with Ghana on Sunday in a
tame 0-0 draw. The result leaves both countries in real danger of missing out on the World Cup finals next year. Nigeria are now in third place in their group with 7 points from 4 matches, behind Liberia and Sudan.
Things could have been worse, as it was only top class goalkeeping by Nigeria's Ike Shorounmu which kept them in it.
At the other end Victor Agali wasted a couple of superb chances including one right in front of an empty net which he blasted over.
See report.
This was against a Ghanaian side made up of locally-based players. All their overseas stars were dropped following
defeats in their previous 2 qualifiers.
Now the Nigerian coach (still Jo Bonfrere despite
earlier rumours) has responded in kind,
dropping many of his overseas players for the match against Zambia on March 24th (an African Nations Cup qualifier).
Players dropped, along with our Kanu, include most of the ones you've heard of (Okocha, Finidi, West, Agali, and Sunday Oliseh) although Chelsea's Babayaro is still in.
See Nigerian-soccer.com
for the full lists.
Naturally, the game they've decided to drop Kanu for, is the one where we could most easily spare him. That weekend is an
international week in Europe too. Typical!
Of course, they could always change their minds. Previously,
the NFA dropped Kanu only for Bonfrere to get him back into the squad. It's not impossible that those roles could be reversed this time , although there is also the possibility that
Bonfrere has been told that they can't afford to bring all
the overseas players to Lusaka for the match.
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