By Aiwu Esele
The image of the Super Eagles as a Continental championed suffered a heavy blow on Sunday morning with a 4-0 defeat at the hands of El Tri of Mexico in their international friendly played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The defeat was however softened by the fact that the team was composed of an all-home based players that the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF selected.
NFF Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen had explained his preference for the composition of the team on the grounds that an international friendly would expose the boys to the task ahead as many Super Eagles regulars are players abroad whose contracts often make it hard to call them up for national assignments, apart from having to groom a compact, new team.
German manager Gernot Rohr, who was resently asked by Sports Minister, Sunday Dare to act more and complain less could not deliver the match, He was assisted by Paul Aigbogun. The only international face in the team was Ibrahim Sunusi, a striker of the Major League Soccer side CF Montréal.
Unlike the Nigerian players, the Mexican team was full of the experienced players from Atletico Madrid’s Hector Herrera, two-goal scorer, who opened scoring with a header to Argentinian born striker for C.F. Monterrey, Rogelio Funes Mori and Napoli winger Hirving Lozano, who also scored from close range, making it two in the first four minutes of the game and Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos, who compounded Eagles woes with a last winning goal in the 77th minute.
