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Nigeria have finally appointed a coach for the Super Eagles, he is the former Sweden coach Lars Lagerback, and will lead Nigeria to the 2010 World Cup finals.

Lagerback saw off competition from his compatriot Sven-Goran Eriksson for the role, while another former England manager, Glenn Hoddle, was also in pole position until Lagerback was interviewed by the Nigerian Football Federation yesterday.

A NFF spokesman Ademola Olajire said: “In the early hours of this morning we appointed Lars Lagerback.”

Olajire admitted Lagerback had pipped Hoddle and the former Senegal coach Bruno Metsu to the job. He said: “Previously, Bruno Metsu was ahead, Glenn Hoddle took over on Wednesday but in the end it was Lagerback, who [was interviewed] last, who won it. He has now signed a five-month contract to take Nigeria to the World Cup.”

Lagerback succeeds Shaibu Amodu as coach of the Super Eagles after they finished third at the African Nations Cup in Angola last month.

The Swede will watch Nigeria’s friendly against DR Congo on Wednesday and will be based in Nigeria from next month until the World Cup finals in South Africa.

Lagerback was co-coach of Sweden at Euro 2000 alongside Tommy Soderberg and led the team outright from the summer of 2004 until 2009, when he resigned following the failure to qualify for the World Cup.

Read his profile below:

Lars Edvin “Lasse” Lagerbäck (born 16 July 1948 in Katrineholm, Sweden) is a Swedish football manager and former player.

Career

As youth, Lagerbäck played for Alby FF. When he was 13 years-old, he began playing for their P16 team. In 1970, he left and moved to Gimonäs CK under the guidance of Calle Lindelöf.[2] He continued to play there until 1974. [3] In 1974, he attended Gynastik and Idrottshögskolan (GIH), where he was a classmate of current assistant coach Roland Andersson.

Managing Career

Club

In 1977, he was called up to the senior team. It was former teammate Kjell Pettersson that recommended him to Kilafors. He coached the Division IV team until 1982. In 1983, he moved to Arbrå IK until 1985. In 1987, he takes over Hudiksvall ABK but leaves by 1989.[4]

In 1990, Lagerbäck takes a job with the Swedish Football Association. He began to coach the junior levels which included Fredrik Ljungberg. He helped Tommy Svensson and Tord Grip with Swedish National Team.[5]

In 1996, Lagerbäck takes over Sweden B national team, until 1997. In 1998, Tommy Söderberg takes him on as assistant coach for the Swedish National Team. In 2000, he is promoted to dual-coach, a responsibility he would share with Söderberg until 2004.[6] Under his guidance, the Swedish National Team qualified for the Euro 2000 but lost in the group stages.

In 2002, he led Sweden to the World Cup where Sweden was in ‘group death’. Sweden lost against Senegal. In 2004, Sweden qualified for their third straight championship. In the Euro 2004, Sweden made it to the quarter-finals where they lost against Holland.[7] That same year, Tommy Söderberg left the Swedish National Team to coach the U21 Team.

After the departure of Söderberg, Lagerbäck appointed Roland Andersson as assistant coach. In 2006, Lagerback took Sweden to their fourth consecutive championship, the first time in Swedish history. He led Sweden to the 2006 World Cup, losing against Germany 2 2–0 in the knockout stage.[8] Under Lagerbäck, Sweden also qualified for UEFA Euro 2008, however they were eliminated in the group stage after losing 2-0 against Russia. The team’s early dismissal from the tournament led sport columnists to ask Lagerbäck to be sacked..[9] Despite this, he signed an extension, which would keep him until the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign. After Sweden’s unsuccessful qualification campaign for this summer’s World Cup in South Africa, Lagerbäck resigned.[10].

Popularity: 100% [?]

I did not want to write anything about the ongoing African Nations Cup in Angola untill i watched the Super Eagles play. After seeing the likes of Ivory Coast and the rest play, it was time to watch my own team play defending champions Egypt in Benguela. What can i say, the Super Eagles disappointed every Nigerian by losing to the Pharoahs.

The Egyptians started cautiously, but when they went behind to Chinedu Ogbuke’s clinical finish in the twelveth minute, they upped the tempo and eventually caught a flat footed Nigerian defense off guard to benefit from Vincent Enyeama’s ill timed run to equalise.

The Egyptian equalizer did not surprise me much, what did was the way the Nigeria team approached the match in the second half, just passing the ball around as if they had 3 goal advantage. How on earth would a team play such football at such a level. No tactical nor technical soundness.

Just how long will Nigerians be subjected to that sort heartbreak, and how many matches will we play and lose before Amodu is finally shown the door out of that team?

But for patriotism in my blood, i would have wished that we don’t even qualify for the next round so that everybody will see just how technically and tactically inefficient Shaibu Amodu really is.

Popularity: 27% [?]

My heart literally stopped when Kenya equalized to tie the game at 2 goals apiece, and that, when Mozambique had scored against Tunisia to give us hope.
But no sooner had the Kenyans equalized than Obafemi Martins scored what turned out to be the winning goal.
I could not stop shouting and celebrating, for we have finally made it to Africa’s world cup. Did is say i shouted, yeah, like most other Nigerians who had previously given up hope and had written off the chances of the Super Eagles ever hoisting the Nigerian flag at next year’s mundial. Ain’t we all hypocrites, well that’s story for another day.

It was really hard to imagine Africa hosting it’s first ever world cup and Nigeria not being there, not being at a second successive world cup.
But it is like a new wind is blowing behind our back, and this is quite refreshing. Today we play for a chance to win the Under 17 world cup for a record 4th time, and it seems like the luck and fortune brought in by the scintillating performances of the Golden Eaglets have also shown on the senior national team.

Okay, so we have qualified, therein lies our problem. We are never proactive. All of us, even the shit heads in the so-called glass house, the NFF know that their man, i.e Amodu is not a capable hand. He does not have the technical nor the tactical ability to blend the gifted individuals that make up the Super Eagles. He should be relieved of the post and a more capable hand given the job.

A lot of people are calling for a foreign technical adviser, but i will fault this because with barely seven months to kick off, we need somebody who is not only versed in the workings of Nigerian football, but one who is also technically sound.

Siasia has proven that he is not only sound, but also very stubborn, a vital ingredient needed to succeed as a coach of any of the national teams. I think the NFF should not delay in naming him the next coach head coach of the national team.

But hey, we have qualified for the world cup and that from a very unlikely situation. I don’t know about you, but am now making my preparations for my trip to South Africa.

UP SUPER EAGLES

Popularity: 46% [?]

I hope you all had a splendid weekend. You didn’t eat too much, drink too much, and did not pile up tickets for traffic offenses. I had a great weekend myself and my girlfriend.

Ok, so it was the penultimate match for our respective teams across the globe. In Europe, it was fairly straightforward, and the big teams did what they had to do to either book their place or stay in contention for at least a play-off place. My darling Portugal won against Hungary to keep their hopes alive, while Denmark confirmed their place in South Africa. Germany also reserved a place for themselves at the Mundial come 2010.

One team though surprised me at least. Slovakia, seating atop their group only needed a point to book their place, but to my amusement, the lost by 2-0 to Slovenia at home. They do still to the group, and qualification goes down to the wire.

In Africa, Ivory Coast belatedly confirmed their place with 1-1 draw away to Malawi with Didier Drogba coming to their rescue. Ghana lost their 100% record as the Black Stars lose by the odd goal to Benin, not that they will lose sleep over that. Egypt also kept their hopes alive by beating Zambia 1-0 in Lusaka.

Nigeria, yes, Nigeria also kept alive their very slim hope of snicking behind Tunisia with a last gasp goal from Victor Obinna Nsofor undoing hard fighting Mozambique who in my mind were better organized than the Nigerians.

Reflecting after the match, my thought went back to a moment in the first half when a short from inside the 18 yard area cannoned off the crossbar. Had that ball go into the net, ???

Well, in the end, they just managed to squeeze the win from the Southern Africans. But for how long will Nigeria continue to manage to win football matches as it has now become our custom.

Going down memory lane, well lets keep that for another day. You wouldn’t want me to run out of gist, would you?

Popularity: 33% [?]

This was by far the most exciting game of the entire tournament, but how did Nigeria lose a match we had no business losing.
After Nigeria’s first 2 matches which were played on the artificial surface of the Al Salam stadium, i had the notion that the artificial turf might have played a part in their lack of accurate shooting for goal.
Their last group match was played in Cairo and they played better and scored 5 goals,be it against a weak opposition. But they scored. We don’t have an artificial pitch in this country, you know.

Against Germany they played very well, and scored, although they allowed the Germans to score what were very cheap goals on the two seperate occasions they took the lead through very well worked goals.
All these is postmortem, but how could you lose a match you were in control of and with a man advantage.

And how about a certain Lukeman Haruna, touted before the start of proceedings in Egypt as one of the stars to watch. It turns out he was the nemesis of the team and his team-mates today. What the hell was he thinking about. A lose ball gets to you about 25 yards to goal, a player of his stature should know that with barely a minute of added time to play, the only thing to do would be to unleash a powerful shot to the keeper and hope that it takes a deflection off somebody in the crowded 18 yard box for either a goal or a corner, instead he gives the ball away for the Germans to score and win the game.

Well, its over, and we should stop crying over spilled milk. But this inevitably brings reflections and a few comparisons. We went to Netherlands 2005 and won a silver. Other players that played in that tournament have gone on to become bigger stars, while most of our own players had since faded into oblivion because of attitude exhibited like the one by Haruna today.
He has caused us a match we still had a chance of winning at least by penalty shoot-out. Well, every player has his day and this certainly was not Lukeman Haruna’s day. He was way too slow and at times, way too casual for a match of that magnitude.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Hi guys, how did your weekend go. I had loads of fun with my girlfriend.

I am a nice guy, and don’t really like to laugh at other people’s misfortune. But that is exactly what i am doing right now. Yeah, am laughing at Spain  because yet again, they come to a major championship with the tag “Favourites”, and yet again, they get bundled out in the knock-out stages.

Frankly, i am tired of hearing the all too same Spain are awesome and they gonna roast the opposition thing. At this Under 20’s, how would the Spain that was so outplayed by luckless Nigeria had won the trophy playing the way they did. Fact is, the team that was beaten by Italy are championship winners. Am not being a Nigerian here, am only stating the obvious.

Okay, so they are out. That leaves one of the so-called “Dark Horses”, Ghana.

They beat a South African team every bit as wasteful as Nigeria in their first 2 matches They had the better of the game against Ghana, but wasteful finishing cost them dearly. For a team so talked about, Ghana were not impressive today. But the most important thing is that an African country is into the last 8. Sad for the South Africans who can really play football.
That leaves host Egypt and Nigeria still to play for a place in the last 8. Egypt as i type is losing to Costa Rica by a goal at half time. The Egyptians have really come the party, its their party really, and we all know they can play.

So my beloved, Nigeria having qualified through the back door literally play Germany tomorrow. Have they corrected their goal scoring problem? we will see tomorrow, let all that care to listen, listen. Nigeria is at their deadliest when they have been written off. Nigerian teams tend to get stronger as a tournament progresses. Will this team follow that trend? we shall see.

Personally, i have such great faith i that team, and i know that we are going to prevail over the Germans and book our place in the last 8.

Fly Flying Eagles.

Popularity: 37% [?]

As expected, the Flying Eagles were dominant in the opening stages, keeping Tahiti camped in their own half, but had to wait 15 minutes for their first goal. Wingers Omatsone Aluko and King Osanga combined well to supply Obiora Nwankwo, who fired past Teave Teamotuaitau.

There was almost an embarrassing moment for the Nigerians four minutes later when Steevy Chong Hue raced past Daniel Adejo to present him with a one-on-one opportunity. However, Uche Okafor raced off his line to stop the ball with his legs.

Nigeria doubled their advantage in the 24th minute when Ibok Edet took advantage of some slack marking to head home King Osanga’s corner. Ten minutes later it was 3-0, when Kehinde Fatai slipped past Tehvarii Ludivion and side-footed home from another Osanga corner.

Chong Hue had another opportunity from the edge of the box, but fired straight into the arms of the keeper, and Danny Uchechi should have done better with a glorious chance, but the stand-in skipper missed the target completely.

Two minutes before half-time, Tahiti were reduced to ten men when Lorenzo Tehau was dismissed for his second yellow of the night. With the final kick of the game, Nigeria scored their fourth, when Nurudeen Orelesi’s outrageous cross-cum-shot curled into the net.

The second half was largely a frustrating one for the Flying Eagles. Uchechi hit the post with a downward header, but their cause was given a further boost in the 74th minute when Tahiti were reduced to nine men; this time it was Alvin Tehau, brother of Lorenzo, who saw red – again for a second bookable offence.

But still Nigeria could not find a breakthrough. Substitute Raheem Lawal stung the hands of Teamotuaitau from the edge of the box and many more Flying Eagles chances were wasted. Adejo made it five in the final minute, but Samson Siasia and his side face a nervy wait with a goal difference of plus-two to see if they will end up as one of the four best third-placed sides.

So we score 5 goals and beat Tahiti today, but will that be enough for us to qualify to the next round.

Take a close look at the tables below, even with a round of matches for most teams still to play, i think we will qualify. Take a look:

Group A

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Italy	2	1	1	0	2	1	4
	Paraguay	2	1	1	0	2	1	4
	Egypt	2	1	0	1	5	3	3
	Trinidad and Tobago	2	0	0	2	2	6	0

Group B

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Spain	3	3	0	0	13	0	9
	Venezuela	3	2	0	1	9	3	6
	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	5	3	3
	Tahiti	3	0	0	3	0	21	0

Group C

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Germany	2	1	1	0	4	1	4
	USA	2	1	0	1	4	4	3
	Cameroon	2	1	0	1	3	4	3
	Korea Republic	2	0	1	1	1	3	1

Group D

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Ghana	2	2	0	0	6	1	6
	Uruguay	2	2	0	0	4	0	6
	Uzbekistan	2	0	0	2	1	5	0
	England	2	0	0	2	0	5	0

Group E

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	Brazil	2	1	1	0	5	0	4
	Czech Republic	2	1	1	0	2	1	4
	Costa Rica	2	1	0	1	3	5	3
	Australia	2	0	0	2	1	5	0

Group F

	Team	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
	United Arab Emirates	2	1	1	0	3	2	4
	Honduras	2	1	0	1	3	1	3
	Hungary	2	1	0	1	4	3	3
	South Africa	2	0	1	1	2	6	1

Popularity: 95% [?]

As a die hard Nigerian soccer fan, it is hard to  believe that the Flying Eagles with all the ball possession and apparent superiority over Spain could not score even a single goal.

As a result, we suffered our second defeat at the hands of Spain who for most of the match were reduced to shadows by Nigeria’s superior passing game.

Both Spanish goals came from the young Arsenal star Fran Merida – one a superb chip, the other a confidently-taken penalty.

For the second game in a row Nigeria were also reduced to 10 men – when substitute Gbolahan Salami was sent off late in the game.

The result means the Flying Eagles will struggle to reach the next round – although that is not yet certain.

Despite the outcome, this was a much improved performance by Nigeria – who started with determination and strength.

Coach Samson Siasia had made five changes to the starting line-up – only one of them enforced by the two-match suspension of Lukman Haruna.

This team were quick to the ball and sharp in possession and should have taken the lead in the first 20 minutes.

Whether Spain had got a false impression of Nigeria’s talents from their first game against Venezuela or not, it took the fancied Europeans nearly half an hour to start to get into the match.

But then on 32 minutes a failed Nigerian offside trap allowed Merida through to chip the onrushing Uche Okafor and give Spain a 1-0 lead.

The advantage was almost doubled in the final minute of the first half but Okafor dived full-length to deny Aaron Niguez.

Siasia brought Sone Aluko on at the start of the second half in place of Kehinde Fatai – and he nearly had an instant impact, with a powerful drive parried away by Asenjo.

With 66 minutes on the clock Nigeria had the ball in the net but the goal was ruled out for an apparent shove on one of the Spanish defenders.

The pressure from the Flying Eagles kept on coming – substitute Gbolahan Salami saw one terrific dipping shot cannon away off the crossbar.

But all the hard work failed to produce a goal and with 10 minutes remaining Rabiu Ibrahim brought down Ander Herrera in the Nigerian box and despite vocal protests from the Nigerian team the resulting penalty from Merida doubled the Spanish lead.

In the other Group B game there was another 8-0 drubbing for Tahiti this time at the hands of Venezuela.

Yonathan del Valle and Jose Rondon grabbed hat-tricks for Venezuela with Jose Manuel Velazquez and Oscar Rojas the other scorers.

Tahiti played for more than hour with 10 men after Stephane Faatiarau was sent off in the 26th minute.

The results mean that Spain and Venezuela both have six points and have guaranteed themselves places in the last 16.

Nigeria’s only chance of advancing is to beat Tahiti convincingly on Thursday and hope that it is good enough for them to be one of the best four third-placed sides.

I am not going to say that Siasia has failed, on the contrary, we have a bright set of real ball players that could be groomed to form the nucleus of the next generation of Super Eagles players. The play very good football. The only minus in their game is their inability to score goals. This could be corrected in time though.

We can still qualify, all we need to do is feast on Tahiti and score as many as 10 goals. We should use them for scoring practice.

Popularity: 32% [?]

So the wait is finally over, and the parade of the next legion of soccer stars begins.

Host Egypt could not ask for a better start as they thump Trinidad and Tobago by 4-1.

Two goals from Hussam Arafat, plus strikes from Moustafa Afroto and Mohamed gave the hosts victory, with Trinidad’s Jean Luc Rochford netting a consolation.

A frantic start showed that the players were perhaps too eager to make an impression on the opening night of this global event, in front of a crowd of 80,000 at the stadium of Borg el-Arab.

Both sides were guilty of squandering presentable chances in the early stages after good work in the midfield.

But on the half hour, after some sustained pressure, Egyptian striker Afroto took the ball beyond the Caribbean defence and side-footed it past the Trinidad keeper in style.

It was a tremendous goal and Egypt should have had a 2-0 lead shortly afterwards, but Mohamed Talaat’s header was straight at the goalkeeper.

Instead, on the counter-attack, Rochford eased through the static home defence to level things at 1-1 and it stayed that way until half-time.

It took only five minutes after the break for Egypt to restore their lead as Trinidad failed to clear a corner and Arafat had time to control and fire home from just inside the area with a stinging shot off the inside of the post.

And the Young Pharaohs made the game safe after an hour when Talaat pounced on a rebound off Glenroy Samuel in the Trinidad goal to make it 3-1.

Trinidad continued to create chances – the best with five minutes to go when Juma Clarence’s shot cannoned away off a post, but Egypt held on for the win and added gloss to the scoreline as Arafat added his second in stoppage time.

Tens of thousands of Egyptian fans had gathered many hours before kick-off in a brand new stadium outside Alexandria for the first of 52 matches in the competition, culminating in the final in Cairo on 16 October.

The venue was built as part of Egypt’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to host the 2010 World Cup, but with searchlights beaming into the night sky and a fervent crowd, it provided a spectacular opener for the tournament.

The crowd left in good spirits – but the next generation of Egyptian stars will have to work on their defence before they take on Paraguay and Italy in their remaining Group A fixtures.

So one of Africa’s 5 kick-starts  with an impressive win. Tomorrow, Nigeria take on Venezuela. The Flying Eagles should win that one.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Just yesterday, i was with a group of friends and we were discussing the distressed state of Nigerian football. The inevitable mention of our last world cup qualification match against Tunisia brought memories of exploits of our youth teams in the past.

The most memorable of such exploits remain the Miracle of Daman, when Nigeria was down by 3 goals to the then Soviet Union. The Flying Eagles not only came back to score 3 goals,but went on to win the match. Though we did not go on to win the tournament, Nigerians were given a taste of what it is for a team to play good football.

I am not giving a history lesson here, but this year’s Under 20 world cup kicks off in the Egypt tomorrow and Nigeria is there. One just wonders if an African team can win the tournament knowing that it is the only trophy that still eludes the continent. Of all of the teams representing Africa, i would say that Nigeria stands better placed to win it. We have come inches to winning it and i think this could be it.

A few things will go in our favour. Siasia, the best coach in Nigeria is the coach of the team, and the team has prepared well for it.

Go Flying Eagles Go.

Popularity: 27% [?]