ADIDAS PREDICTS: Eagles To Be In Germany 2006.

[Prince]

ADIDAS PREDICTS:
Eagles To Be In Germany 2006.

Adidas Unveils New Eagles Strip
Confident Nigeria will qualify for Germany 2006
From Tunde Sulaiman, in London

Super Eagles kit suppliers, adidas, Tuesday unveiled the new strip to be worn by the national team and said they were already preparing another strip for the World Cup because they were confident that the Eagles will be in Germany.
 
Mr. Max Van den Doel, who made the presentation at the Eagles\' Ramada Hotel camp Tuesday morning, said his company was already working on the kit the team would wear in Germany 2006 because they were certain that they would be there.

He also dispelled the notion that what they were giving the Eagles was inferior to what they supply France and Germany.

\"We supply the same fabric that we supply France and Real Madrid so there is no truth that we supply your team kits of lower quality.\"

According to the marketing chieftain, the Eagles were forced to wear their current outfits, which contain black because it usually takes 18 months to prepare new kits for their customers.

\"What normally takes us 18 months to do we did it in 18 weeks. We knew that the Eagles were going to the Nations Cup but we only signed the contract in December so we had to make do with the stuff closest to what they normally wear. It\'s now that we\'re ready to produce the proper kit that is why I\'m here to show the FA and players before we go ahead to mass produce it.\"

He also congratulated the Eagles for winning the Unity Cup and said they expected the success to continue.

The kit, part of adidas \'Climacool\' range, is a double layer outfit designed in such away as to keep the players as cool as possible by making sure sweat does not remain on their skins for too long. According to the adidas official, the material used will \'breath\'.

The home kit is Nigeria\'s \'proper\' green colour for the jerseys, which tapers off into twilight green down the sides. The numbers are written in white, while the shorts are also dark green with the famous three stripes down the sides. The socks are equally green.

Both the jerseys and socks carry small Nigerian flags on them. The away strip is white with green stripes down the shoulders and shorts while the numbers are written in green.

Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Secretary General Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi thanked Adidas for the new strip and said he would still have to show it to the board for final approval. He also assured the company that they would not regret signing the Eagles on because they would get good value for their money.

Also present at the unveiling where Super Eagles skipper Garba Lawal and his teammates Christian Obodo and John Utaka. All three expressed their satisfaction with the proposed new kit.

Meanwhile, Adidas plans to launch their Super Eagles replica kit in Nigeria in September. According to Van den Doel, they will be affordable and good quality. He also announced that the company would be launching training kits for the Eagles, which will have Globacom inscribed on the chest. Globacom is the official sponsor of the Eagles and want to extend their mileage as is done with other national teams. For instance \'Nationwide\', which sponsors England has it\'s name on the team\'s training and casual wear.

[sly]

Honestly I think the S. Eagles  have been more than lucky often times with the way the\'ve been winning matches. We have loads of soccer talents but the NFA have been unable to put together a sound (experienced) technical crew that will in turn assemble a fortified team for any encounter. This always leaves soccer fans speculating on whether we will make it to a competition or not. Adidas can dream and speculate all they care which I understand but if we dont make proper preparations by hiring capable hands who will instill discipline and make players report to camp on time the world cup might pass us by. We still have three games in hand with Gabon trailing us by 2 pts. Only God knows how lucky we were to win last sat. game
   
Tuesday, March 29, 2005  

Eagles coaching crew is not sound, says NFA member
Calls for foreign coach

By Gowon Akpodonor who was in Port Harcourt
INDICATIONS that coach Christian Chukwu and his assistant, Austin Eguavoen, may not be in charge of the Super Eagles should Nigeria qualify for Germany 2006 World Cup is becoming rife following declaration by a board member of Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Sam Jaja, that the Eagles\' technical crew was not sound.

Jaja, who is the President of Nigerian Referees Association (NRA), revealed after the match against Panthers of Gabon at the weekend in Port Harcourt that Chukwu\'s technical input in the team was insufficient.

\"I have respect for Chukwu as a person, but not as a technical adviser. He is a gentleman with good managerial acumen. He can handle the boys in his own little way, but in terms of real coaching, I doubt if he has the ability to deliver. Football has gone beyond mere pointing of fingers from the sideline. These days, people read the game and know exactly what to do,\" Jaja stated.

Speaking further, the NRA boss said, \"how many coaching courses has Chukwu attended in the last couple of years? If Nigeria qualifies for the World Cup and Chukwu is allowed to lead the team to Germany 2006, the team may not go far and we must not allow that to happen.

\"The best option for us now is to get somebody who can bring the situation to normal.\"
According to Jaja, a foreign technical adviser is needed urgently to head the team\'s technical crew.

\"Chukwu can still work under such person if he wants. We need somebody who can build up a team from the local scene. Not somebody who will be relying completely on the foreign-based players just as Chukwu is doing now.

\"A good technical bench of the national team should be able to discover some of our local players, who travel out on daily basis to become superstars. These boys travel out everyday and before you know it, they are performing wonders in their clubs. It means that our local league is not dead after all. What we lack is the coach who can discover them, just as coach Clemens Westerhof was doing when he came into the country some years ago. It is quite clear that the present technical crew has a problem,\" he added.

Signs that coach Chukwu may have walked into troubled water first came to fore at the Liberation Stadium during the match on Saturday, when John Utaka was pulled out for Portsmouth of England\'s striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni. The technical director of NFA, Kashimaho Laloko, who seems not satisfied with the change, protested openly as he screamed at the top of his voice \'what type of change is this?\'\"
Laloko, who felt that the removal of Utaka was a technical blunder on the part of Chukwu, immediately, staged a walk out from the pitch and he never returned till the end of the game. The fans also reacted sharply to Utaka\'s removal.

Speaking with journalists after the encounter, the chairman of NFA, Ibrahim Galadima described the changes made by coach Chukwu as a big risk.

\"It was a very big risk the coach took at that particular point in time. Thank God it worked out for him,\" he stated.

Some concerned soccer loving Nigerians, who spoke with The Guardian after the 2-0 victory over Gabon stated that coach Chukwu has completely lost the command of the team.

They are of the opinion that if the players had responded to Chukwu\'s call on time and trained together for about one week, the game would not have been a difficult one.

Nigeria jumped back to the leadership of Group 4 last Saturday with two late goals against a hard fighting Panthers of Gabon. Angola lost 0-2 to Zimbabwe on Sunday.

[Prince]

Well what else should we expect?  An Igbo proverb says that people \"na-ahu ishi a kpara-akpa, ma obughi nke ruru-eru.\"  They see cut hair not the overgrown one.

Nigeria had employed various foreign coaches before, who had gotten us not too far.  And look who\'s talking: Jaja, who is the President of Nigerian Referees Association (NRA).  He is a referee, for goodness?\' sake.  What does he know about coaching?  Chris Chukwu played for the s Eagles and captained that team quite extensively.

They are clamoring for home grown players.  That\'s good.  One does not have to play because he is home grown.  The entire soccer world teams assemble talents from various parts of the world.  No team in the world is indigenous.

In the following report, it\'s easy to see how Kashimaho Laloko\'s out burst drips with nepotism.  He whines because his boy, Utaka was removal.  This guy must be smoking something.  Utaka played for 83 long minutes, and it was still 0-0.  Coach Chukwu knowing that a draw would mean victory for Gabon, with 7 mins to go, brought in the duo of Kanu and Aiyegbeni, who combined for one and half of the 2-goal victory.  And these idiots call the substitution a blunder?

Signs that coach Chukwu may have walked into troubled water first came to fore at the Liberation Stadium during the match on Saturday, when John Utaka was pulled out for Portsmouth of England\'s striker, Yakubu Aiyegbeni. The technical director of NFA, Kashimaho Laloko, who seems not satisfied with the change, protested openly as he screamed at the top of his voice \'what type of change is this?\'\"
 
Laloko, who felt that the removal of Utaka was a technical blunder on the part of Chukwu, immediately, staged a walk out from the pitch and he never returned till the end of the game. The fans also reacted sharply to Utaka\'s removal.

Speaking with journalists after the encounter, the chairman of NFA, Ibrahim Galadima described the changes made by coach Chukwu as a big risk.

\"It was a very big risk the coach took at that particular point in time. Thank God it worked out for him,\" he stated.

Who has not seen that now an Igbo man is at the helm and we smell Germany 2006, every hound dog is salivating.  They want to take over, take our boys to Germany and fleece Nigeria.  Ndi ohi.

I think Chukwu has done well this far.  He should finish the mission, his way.  If we don?t like the result, then they are justified to bring some one who will work miracles.

Sly, regarding Nike, I don\'t think it\'s worth your time to comment on.  They are a business people.  I bet you they said the same thing to France, Argentina, or Germany.  One of those rare moments when the white man kisses a black ass.  They want our business.