SUPER Eagles’ stand-in captain, Vincent Enyeama, whose error caused Nigeria two points when the country met with the Flames of Malawi in Blantyre over the weekend, has apologised to his compatriots and asked for forgiveness.
Nigeria was leading Malawi 1-0 in the added time of the tie when goalkeeper Enyeama’s howler gifted the Flames the equaliser minutes to the end of the tie. Enyeama, who was for the second consecutive match the stand-in-skipper in the forced absence of Joseph Yobo, says he will make up for the lost two points this weekend when the Eagles clash with Rwanda’s Amavubi in Calabar.
“I feel bad about what happened and just don’t know how to explain it. But I want to put it behind me and focus on the match with Rwanda, which is very important for us,” he said.
It is hours away from 10 years to the day that Vincent Enyeama got his big break to become Nigeria’s No.1, when coach Adegboye Onigbinde opted for him at the expense of much more experienced Ike Shorounmu in Nigeria’s last match at the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals against England, at the Osaka Nagai Stadium on June 12, 2002.
The lion-hearted goaltender performed creditably in that scoreless match and has also shone brightly in three Africa Cup of Nations finals - in 2004, 2006 and 2010 - and at the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.
Meanwhile, the Super Eagles returned to Nigeria on Sunday and will resume training in Abuja this morning. Coach Stephen Keshi told the players after a late lunch at the Bolton White Hotel that the morning training will involve players, who played no part in the encounter against Malawi, save for one.
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
0 comments:
Post a Comment