Nigerian football legend Segun Odegbami says the exploits of Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations is simply down to the team’s defensive strategy, www.aclsports.com reports.
Odegbami, 71, was a key part of Nigeria’s inaugural AFCON winning squad of 1980, scoring twice in the 3-0 win over Algeria in the Championship match. Nicknamed “Mathematical” during his playing days, Odegbami has been in Abidjan since the start of this year’s AFCON tournament and has seen all of Nigeria’s games.
After Nigeria’s quarter-final game against Angola, Odegbami spoke exclusively to ACLSports and when asked about goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali – who equalled the clean sheet record of Best Ogedegbe of the 1980 set – Odegbami gave the credit to his defence.
“From what I’ve seen, it is not about Nwabali. It is about the defence of the team. We are playing a defensive strategy so they are providing enough cover for the goalkeeper. They are not giving teams the opportunity to have clear shots at goal and so the credit must go to the whole defence and not necessarily Nwabali.
“But he is there. He gives us confidence and Nigerians have more confidence in him than everybody else but he hasn’t really been tested but he is a damn good goalkeeper,” said Odegbami.
Nigeria face South Africa in the semi-final on Wednesday, twenty-four years after the Super Eagles spanked the Bafana Bafana 2-0 in their semi-final contest in Lagos in 2000.
Odegbami believes that the Eagles and Nwabali have remarkably improved after their first game against Equatorial Guinea and have grown into the competition game after game.
“From match to match, they’re becoming more confident. I remember the first time I went to speak with them, the word I used was CONFIDENCE. I said if you can play confidently, calmly and cooly, you are going to go to the end and win. The captain thanked me and said that was exactly what he and the other boys wanted to hear,” submitted Odegbami, scorer of six goals in two AFCON tournaments for Nigeria.
Nwabali is expected to be in goal when Nigeria face South Africa at the Peace Stadium, Bouake on Wednesday evening, starting from 6pm Nigerian time.
Photo by POOJA
