Former Green Eagles Goalkeeper, Emmanuel Okala, has advised those blaming Francis Uzoho for Super Eagles’ 2-2 draw against Saudi Arabia last Friday to think twice.
Many Nigerians blamed Uzoho’s blunder as the reason Nigeria failed to win the international friendly match. However, Okala, who led the Green Eagles to win the 1980 African Cup of Nations Cup in Lagos, told The Guardian, yesterday, that the fault should not entirely be on Uzoho.
“As a former goalkeeper, I have taken my time to watch Francis Uzoho, and I can say he is good. What I noticed last Friday was that the goalkeeper’s trainer in the Super Eagles seems not to be doing his job well. To me, he should be the one to take the blame, not Uzoho.
“As a goalkeeper trainer, you have a responsibility to train your keepers how to deal with set pieces, including free kicks. How they will position themselves, and arrange their defence line. At times, some of the deficiencies we see during matches are things that were left unattended to during training.
“I don’t even know the current goalkeeper trainer of the Super Eagles. To me, all the blames should not go to Uzoho for the 2-2 draw against Saudi Arabia,” Okala said from his base in Enugu, yesterday.
After the game in Portugal, Cyprus-based Uzoho admitted that his mistake put the Saudis ahead in the friendly, adding, however, that it should not take away the fact that he posted a decent outing.
“Generally, it was a good game for us, but the result didn’t reflect our performance. We make mistakes, but we learn from our mistakes.
“My position is a big position. And that position makes mistakes. You can make 10 saves, control your area well, but just one mistake, people will forget all that. We try our best to do well, the fans should keep supporting whoever is in goal, and they should be more supportive,” he said.
Source: The Guardian
