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Super Eagles flapping

Image: Nigeria were cruising when Kaita saw red

FanZoner Charlie Johnson points the finger at Sani Kaita, with Nigeria on the brink of a World Cup exit

Kaita's petulance has cost Nigeria - and our blogger!

To paraphrase the greatest England manager of the last 20 years, Graham Taylor, "You just cost me my job, so thanks for that". I am of course referring to Sani Kaita who, with one petulant swing of his leg, managed to derail Nigeria's World Cup bid and also no doubt ending my World Cup blogging efforts. Stop cheering all six of you! One goal up and totally cruising the ball goes out of play and Kaita tangles with Vassilis Torosidis and Sani the villain of the piece, for no obvious reason catches him with his leg. Now in defence of Sani, Kaita Torosidis has gone down like he's been hit an arrow from the Trojan prince Paris - I refer back to the last blog and the whole disastrous Trojan horse motif - but still there was no reason to do it. It must be something to do with the throw-ins that the Nigeria team had so many problems with in the Argentina game. Seemingly when the ball goes out the Super Eagles lose their minds. After Kaita went off Greece, a team who had previously looked utterly terrible, took the game by the scruff of the neck and not only scored their first ever World Cup goal but went on to win the game. After I predicted a Greek tragedy unfortunately the tragedy was all ours. So ultimately the 10-man Eagles came Acropolis!

Tragedy

The greatest tragedy was the one that befell my nomination for man of the tournament, Vincent Enyeama, who was truly superb, even catching the ball one handed in a move not seen since the days of Neville Southall. After making some top-class saves the ball was fired towards him and what should have been a simple save span away from him and fell to the feet of Torosidis, who buried the ball and tarnished Enyeama's burgeoning reputation. After being sent on the way to the World Cup with good luck messages and predictions of victory from the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan (nothing to say there), it seems that Lars Lagerback's side will go home early and although it's still possible that we'll beat South Korea, I just don't think we will. Nigeria are a functional team almost totally lacking in flair with a seeming propensity to shooting themselves in the foot. Suddenly the connections between Nigeria and my own team become more apparent.
No flair
What Nigeria have truly lacked is the flair and skill of Jay Jay Okocha, someone who can unpick a defence and also brighten up a dull game. In fact Nigeria are not totally dissimilar to England - a functional team without any real flair! Although on current form, I'd fancy Nigeria to beat England, actually by a couple of goals! Apologies for the negative blog but I'm disappointed with my team's performance this tournament and I'm losing faith in their ability to turn it around. All is not lost however and if we are to go out let's go out fighting, and as I have been championing him all along, give Kanu a start and watch the goals mount up. Possibly for the opposition. Is it all over for the Super Eagles? Tell us YOUR VIEWS in the form below.

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