It should be that time to go gung-ho in condemnation of coach Gernot Rohr after Super Eagles' lacklustre performance against the Indomitable Lions last night but that will totally miss the point.
Nigeria lost 1:0 to Cameroon yesterday in a friendly that would have sent raptures to the opposition fans. I hate to think what they will be saying about us on their social media.
Super Chickens, Tasty Fried Chickens, or headlines like: Cameroonian Lions Roast Nigerian Chickens. These rivalries are fierce, the games are more than friendlies, each victory matters. Which is why Ghana will rather die on the pitch than lose to Nigeria under any circumstances.
But at least we have another chance to take our pound of Cameroonian flesh in the reverse fixture on Tuesday.
With the opportunity to test new players, coach Rohr reverted to type by naming a predictable line up yesterday. And I don't blame the German Gaffer, he surely wanted a positive result in the match.
Unfortunately for Rohr, too many of his trusted generals had an off day. Iwobi, Iheanacho, Etebo, Onuachu, Simon are just among players who struggled to stamp their authority on the match.
With that many of his players off-the-pace, Nigeria were always going to find it tough. The Cameroonians scored their goal and then sat back to soak pressure. Nigeria did pile on the pressure but "" quality at the final third was sorely lacking "".
Balls were being ballooned into the stands; Simon missed a sitter inside the 18 yard box; Onuachu was heading straight at the goalkeeper; Iwobi was running into a cul-de-sac; Onuachu was doing leg overs only to get himself confused as to whether to shoot or cross; Iheanacho was struggling to make headway; Iwuala's crosses lacked the requisite quality.
These were just some highlights of our forward play yesterday which predictably produced bad fruits.
The Cameroonians were resolute at the back and their assembly line of goalkeepers never fails to unveil class!
And their goal had an element of Nigeria vs Argentina World Cup and Nigeria vs Algeria Afcon. The long ball from deep reminded me of the ball to Messi while Ekong's poor clearance reminded me of Awaziem's poor clearance before the foul for Mahrez' goal.
Lesson: we should learn to deal better with that sort of long balls and our defenders should learn to clear away from danger! In a friendly, perhaps the substitutions could have been made earlier.
Also, Algeria and now Cameroon have taken their revenge against Rohr. I hope this sort of trend will not continue.
In all, I didn't get the morale boosting victory I wanted. The Cameroonian fans will be in much jollification now.
Hopefully, it will be our turn next Tuesday!