Not to put too fine a point on it, the Flamingos' pattern of play was truly horrendous on the night as they crashed out of the World Cup at the quarter finals 2:0 in the hands of the impressive USA.
Their passing routines carried no purpose. They lacked imagination needed to carve out credible goals scoring chances. They were an embarrassment to themselves in particular and the art of football in general by launching aimlessly with long range hopeless shots that landed impotently in no-woman's land.
In short, they were grotty in defence, gimcrack in attack and gewgaw in midfield which is why they are now gone from the competition.
Whilst I lauded them in the group stages for their barnstorming performances against opponents that were, in-the-main, weak, a perilously soft underbelly housing tactical fragilities was just peeking out from their game at that stage. Misaligned passes; miscommunication and misplaced priorities as to shooting or passes hovered menacingly over the team like storm clouds of concern, even in those smokescreen victories.
By the prickling of my thumb, I worried this team would lack the tactical nutrients needed to nourish their way through the technically demanding knock out stage against formidable opponents.
And, true to my fears, they would collapse at the first hurdle like a pack of meaningless card laid out on a doomed deck.
Indigenous Nigerian coaches can be tactically awful. It was really hard to decipher a game plan worthy of unsettling the Americans from Nigeria yesterday.
The 4-4-2 formation was constructed with movements lacking inventiveness and imagination. The midfield was commandeered and overrun by USA. Our strikers were left feeding off scraps as those meant to feed them elected to take hopeless pots at goal themselves .
Watching Nigeria's performance on the night was like trudging through a sterile sandpit pit on painful boots with no laces.
All that said, some future stars might emerge from this team. If properly nurtured, tutured and trained, these same players might perform wonders in future under a more tactically grounded coach.
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