Sports
Ex-defender Sodje advises Super Eagles ahead of World Cup
Former Super Eagles defender, Sam Sodje has advised Gernot Rohr’s men to defend as a team when they kick off their 2018 fIFA World Cup campaign in Russia.
The 39-year-old former international says they must do so if they want to excel at the mundial.
The Super Eagles lost three of their five warm-up friendlies (including a 2-1 defeat to England in Wembley) ahead of the World Cup. They won one and drew the other.
Sodje pointed out that the Eagles have forgotten the basics and fundamental act of defending which can be disastrous in Russia, if not corrected and acted upon.
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Score Nigeria quoted the former Portsmouth and Notts County star as saying: “If we still don’t realise that to be a successful team, to surpass our performance in previous editions of World Cup, we need to know how important it is to defend properly and defend as a team.
“This doesn’t come because you pick good defenders, but this happens when you have a solid defensive coach to coach the players on how to defend properly!
“Eagles were so poor the whole game against England. They didn’t even have the very little basic of defending.
“This is a fact, not just Nigeria but a lot of teams now forget the basic fundamental defending.”
Sodje also admitted the fact that the current crop of Super Eagles are young, but would not deny their obcious desire to achieve success in Russia.
“The Eagles are young, we can see their desire to do well and improve.
“All the same, I am wishing the team all the best at the World Cup,” he said.
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