The Super Eagles
started the
match against
Venezuela in a
4-3-3 formation
with Obafemi Martins, Brown
Ideye and Bright Dike – making his debut for the
national team. The first minutes on the dry
Marlins Park pitch saw the
players trying to adjust to the
bounce of the ball with the
Venezuelans settling the quicker.
Ejike in the second minute tried to jiggle his way past defenders
in the box but conceded a free
kick. Juan Arango almost found
Salomon Rondon in the fifth
minute which saw the Super
Eagles defence exposed with just one pass. The midfield trident of Ogenyi
Onazi, Nosa Igiebor and Henry
Uche were not well coordinated in
the early part of the match with
Onazi hitting too many short
passes that put his mates in trouble. Igiebor was good on the
ball and in the seventh minute
released Ideye but the Dynamo
Moscow striker saw his shot well
gathered. The Venezuelans thought they
had scored the opener in the
14thminute off a free kick by
Arango but the referee rightly
adjudged that some Venezuelan
players had strayed into offside positions. Nigeria got a corner kick in the
20th minute that was taken by
Solomon Kwambe but missed all his
targets. The Venezuelans were catching
the Eagles defence with just one
pass from midfield – Arango to
Rondon and if not for the quick
intervention of stand-in captain,
Austin Ejide, the Eagles may have gone down to some goals. A Rivas shot was deflected for a
corner kick in the 25th minute
while another good cross from
Arango slightly eludes Rondon
again. The Eagles could have taken the
lead in the 28th minute when
Igiebor burst forward from
midfield but his pas to Martins
was a tad heavy with the
Levante striker in good shooting position. Henry Uche had to make way in
the 33rd minute after he had
been on the end of some heavy
challenges and was replaced by
Raheem Lawal. Martins had a shot
on the turn in the 41st minute but it went wide. The first half ended with the
Eagles having the better of
possession but the Venezuelans
had the more goal scoring
chances. In the second half, the Eagles flew
out of the blocks and scored the
opening goal in the 47 minute
through Ideye. A move started on
the right by Igiebor saw Kwambe
deliver a low cross into the box which was tapped in by the
Dynamo Moscow striker for his
first goal for the national team. Igiebor followed that with a
spectacular 40-yard shot in the
53rdminute that beat Hernandez
in goal for Venezuela all ends up. The South Americans reacted
after these setbacks but were
let back into the game when an
otherwise steady Oboabona gave
possession to Arango, who in turn
fed Frank Veltra, who placed a low shot past Ejide. Arango now led the charge for
the equaliser and they had series
of corner kicks but the Nigerian
defence held firm. Shola Ameobi
replaced Martins in the 61 minute
– the Newcastle man making his international debut for Nigeria. They could have gotten their
equaliser in the 84thminute after
another careless giveaway. Lawal
was caught in possession near
the box but Ejide made a good
save with his leg to concede a corner kick. There were unsavoury scenes in
the closing stage of the match
when Igiebor took his time getting
substituted for which he was
shown a yellow card. Onazi settled
the affair in added time as he swept in a low shot after Ameobi
has passed to him in the box to
make it 3-1 to the Nigerian team. Coach Stephen Keshi will have
been very pleased with the
performances of some of the
players but some did not cover
themselves in any glory.