Head Coach of the Super Eagles, José Peseiro has lost his first match in charge with a 2-1 defeat to Mexico at the iconic AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Saturday night.
Being the first time they were coming together for any session since the disappointment of the 2022 FIFA World Cup ticket miss, the three-time African champions were projected to be sitting ducks for the Mexicans to roast in the State of Texas – a jurisdiction that shares a border with Mexico and where Mexico’s lingua franca, Spanish is taught in schools as a second language.
The El Tri, dainty, cohesive, coherent and egged on by over 52,000 roaring spectators in the largest covered arena in the world, bossed the opening minutes with their crisp passes, awesome positional play and nonchalant telepathy.
In this pulsating period, they were able to shoot ahead after 13 minutes when Santiago Gimenez found himself all alone with goalkeeper Francis Uzoho and steered home despite Uzoho’s valiant efforts to keep the ball away.
The arena, which also has the world’s largest hung scoreboard, rocked to its foundation after this, and the Eagles had to summon courage, a sense of mission and ambition not to collapse entirely under pressure.
Onslaught after onslaught led to several opportunities for the El Tri, but Uzoho and the Nigeria rearguard, with Semi Ajayi, William Ekong and Chidozie Awaziem kept the wolves off the door.
Luis Francisco Romo, Captain Andres Guardado, Rodolfo Pizzaro, Jesus Gallardo, Roberto Alvarado and Gimenez sought to frisk the Nigeria defence now and again, but they could not breach the wall again.
Jose Peseiro opted for a flexible and interesting 3-5-2 formation, with Moses Simon and Calvin Bassey deployed as wing-backs, and Joe Aribo, Alex Iwobi and Innocent Bonke serving in midfield. Cyriel Dessers and Terem Moffi searched for the goals.
It was to the consternation of the overwhelming Mexican support and bench, led by Coach Gerardo Martino when Nigeria equalized in the 54th minute after Calvin Bassey’s superb in-swinger was nodded home by Dessers, with goalkeeper Rodolfo Cota scrambling in vain.
Home-based professionals Sani Faisal, Victor Mbaoma, Chiamaka Madu and Ishaq Kayode, who came in after the first 45 minutes, also gave good accounts of themselves.
Nigeria had eight shots on goal compared to Mexico’s 12, while Uzoho made four saves as against Cota’s one.
The Eagles are scheduled to fly to New Jersey on Sunday morning, ahead of Thursday’s clash with Ecuador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison. (PUNCH)
