WHEN A GOALKEEPER WINS THE MAN OF THE MATCH....

The game between the senior national team of Nigeria the "Super Eagles" and the senior national team of Venezuela was another match in which a goal keeper emerges as the star performer.
The super Eagles who had Austin Ejide in goal in place of the number one Vincent Eyeama, have a lot of reasons to be grateful to him for keeping the Venezuelans out with a number of great and confident saves.

The Nigeria team started the game with the 4-3-3 formation against their traditional 4-4-2.
With the returning Obafemi Martin partnering with the In form Brown Ideye and Bright Dike the debutant in leading the Eagles attack.
The three man midfield consisted of Ogenyi Onazi, Nosa Igiebor and Henry Uche, while the defence was made up of Godfrey Oboabona,  Solomon Kwambe , Elderson Echiejile and Francis Benjamin.
The 4-3-3 formation was supposed to be a formation which is both attacking and defencive in nature, in the sense that when the Eagles are not in possession of the ball, the two wide players will fall back into the midfield and make it a 5 man midfield in so doing out number the Venezuelans in that department and also provide adequate cover for the defence.
Unfortunately the Super Eagles were not able to replicate that on the pitch, Whenever the Venezuelans were in possession they easily got access into the Eagles defence and thereby troubling the Goal keeper who was in a great spirit and equal to the not too interesting task.
Another problem the Eagles had was that the Midfield trio of Ogenyi, Nosa and Uche could not put up a series of string passes together, they kept on giving away the ball cheaply and that almost cost the Eagles in the 84th minutes but to the tireless effort of Elderson Echiejile  the Eagles survived.
   With the Eagles defence still trying to find their feet which they didn't find throughout the duration of the game, the Venezuelans continue to ask questions of the Nigerian defence, with  Arango , Rondon and Rivas being the chief tormentors.
The Super Eagles may have won the game 3 - 1 and raised their point on the Fifa ranking, but if they are to continue their recovery to the summit of world football in a positive direction the coaching crew still have a lot of work to do in trying to make the players understand their role on the pitch at every stage, especially when it comes to the 4-4-3 formation which i feel Stephen Keshi will adopt as his default formation owing to the large number of attackers at his disposal.
Secondly Keshi needs to pick a back line that is able to understand each other and have a good sense of communication with the defence.
But if the super Eagles defenders still feel comfortable with finding their feet which i wonder when they will eventually find it, then the strikers should be ready to take every single opportunity that comes their way, because football is a game where the team with the highest number of goals wins.
   As for the stand in captain and Goal keeper of the night Austin Ejide, it was a very nice outing which will do a lot of good to his confidence and help boost his chances in the battle to become the Eagles first choice come South Africa 2013.
Stephen Keshi and infact the whole Nigeria have every reason to worry if our goal keeper keeps on winning the Man of the Match award.