DALUNG blames Rohr, inexperience for Eagles defeat

Barrister Solomon Dalung has described Nigeria’s 1-2 loss to Argentina on Tuesday as unfortunate.
The Minister of Youth and Sports who led Federal Government’s delegation to cheer the Super Eagles in
their last Group D match said the team blew its chances of beating Argentina and qualifying for a
possible second round.

According to Dalung, the loss was painful to Nigerians who felt it was a game that should
have been easily won with everything going for the team until the dying moments of the match.
“I wish to apologize for disappointing Nigerian by our early exit from the World Cup, leaving many
football loving fans devastated. We know the passion and football followership of Nigerians but it is
unfortunate that we couldn’t make it even to the next round.

“The players did their best in this game but the technical glitches cost us a second round ticket. How
we couldn’t hold the ball for the last 5mins is still a shock to us”.
Dalung attributed the loss to poor game management on the part of the technical crew and inexperience
of the young team . He said that the team will need more experience in future from a more technically
sound tactician.

“I have interacted with Nigerians here in Russia and it appears the technical crew could not manage
the 1-1 draw with just 5 minutes left.

“It is time to go back to the technical committee and technical department for future assignments. The
Super Eagles technical crew cannot work independent of the Nigeria Football Federation’s technical
committee and department,” Dalung said in a statement.

The Minister advised that attention must now be turned to the Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers as he
urged the NFF to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the team qualifies for the tournament.
“We just need to analyze what went wrong, take the positives, learn the vital lessons for future
purposes and then move on.”