It was the first time in the history of the Chinese team to play against Nigeria at the Baixada Stadium in Curitiba. But the African Eagles and Argentina are particularly destined. In just two decades, the two teams have competed in four World Cups in 1994, 02, 10 and 14.
When they met in the group stage, Nigeria lost the first three times.
Nigeria has only participated in five World Cups so far. Except for not meeting Argentina in 1998, the two teams have become rivals. The World Cup seems to be just for them. In addition, the men's football finals of the 1996 Olympic Games, the 2005 World Youth Championship finals in the Netherlands, and the 2008 Beijing
In the Olympic finals, Argentina and Nigeria are destined opponents.
In the third round of the 1994 World Cup group stage, Argentina defeated Nigeria 2:1, which was the swan song of the world champion Maradona. In the game, 'Son of the Wind' Caniggia scored twice, the second goal of which
It's the famous chicken thief who takes a quick free kick.
That was Maradona's last assist in the World Cup with the Argentina national team. The Nigerian defender and captain Stephen Kessie, who was confused by the football king, witnessed Caniggia's shot at close range.
20 years later, Stephen Casey is now the head coach of the Nigeria national team. The 52-year-old Casey may be the least famous among the thirty-two coaches in the World Cup, because he has always been successful in both football and coaching.
Never been out of Africa.
However, there are a total of three black-skinned coaches in this World Cup. In addition to Casey, there is Ghana coach James Appiah, and Casey's opponent today, China coach Rijkaard.
Of course, Jieshuai's brilliant experience as a player and coach cannot be compared to Casey, but Casey can't be considered shabby either. In 2006, he took charge of the Togo national team and made a historic run into the World Cup finals in Germany. He also led Nigeria to win the World Cup last year.
African Cup of Nations champion.
Jieshuai has coached the Chinese team for nearly six years, and he has a killer like Zhuo Yang, but he has yet to win the Asian championship.
Jieshuai's current annual salary is 5.9 million euros, while Kessie's monthly salary will be 30,000 US dollars. This is the result of the Nigerian Football Association's bloodletting.
In fact, Nigeria is not poor, or not as poor as we think. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and also the largest economy.
Nigeria is twice as big as Sichuan and has twice as many people as Sichuan, but its geographical environment is much superior to Sichuan's. It has vast plains and coastlines, and is extremely rich in products. You can easily dig up mineral deposits, and oil is no big deal.
.
If Sichuan people have the basic conditions of Nigeria, they will use the power of one province to turn China into a developed country. In fact, if the conditions of Nigeria are replaced by any province in China, they will be rich and doubtful. However, Nigeria's
GDP is only 1/10 of Sichuan Province.
It doesn't matter if you don't accept it.
Therefore, as long as Zhuoyang nodded, some big Chinese bosses lined up to pay Jieshuai's salary. The Nigerian Football Association gritted its teeth and only paid Casey a monthly salary of 30,000, and it also quarreled with the national team all day long over bonuses.
Nigeria’s football seems to be not as good as before. This is Zhuoyang’s most intuitive feeling, because he has almost never played against Nigerian players in recent years. The latest memory is that in the Champions League 1/8 three years ago, CSKA Moscow
Nigerian winger Musa defeated Khedira, but in the end it was like that. Musa was treated by Zhuo Yang himself and almost died.
Zhuoyang has been touring the wealthy clubs, and there is no one he cares about, which shows that Nigeria currently lacks first-line stars, and stars are the weather vane of the team's strength.
Nigeria's No. 10 is John Mikel, who plays for Chelsea, but Zhuoyang has only heard of him but has no impression of him.
The 1987 generation is already the backbone of football's most powerful players. Ten years ago, the one who was most robbed by wealthy families among this generation was neither Mei, who had yet to grow hair, nor Cesc Fabregas, the number one player in 1987 at that time.
But the Nigerian Mikel.
At the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, Messi won the golden ball, and the silver ball was Mikel. That year, Sir Alex Ferguson fell out with Chelsea owner Abramovich for Mikel, and Chelsea ended up spending three times the money.
The transfer fee took away Mikel.
Mikel was an all-round midfielder at the beginning. However, all-round players are often a pitfall, and they might turn into a one-size-fits-all player. Mikel was like this. Later he became a full-time defensive midfielder. His growth model is Mark
Lailai, and then became Essien.
Anyway, in recent years, he has not been the main player under Mourinho, Ancelotti, Scolari or Hiddink. In other words, Mikel is only 27 years old, but he has already expired.
The one currently attracting the most attention from the outside world in the Nigeria team is right winger Victor Moses. First of all, he is very young, only 23 years old, and also because he played for Liverpool last season and played several good games.
In addition, most of Nigeria's international players now play for the Russian Premier League, the Turkish Premier League, the Scottish Premier League and the lower reaches of the Premier League, as well as other messy leagues, which are not worth mentioning. But this disdain is just Zhuo Yang's perspective from Real Madrid and today's No. 1 player
To measure, if you look at other Chinese national players in the Super League, Nigeria is still a fairy.
Among these Black Immortals, the most gimmick is not Mikel or Moses, but their goalkeeper, 32-year-old captain Vincent Enyema.
Enyema plays for Lille in Ligue 1. Last season he kept a record of 1,062 minutes without conceding a goal in Ligue 1, which is really beyond the reach of ordinary people. Many people even said that he was the best goalkeeper in the five major leagues in the 2013-14 season.
You know, this is a world with Buffon, Cech, Casillas, Neuer, Hart, De Gea and Courtois. If Enyema can be so highly praised, he must not be simple.
This guy is particularly good at saving penalty kicks. He saved 5 in Ligue 1 last season, including beating Ibrahimovic. Despite his short stature, 185 can only be considered a file among goalkeepers, but he is a standard prediction
Reactive gate.
Four years ago in the group stage of the World Cup in South Africa, although Argentina defeated Nigeria 1:0, Heinze only scored one of the more than 20 shots in the game, and the other 10 shots, including Messi's, all came back in vain.
There were 4 must-goal goals out of 10 times, but they were all rejected by Enyema. Messi returned empty-handed from South Africa four years ago, and most of the reason was due to being discouraged by Enyema.
Then in the next game against Greece, Ninis broke through to the small penalty area. Enyema was still leaning calmly by the goal post, with his left hand on his small waist, watching in boredom as Ninis drove the ball in.
At such a young age, he showed the indifference of his entire family.
From then on, everyone called Enyema the "Emperor of Calm".
No one in Nigeria has taken off Zhuoyang's 'hero post' because big guys like Mikel are not offensive players, and forwards 'CSKA's double evil' Emenike and Moussa cannot convince the public. In fact, no one is qualified.
Participating in this grand event is one of the reasons why Zhuoyang does not want to compete with Okocha on words.
Can you tell me that there is a team where no man dares to stand up?
But there are still men in Nigeria. Goalkeeper Enyema publicly said before the game that he hopes to compete with Zhuoyang on penalty kicks. Although Zhuoyang has never missed a penalty kick so far, he wants to give it a try.
Chapter completed!