By John Essien
Head coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has explained the rationale behind the selection of players from the domestic league to prosecute next month’s international friendly game against Mexico in the United States of America.
The Nigeria Football Federation released a list of 25 home-based players for the July 4 exhibition billed to hold at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – which would serve as a dress rehearsal for his side ahead of their World Cup qualifiers in September.
While Rohr is determined to achieve a good result in the encounter, the 67-year-old, among other reasons, stated that his decision to select players from the Nigerian Professional Football League was influenced by the fact that Super Eagles A team players were on break ahead of their pre season preparations.
“The match against Mexico is for home based players because our main Super Eagles players are not free to come, they are in their clubs for pre season ahead of a new season,” Rohr told Completesports.com.
“This is a team from Nigeria, the best local players, some of them are already in our A team. The goalkeeper from Enyimba and a winger, plus Ezenwa who is experienced hand have been capped previously
“This is a team for CHAN, it is a good preparation for them. It will be difficult to get a result because Mexico is a very wonderful team. They’ll go there to learn and I will watch and see if I can get other players for the Super Eagles A team,” Rohr told stated.
Rohr continued: “You cannot play against Mexico and say you will win it with these home-based players. It is not our A team and it will not count for FIFA rankings. The most important thing is not the results but to test the players discover new players and evolve new tactics.”
Rohr also revealed that the team will be coached by the duo of Austin Eguavoen who is the technical director at the NFF and his deputy Paul Aigbogun and he would be there to watch the players they selected and see if they can be drafted into the A team.
“Though I am not the coach of the CHAN Eagles, but I think the players selected for this game stand a good chance of making the CHAN squad. Eguavoen and his assistants picked the team with the aid of Salisu Yusuf, Imama and other top coaches from the domestic league It will be interesting to see these players perform,” Rohr concluded.
