TheCable

There were several things learned from the Super Falcons 3-3 draw with Sweden at the Winnipeg Stadium on Monday.

But TheCable examines just three.

SET PIECE WOES CONTINUE

After going 2-0 up from goals scored from corner kicks, Nigeria fans had expected the Swedes to score anytime they won a set piece. And that would have been 7-0!

Sweden made their height advantage count using their aerial superiority against the relatively shorter Falcons.

Like Super Eagles like Super Falcons, Nigerian coaches are yet to master the art of not conceding from dead ball situations.

Edwin Okon must have Googled ‘how to defend corners kicks’ but one can still give him one or two tips.

First of all, he needs to decide if he wants his team to mark the opposition man to man, sorry, woman to woman or defend zonally, that is, ignore the tall and intimidating opposition and put his players into key parts of the penalty area.

It might not lead to coming out unscathed from corners but it will reduce the embarrassing stats of conceding two goals from seven corners!

 YOU DON’T ALWAYS NEED YOUR THREE SUBSTITUTES

One can say this with the benefit of hindsight but if the team had lost to Sweden, Nigerians would have called for the head of Edwin Okon “for not bringing fresh legs” into the match after 70 minutes.

But sometimes, you change something and it goes wrong.

In the 2004 Champions League semi-final, Chelsea’s coach Claudio Ranieri smelt victory and went for the kill with the score line at 1-1 against a 10-man Monaco.

He brought in the fresher legs of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink for Mario Melchiot and later Scott Parker for Robert Huth.

Did it pay off? Well, the game ended 3-1 in favour of…Monaco!

And sometimes, you change something and it goes right.

In the 2010 Rome derby, Ranieri (again) was Roma’s coach and his team was 1-0 down to bitter rivals Lazio.

At half-time Ranieri, the Tinker Man did the unthinkable: he hauled off the team’s stars Francesco Totti and Daniele de Rossi.

Did it pay off? It wasn’t a problem because Roma scored twice in the second half to win 2-1.

You may well say the examples are not backed by empirical evidence to prove you had A1 in Econometrics.

Well, recently, Opta looked at every World Cup game since 1998 and found that if you are losing by a single goal at half-time, making a substitution increases your chances of getting a win or draw from around 24 per cent to 40 per cent.

Bret Myers, a professor from Pennsylvania, even went further to devise the ideal time to use your three substitutions – 58 minutes, 73 minutes and 79 minutes.

According to Myers, if his plan is followed when a coach is losing a game, the odd of getting a draw or win is more than doubled.

Then there is the work of Daniel Altman who found that fresh players coming on had a clear advantage when playing against “tired legs” in the opposition’s defence.

So, from statistical evidence there is really no excuse for a manager not to use all three of his substitutions.

But our dear Okon is not bothered with Opta or Altman when he has Oparanozie and Asisat! Afterall, he drew with Sweden who made use of 14 players.

FOOTBALL INDEED A GAME OF TWO HALVES

This football commentator’s cliché refers to games which have a different character in the two halves.

The source of the phrase is not clear but it played out in this game between 5th ranked Sweden and Nigeria on 33rd position according to FIFA.

The Scandinavian country weathered the initial storm from the Super Falcons in the first quarter of the first half to take control of the game.

Their dominance was repaid with goals in the 21st and 31st minutes and duly deserved their 2-0 lead going into the break.

The character of the game changed on resumption as Ngozi Okobi and Asisat Oshoala brought the Super Falcons level in the 50th and the 53rd minutes.

Sweden, though, made it 3-2 but it was Nigeria who took control of the game.

Their dominance was repaid with an equalising goal in the 87th minute and duly deserved the draw going into the end of the match.

A game of two halves, indeed!