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Sports News of Monday, 15 February 2021

Source: pulse.ng

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr says Maduka Okoye is his first-choice goalkeeper

Gernot Rohr has made his decision on the goalkeeping department Gernot Rohr has made his decision on the goalkeeping department

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has revealed that Holland-based Maduka Okoye is his first-choice goalkeeper.
Okoye has kept goal for Super Eagles’ last four games and continues to be the most consistent Nigerian goalkeeper at the moment.

Rohr believes the Sparta Rotterdam goalkeeper has done enough to earn the number one goalkeeping spot for the Super Eagles.

“Number one is Maduka,” Rohr told ESPN.
“These decisions, I take them with (goalkeeper coach Alloy Agu) because he is a specialist for goalkeeper training.

“Myself and Alloy, we agreed that it’s actually Maduka. We have the experienced (Daniel Akpeyi) doing good matches with this club in South Africa.

“We have the young (Francis Uzoho) coming back after injury, but he has to play also now not only on the bench. We have also (Matthew Yakubu). There’s good potential now because this position was a big problem for us so we have more now.”

There have been calls for Rohr to drop Okoye after he conceded four goals in Nigeria’s home draw against Sierra Leone last November, but the coach does not want to drop the goalkeeper after one bad game.

“You cannot drop a player because you say he plays one bad game. It is bad for his confidence,” Rohr added.

Okoye got a run of games with the Super Eagles following the absence of Akpeyi and Uzoho.