Esu, Ngude thumb down Africans at World Cup

Great expectations that have so far gone nose-diving - that is what the performances of the African nations to the GERMANY 2006 World Cup and the expectations of those at home could be described for now.

Some of those, who spoke to nigeriasports.com after Ghana, Angola and Cote d'Ivoire had failed to muster enough courage to look into the eyeballs of their opponents, expressed disappointment and disgust at these nations.

Coach Godfrey Esu on his part heaped the blame on some local coaches, who were given the opportunity to handle national teams, but messed-up such opportunities. "For instance," the former Shooting Stars FC handler continued, "Coach Christain Chukwu had the opportunity to lead the Super Eagles to Germany but he flushed it by not being firm enough.

"That is why some, if not all African nations, count on foriegn coaches for salvation,"the silver-bearded coach argued. On the performances of African nations so far at the Mundial, the coach fumed: "It is a disgrace to see that, none of the African representatives have been able to find their feet to give a good account of themselves...however, I have a feeling that they could grow with the game," he hoped.

For Osondu Ngude, a sportscaster with Brila FM a sports radio based in Lagos, "it has been all hopes and no results yet. It's quite disgusting that, we have (I mean the continent's representatives to the World Cup), not been able to do anything substantial. The name of the game is victory and not playing well and losing at the end of the game.

"I hate these stories of our teams played the game but their opponents won the match. If a team plays well, the only way you can tell, is the number of goals margin with which they win and not how many dribbling runs they made during a match. It's quite disappointing so far, I must confess," the journalist lamented.