Ahead of the thrilling encounter between the Super Eagles and the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, the CEO of Monimichelle Sports, Ebi Egbe has bared his mind on the encounter.
According to Egbe, Finidi George, understands the dynamics of the effects of playing turf on elite Football players and raw talented football players.
“Not playing any friendly game together with his new blended team of home base players and elite players actually is not an advantage to us.
However, Finidi George as an exposed former elite player who is a Nigerian League winning coach that understands Nigerian premier league and a former key assistant to the former Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro, I am sure he has in his books players in the Nigerian league he believes can blend with our elite foreign based players within a short time together in our crucial home game with South Africa in the city of Uyo.”
He mentioned that the South African players have good advantage because of training on elite pitches in South Africa.
“South Africa has elite hybrid pitches(natural and synthetic turf fused pitches) in their two major stadiums in Cape Town and Johannesburg, the closest pitch with similar ball movement in Nigeria is the Remo Stars hybrid synthetic pitch in Ikenne Ogun State and that is the only natural infill synthetic turf pitch that is currently being maintained to standard.
100% natural grass pitches naturally has slow ball movement.
Synthetic infused pitches natural has fast ball movement which makes it a speed football pitch.
The South African team is mostly made up of home based players who ply their trade on 100% natural turf under the category of advance from the below pitch categorisation chart.
This Advance pitches has a totally different ball movement with an hybrid pitch that is classed as an elite pitch.
The South Africans will try to show their skills in Uyo knowing the Uyo pitch is a 100% natural turf pitch with very close similarity in ball movement with where they play and train week in week out in their South African Club sides.”
The Nigerian National Team is a star studded elite team with 95% elite players that ply their trade only on elite pitches week in week out at their various club sides.
Monimichelle, who is famous for his world-class pitches advocates that Nigeria invest in standard pitches so as to improve its football.
“Why can’t we have one elite pitch in Nigeria that suits the playing condition of our elite players so we can get maximum performance from them for our home games?.
Finidi will have to do his team formation maths to suite the pitch condition so our elite players can give maximum performance.”
Monimichelle made a case for Chijioke Mbaoma and Alimi Sikiru who are currently the top scorers in the Nigeria Premier Football League, with Mbaoma leading the chart with 15 goals.
“My personal opinion on the national team formation: The highest goal scorer in the NPFL should be invited to this all important two game’s because he will understand the pitch condition better than some of our elite strikers from Europe.”
Monimichelle Sports laid the turf at the Enyimba Stadium and the Remo Stadium in Ikenne, two of the best in the country.
