In spite of recent dip in form at club level, Enyimba of Aba goalkeeper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa is till rated ahead of the man who is benching him in the former Nigerian league champions, Theophilus Afelokhai and Chippa united of south Africa’s Daniel Akpeyi.
Footballlive.ng gathered that Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr believes Ezenwa has more experience and exposure than the other two, hence his decision to hand the former FC Ifeanyiubah of Nnewi shot-stopper the nod in the absence of Francis Odinaka Uzoho.
Heading into Saturday’s game against South Africa, Ezenwa got more attention that Afelokhai and Akpeyi during training with the Eagles in Asaba and Soweto.
Such it was that the Canada 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup revelation played for the Team A in all the Eagles’ training sessions prior to the trip to Johannesburg.
Right from his first day on arrival at the camp in Asaba, Ezenwa underwent a special session with the goalkeepers’ trainer, Alloy Agu in a recovery process.
Rohr’s attention on Ezenwa continued into the first day of full training in Asaba and the 30-year-old shot-stopper was already on his way to winning the battle for stepping in as second choice behind Uzoho, who is out with an injury.
Afelokhai was called up just to make up the numbers in Uzoho’s absence and, though the fans’ favourite is keeping Ezenwa out at Enyimba, Rohr preferred his own choice to start against South Africa.
Rohr’s verdict was based on the fact that Ezenwa was in goal in four of the last six games played by the Eagles in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
