Rohr Gives The Lowdown On Sierra Leone : Key Player, Style Of Play, Standout Attributes

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has revealed that he has a dossier on the Sierra Leone national team, prepared well ahead of time before Friday evening's meeting at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.

The German football tactician is being modest and refused to label the Leone Stars a small footballing nation.

Rohr highlighted Minnesota United striker Kei Kamara as he spoke about the quality players in the Sierra Leone squad drawn from Championship, Major League Soccer, Segunda Division B and Belgian Pro League among others.

"It is not a small team, we have to stay humble, we have to recognize that all the teams now are well prepared," Rohr said to reporters at Thursday's press conference.

"They have players playing very well, in the USA for example Kei Kamara, he's a great player, they have players in Switzerland, Spain and big football countries so we really cannot underrate.

"We are at home without the 12th man so we have to be strong in our communication, in our passion and it won't be easy because we didn't play here in this African conditions for a long time - one year now.

"The players are coming back from Europe, the cold weather to the hot weather here, African conditions,long traveling, it's not easy to play again one year after.

"Don't forget the particular circumstances we have at the moment so we need to play simple football, we need to go straight on the goal, we would like to score a goal quickly if possible but sometimes we have to be patient, to stay calm if the goals are not coming quickly."

Rohr's video analyst informed him that the defence is Sierra Leone's strongest area and pinpointed that two of the standout attributes of their players is height and physicality.

"They have a good defence, they are very strong physically, we know a lot about Sierra Leone because our staff prepared it a long time ago.

"We have the videos, I had to call the coach of Mauritania, Corentin Martins, he's a friend, they played against them last month, he told me it's a very good team.

"We know it will be a physical match, West African players often are strong physically, big height, they have six players more than 1.85m."

Rohr noted that Sierra Leone will be looking to frustrate the Super Eagles by using their effective long-ball tactics.

"They like to do long balls and to go on headers which is not our kind of football but we have to be ready for this challenge and I think we will even if the time is short."

In fourteen previous meetings against Sierra Leone, Nigeria have won nine, drawn three and lost two games.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel