For Friday’s opening 2022 World Cup Qualifier match against Liberia at the Teslin Balogun Stadium in Lagos, Kelechi Iheanacho was, without question, the standout player. His two goals and overall play saw him voted the Man of the Match and made sure that the Super Eagles kicked off their journey in the right direction.
General Play
What the Coach Wanted from Him
Gernot Rohr played Iheanacho as the second striker in 1-4-4-2. In this position he would be able to not only continue his fine goal-scoring form in a striking position, but also be creative force in the team. He was expected to support Victor Osimhen in attack with his vision and technique as well as link up with the midfield whenever he dropped into deeper positions. Apart from helping to transition the ball from the middle third into the final third, he also had the responsibility of getting into the box to be on the end of crosses and other scoring opportunities.
Iheanacho also had the role of taking the corner kicks.
What He Did
It can truly be said that Iheanacho did everything that was expected of him before he was subbed off in the 85th minute for Ahmed Musa. He made sure to play his creative role by dropping to pick up the ball form Joe Aribo and Wilfred Ndidi as well as coming wide at times when he recognised that there was space that could be exploited. He created several chances for both himself and his teammates from both of these central and wide positions.
His role as a creator on the team also carried on to corner kicks. For the most part his delivery was inconsistent, but he made up for it by scoring the first goal of the match through a smartly-worked corner kick. Other corners that he managed to deliver correctly were not properly connected by his teammates.
Apart from his chance creation from passes, he did well to always be in the box when the ball was in the final third. As a result of this he was on the end of a flicked-on header from Alex Iwobi and scored the team’s second goal. He was also on the end of a cross later in the match, but failed to put his header on target. He continued to be consistently in the correct positions but did not get as many chances as he could have due to imprecise and inconsistent crosses from his teammates.
While he is naturally adept at defending (being a striker), he still made sure to put pressure when necessary and did well in that regard.
Despite his overall good performance, one of the major struggles on the day for Iheanacho was that he struggled to constantly find Victor Osimhen. They both struggled to be on the same wavelength.
His crosses were also quite inconsistent when he came into wider positions. The crosses were either overambitious (crossing when there was no man free), or he would completely over hit them.
Major Moments
The first major contribution from Iheanacho came in the 22nd minute, when he and Alex Iwobi combined during a corner kick. Alex Iwobi checked to the ball and they both recognised that they had the opposition outnumbered 2v1. They saw the opportunity for a quick training ground routine that led to Iheanacho receiving the ball in open space at the edge of the box. Iheanacho was intelligent enough to recognise that the Liberian goalkeeper was out of position and he fired a shot into near post that put the Super Eagles Up 1-0. Recognising that they should play a short corner and that he should take the shot showed a lot of initiative from him. It also showed that he was ready to take on the responsibility of being one of the more influential players on the team.
His second major contribution was in the 44th minute. A long throw-in from Jamilu Collins was flicked on by Alex Iwobi. Iheanacho, with still a lot of work to do and a some Liberian players tightly marking him, managed to quickly bring the ball under control on the half turn and place the ball into the far post with his weaker right foot making the scores 2-0. This took a lot of skills and instinct from him and it proved why he was in the team’s starting XI.
He later also had a cross delivered to him but he headed it off target.
Conclusion
Iheanacho put Nigeria in the ascendancy and helped make sure that their qualification process got off to a good start. He showed many of the creative and goal-scoring qualities that many have long expected from him. Starting off the campaign as the top scorer, it will be interesting to see if he can continue this form for the rest of the qualifiers and possibly right into the World Cup.
