Uzoho Breaks Silence, Describes Partey’s Goal Worst Day of His Life
Femi Solaja with agency report
Super Eagles goalkeeper, Francis Uzoho, has described the 10th minute goal he conceded against Black Stars of Ghana at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja last Tuesday as the worse in his fledgling career.
As it turned out, that goal by Thomas Partey in the second leg 2022 World Cup Playoff, eventually became an albatross for Nigeria.
It earned the Ghanaians the away goal rule that eventually stopped Super Eagles from qualifying for a fourth consecutive and seventh overall appearance at the FIFA World Cup.
After a brilliant performance in Kumasi, it was Uzoho’s howler that caused Abuja fans to visit their anger on the Moshood Abiola Stadium, destroying everything in sight after the Tunisian referee called off the game after added five minutes to regulation time.
Speaking for the first time since the costly mistake of allowing Partey’s harmless shot crept past him, the Omonia Nicosia goalkeeper in the Cyprus league, said yesterday on social media that he remains very pained by the gaffe.
“These past couple of days have been the worst in my lifetime,” Uzoho posted on his official social media account.
“I wanted to take my nation to Qatar but rather did the opposite. I know what football means to you all and to myself. I can’t promise not to make mistakes again but I can promise not to give up until I bring back that smile on your faces.
“Thank you for the support and God bless,” was Uzoho’s message to his compatriots still raging with anger over the World Cup miss.
Although William Troost-Ekong equalized Partey’s goal, the Black Stars held on to that advantage of an away goal to ensure the game ended in their favour.
Uzoho has made 18 appearances for the three times African champions since his debut in 2017.
Meanwhile, Ex-Nigeria international striker, Daniel Amokachi, has challenged football administrators in the country to return to developmental structures that saw the team reach greater heights in the past.
“Quality-wise, we can’t take it away from Nigeria. Every day, Nigeria is blessed with one immigrant player who is playing out there and he’ll always come up and say I turned down my birth country, I want to play for Nigeria when their country of birth never looked for them. They won’t even make their birth nation squads,” Amokachi told SuperSport.
“Unfortunately for us in Nigeria, we’ve thrown away our developmental structure which we had that made us win the 1996 Olympic gold medal, that made that generation so great.
