Mexico friendly: Why I dropped Agbim--Keshi

HEAD Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi, has explained why he left goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim out of the international friendly against Mexico billed for Atlanta, USA on March 5.
Though, Agbim's exclusion did not surprise many soccer-loving Nigerians who were enraged by his not too impressive performance at the just-concluded third African Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa where he let in a number of cheeky goals.
On arrival from CHAN where Nigeria finished third, Agbim also lost his place in Rangers FC as the club's technical crew headed by former Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh excluded his name on the list of players to be registered for the new premier league season in Nigeria which begins next weekend.
But Keshi said there was no big deal not inviting Agbim for the friendly as he wants to try some of the players who have been absent from the national team's matches for sometime now.
"I don't think there is need to start raising issues on players left out of the friendly against Mexico or those named in the team for the game. It is just a test game to see a few new players and those who we have not seen in a long while. So leaving out Agbim and a few other players is no big deal.
"We have just one international game to play next month at the moment except things change, and it will make no sense inviting three goalkeepers for just one game. Remember football is a game of two halves. So how do we integrate a third goalkeeper in a friendly match if we decide to play two different teams for each half? Also Agbim had a good test at the CHAN recently so I don't think we have to take three goalkeepers to just one match," explained Keshi.
The former coach of Mali however, denied the insinuation that Agbim's performance at CHAN 2014
led to his exclusion from the list.
"That's totally untrue. It is not possible for a player to feature in every match. You'll see that we have a number of players on the list who have never played at senior international level before and we have others making return to the team. As I said it's a test game and it's just one match and it will be needless to bring in three goalkeepers," said Keshi who coached Togo to the 2006 World Cup.


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Caption: Chigozie Agbim.