World Champions in the making!

Before yesterday’s game against the Iraqis in one of the world’s most-visited cities, and which is aiming to be enlisted as one of the globe’s Smartest Cities, the Eaglets had four points from two matches, with a 6-1 thrashing of Cup holders Mexico followed by a pulsating 3-3 draw with Sweden on Tuesday. Both matches […]

Before yesterday’s game against the Iraqis in one of the world’s most-visited cities, and which is aiming to be enlisted as one of the globe’s Smartest Cities, the Eaglets had four points from two matches, with a 6-1 thrashing of Cup holders Mexico followed by a pulsating 3-3 draw with Sweden on Tuesday. Both matches were played in Al Ain City.
Sincerely, I have respect for all the teams at the championship. Any team that qualifies to participate at a 24-nation tourney among the world’s over 200 nations, deserves immense respect. And some of the football we have seen has been of very high quality.
However, I am most delighted with the output of the Golden Eaglets in the two matches they have played, most especially that clash with Sweden that had all the attributes of a World Cup Final.
Tuesday’s match fully underscored the unpredictability of the football game, and why it generates so much passion across the universe. Having downed the world champions so nonchallantly and without remorse, the Nigerian boys were expected to ‘roast’ the Swedes, by all stakeholders of the game in our country, including officials of the Nigeria Football Federation.
To be honest, I also, personally, imagined that the Swedes would be pounded black-and-blue. Yet, after about 20 minutes, or less, our boys were two goals down and looked to be in some trouble with the taller, bigger and very tactical Swedes.
Knowing the strength and character of the team, I expected a quick comeback and that belter from Success Isaac that reduced the tally supported by expectations.
Yet, the second goal refused to come before half-time and even before then, Isaac had been taken off due to a hamstring. I knew Manu Garba and his assistants have a good bench and still did not entertain any anxiety.
Musa Yahaya’s equalizer early in the second half further backed my conviction and I thought we would go ahead and finish it off. But you must give credit to the Swedes for not panicking based on the Eaglets’ result against Mexico and for stubbornly refusing to cave in easily.
The Swedes’ stubborness is something that must have provided Manu Garba and his assistants good food for thought. Having lost only one of their nearly 40 matches over the past 18 months that the team was built, in regulation time, you can forgive the boys when they sometimes show over-confidence.
But as the case with their defeat by Cote d’Ivoire in the group phase at the CAF U-17 Championship in Morocco, the draw with Sweden is bound to stir the Eaglets and make them realise the kind of hard work on their route to triumph at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
So many factors are in our favour to lift this trophy. The assuredness from having beaten the Cup holders so comprehensively, and the wake-up call by Sweden, are two different memories that would serve to check themselves anytime the Nigerian boys go on the field.
Football is such a game that you have not won until the referee’s final whistle. To win, you have to be better than the opposition, and make it count. While we truly created more chances against the Swedes and really looked more skilful, we did not get the goals that would have separated us and taken us into the Round of 16 well ahead of yesterday’s duel.
Surely, our boys and their coaches now know that they have to put in more than one hundred per cent to win every game and do the country proud, as President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, is expecting the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Aso Rock on 9 November.
One must give credit to some of the teams that have also shown excellence in their bouts at the championship. Brazil swept aside Slovakia 6-1 in their first match and followed up with another 6-1defeat of the host nation. The team had already qualified for the Round of 16 before their match against Honduras on Wednesday’s night.
And really, it is the Brazilians that we are contesting against. Nigeria and Brazil have won the trophy three times each and we are determined to win it a fourth time to get ahead of them on the all-time table.
Uruguay, another South American team, have shown hunger in front of goal, with a 7-0 whiplash of New Zealand and 2-1 defeat of Italy. African champion team, Cote d’Ivoire, is the only one to have held the team.
The Ivorians also did well to defeat New Zealand, to bounce back from their opening day loss to Italy. In fact, all the African teams have been impressive, with Morocco defeating Croatia and drawing with Uzbekistan before their final Group C match against Panama, and Tunisia Venezuela and Russia to earn maximum six points before their face-off with Japan on Thursday.
The Swedes certainly have potential with the 3-3 draw with our Eaglets coming on the back of a 4-1 defeat of Iraq.
Nevertheless, something tells me the Golden Eaglets will do it with aplomb, to ensure the trophy comes to Nigeria for the fourth time from the Asian continent, following our earlier wins in China, Japan and Korea Republic.
Falconets on the march again…
The U-20 Girls, known as Falconets will today take on their counterparts from Sierra Leone in the first round of the qualifying series for the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals.
The tournament will take place in Canada in August next year, just after the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and our girls have a history of playing in every championship since the event started, incidentally, in Canada in 2002.
The Nigeria Football Federation has confidence in the U-20 girls to do the country proud in Abuja this afternoon against the Sierra Leoneans in order to forge ahead in the qualification race.
Next Week: Well Done, League Management Company