Youth On Rampage!
It was one of those days that you can hardly switch off because the goals kept raining and you had no idea if you would miss the account of a goal if you switched off or simply started talking to someone else on the phone. The previous day had been hyper-hectic as the grounding of […]
It was one of those days that you can hardly switch off because the goals kept raining and you had no idea if you would miss the account of a goal if you switched off or simply started talking to someone else on the phone.
The previous day had been hyper-hectic as the grounding of Arik Airline for some reasons had a major role to play in the airlifting or otherwise of the Junior Menas of Niger to Calabar for the match.
The NFF was in a quandary as the roads were not advisable and in any event, international football rules dictated that you cannot take a visiting team by road once the distance is superior to 200 kilometres.
With the only airline that was licensed to fly to Calabar grounded, we had to brainstorm intensely and for long periods before admitting there was only one solution: flying the Junior Menas to Calabar on a chartered aircraft.
It was the expensive option for an agency constantly in need of more funds but we had no choice and on Saturday morning, the Nigerien delegation was flown to the Calabar Airport and then quartered at a comfortable hotel to rest for hours before the match.
As a result of this, we had to move the match to 5pm instead of 4pm. The NFF actually gave the visitors a choice to play the match on Sunday, but the flight back to Niamey was on Sunday (there was no flight on Monday) and they prayed we played on Saturday.
I am happy that no official of the U-17 Team of Niger had come forward to advance jet-lag, and the fact that they had to play on the same day they got to Calabar, as reason for the six-goal hammering by our Golden Eaglets.
I was in Monrovia on Saturday, 8th September when Member of the Executive Committee, Alhaji Muazu Suleyman, leader of delegation to the first leg match, called from Niamey to say the Eaglets were having a field day and that they had dominated their hosts to embarrassing degree, including winning 4-1.
I told him that I had heard so much about the new Golden Eaglets and their marksmanship but that I wanted to see the team play myself before catching the bug.
I could not be in Calabar but the minute-by-minute update from officers on ground confirmed that the performance of the Golden Eaglets in the first leg, and indeed in all their previous friendly encounters, was no fluke.
A six-goal hammering, equating to a 10-1 aggregate scoreline and qualification for the second round of the 2013 African U-17 Championships qualification series, broke the duck of a weekend of 1-1 draws and gave us much joy.
The previous day, the Flying Eagles had only been able to force their South African hosts to a 1-1 draw in their 2013 African Youth Championship qualifying match in Nelspruit, and hours before commencement of hostilities in Calabar, the U-17 girls (Flamingoes) had also had to force their Canadian counterparts to a 1-1 draw in their first match at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan, despite dominating the game thoroughly.
The win by the Eaglets, and the astounding 11-0 win by the U-17 girls over the Azerbaijan hosts in their second match of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup on Tuesday in Lankaran, set me thinking about previous heavy wins by Nigerian teams at FIFA competitions.
As I watched the match on Tuesday, with the goals raining, the future of Nigeria football looked very bright, as the U-17 girls will soon graduate to U-20 and subsequently, the Super Falcons.
Only two weeks ago, FIFA President Sepp Blatter once more confirmed that our country has intimidating promise in the women’s game considering the performance of the Falconets at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan.
Chiwendu Ihezuo, who scored the equalizer against Canada as we were unlucky to draw a match in which we hit the woodwork FOUR TIMES, scored FIVE of the goals to become the tournament highest scorer with six.
While I don’t want to dwell on the performances of the other African represenatatives (Gambia’s 17-goal basket against North Korea and USA such a stab in the heart), I am confident that the Flamingoes can go all the way in this competition, starting with another expected masterclass against Colombia this evening.
Before now, the highest tally that a Nigeria team has racked up in a FIFA tournament was 8-0, which was the scoreline when Nwankwo Kanu and others practically ran over Canada at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Japan 19 years ago. The date was 22nd August, 1993. Two days later, the Eaglets mauled Argentina 4-0. Eight years later, at the same tournament in Trinidad and Tobago, Femi Opabunmi and others walloped Japan 4-0 and Australia 5-1. At the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt three years ago, the Flying Eagles slammed Tahiti 5-0.
At the senior level (not at the FIFA World Cup, though), the Super Eagles have also heaped misery on a number of teams, notably Benin Republic (previously known as Dahomey) and Burkina Faso (previously known as Upper Volta).
On 29th November, 1959, the Nigeria Senior Team got its record win (till date) when humiliating Dahomey 10-1 in an Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah Cup match in Lagos. On 29th December, 1964, Nigeria whacked Upper Volta 6-1 in an All-Africa Games qualifying match. And on 27th November 1971, the Eagles beat the same team 4-0 in a friendly.
On 30th October, 1976, Eagles mauled Sierra Leone 6-2 in a World Cup qualifier in Lagos; on 14th February, 1977, Nigeria slammed Benin Republic 7-0 in a friendly; on 14th January, 1978, it was a similar result when Nigeria clashed with Benin Republic in an All-Africa Games qualifying match.
On 4th November, 1979, Benin again fell 0-5 in a friendly match; on 27th July, 1991, Burkina Faso was pounded 7-0 in a Cup of Nations qualifying match in Lagos; on 10th October, 1992, the Eagles beat South Africa 4-0 in a World Cup qualifier in Lagos.
On 25th April, 1993, the Eagles smashed Sudan 4-0 in an African Cup of Nations qualifier; on 24th July, 1993, we mauled Ethiopia 6-0 in another Cup of Nations qualifier in Lagos; on 11th June, 1994, in a pre-World Cup friendly, the Eagles pounded Georgia 5-0 in Ibadan.
On the first day of July 2001, the Eagles stunned Sudan 4-0 away in Khartoum as they oiled their machine for a trip to the 2002 FIFA World Cup; on 4th September, 2005, the Eagles rolled over Algeria 5-2 in a World Cup qualifier in Algiers and weeks later in Abuja, manhandled Zimbabwe 5-1.
Nigeria has indeed recorded famous wins, some quite heavy, in international football. But the 11-0 win by the Flamingoes remains the record. And we should not mind the NFF General Secretary, Barrister Musa Amadu, who would have preferred a 12-0 scoreline for a new FIFA tournament record!
NEXT WEEK: Flying Eagles Must Fly