Flying Eagles’ Flop At AYC

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles went to the ongoing African Youth Championship, AYC, in Algeria with high expectation to defend the title they won at the last edition at the South Africa 2011.  But the team failed in this mandate as they were dethroned by Young Pharaohs of Egypt in the semi final match played on Tuesday.

The Nigerian team were drubbed 0-2 by the Egyptians, ending Coach John Obuh and his team’s quest to win back to back the African youth trophy, which Nigeria had won six times in 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 2005 and 2011.

Despite Coach Obuh bringing with him a squad that has a mixture of experience and youth, such as  the captain Abduljeleel Ajagun, who was part of the squad that lifted the trophy in South Africa two years ago, Mohammed Goyi Aliyu, Aigbe Oliha, Edafe Egbedi and Olanrewaju Kayode from the Nigerian U-17 team, what the team could only settle for was the ticket to play at this year’s Turkey 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup courtesy of reaching the semi final of the AYC.

Nigeria’s last outing at the U-20 World Cup in Colombia in 2011 after their triumph at the AYC in South Africa was a quarter final finishing.

Football pundits have begun to worry that the current Obuh team may have a poor outing in this year’s junior world cup.

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, through its 1st Vice President, Chief Mike Umeh described the Flying Eagles’ inability to defend their title in Algeria as an embarrassment to a country which is still celebrating the victory of the senior team, the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa.  He said the Flying Eagles played as if there was nothing at stake.

Umeh lambasted the Flying Eagles for playing uncoordinated games, chasing the ball around without a clear purpose of scoring. He said the team paid dearly for not having clinical finishing like the Egyptians.

While the NFF is angry with the team, some Nigerians have already called for the head of the Chief Coach, Obuh, with three months to the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Imeh threatened that the NFF will act accordingly as soon as it receives the technical report of Nigeria’s outing at the AYC.

There is no doubt that the Flying Eagles’ failure to defend their African youth title in Algeria was a slap on the face of a country which has a good pedigree not only in African youth football, but at the world stage. It is also very important that we tread with caution in order not to throw Obuh and his technical crew out few weeks to the world cup.

It is glaring now that the team have some technical deficiencies; but everything must be done to correct these deficiencies between now and the World Cup if Nigeria must improve on their outing at the U-20 World Cup.

A team that fluffed several scoring chances in competitive matches would find it very difficult to win matches no matter how good the players are. This is one of the banes of the Flying Eagles considering their performance in all the matches they played in Algeria. The players may be young and good on their own, but their inability to play as a compact team shows that their coaches and even the NFF have a lot of work to do.