12th April, 2013
Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets will on Sunday begin their campaign in the Africa Under 17 Championships holding in Morocco from 13-27 April with a stiff challenge against their perenial rivals, the Black Starlets of Ghana.
The Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, had set up a training camp at Qatar’s Aspire academy to prepare the Eaglets for the championship. The team played two friendly matches during their time in the country and scored a convincing 7-1 victory against the Aspire U-18 side before beating Al Sadd, for whom former Spanish international Raul Gonzalez plays.
Coach Manu Garba has said ahead of the tie against the Starlets that: “We have prepared well for the competition. Our goals are clear, we want to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup as African champions and then we will return to Aspire to prepare for the World Cup.
“We have played many matches against soccer academies and amateur teams with impressive results, but the way the players would respond against Ghana on Sunday in our first match will determine how far they are ready for the task ahead of us.”
Coach Garba, who was part of the coaching staff that won the 2007 African Under-17 Championship in Togo and FIFA World Cup in the same year in Korea, believes that this present team are stronger than the 2007 team that won the World Cup in Korea.
Meanwhile, Eaglets player, Alhassan Ibrahim has vowed to go for goals when they take on the Starlets on Sunday.
Ibrahim, who resembles former Super Eagles captain Nwankwo Kanu, said he will give a good account of himself.
“It is a privilege to be here to play for my country and since I’m here, I’ll do my best.
“I’m ready to work hard for the team and I’m confident that I will be among the goal scorers for Nigeria against Ghana.
“All the goals we have scored in previous matches are irrelevant now because we have a new challenge ahead of us and we are going for goals against Ghana on Sunday.”
A total of eight teams will compete in the 10th edition of the tourney that will be held in the cities of Casablanca and Marrakech, with the 67,000-seater Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca hosting Group A and Stade de Marrakech hosting teams in Group B, with plenty at stake. Not only will the winner be crowned the African champion, but the four semi-finalists will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup that will hold in the United Arab Emirates October/November.
Nigeria and Ghana have not only dominated the African U-17 scene, they were also heavyweights on the global scene, winning five titles between them and finishing runners-up a further five times. The only country to match them was Brazil, whose record of three wins, two second places and a third and fourth place sandwiches the South American side between the Golden Eaglets (three wins and three second places) and Ghana (two wins, two second places and a third and fourth place).
Two West African rivals have found the going much tougher of late as neither side managed to qualify for the last two finals of the African championships, though Nigeria entered the 2009 edition as hosts.
Surprisingly, when the draw was made in Egypt sometime ago, it pitted them not only against each other but with the Congolese and Ivorians, who finished third and fourth respectively at the 2011 championships in Rwanda two years ago.
—Bamidele Olowosagba