26th February, 2015
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has commended the U-17 national team, Golden Eaglets, for earning a place at the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals taking place in Chile later in the year.
The South African Under-17, the Amajimbos, sailed into the final of the 2015 CAF U/17 African Youth Championships with a 1-0 win over Nigeria in the Niger capital of Niamey on Wednesday.
NFF President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick declared that semi final defeat to South Africa has not diminished the value of the Eaglets’ accomplishment. “Certainly, every Nigerian yearned for the Eaglets to win the African championship trophy in Niger after the boys reached the semi finals. They lost by a lone goal but we cannot accuse the players of lack of effort.
“The present NFF administration has continued to harp on the fact that it is not only concerned with winning trophies. We want to win trophies but more than that, we want to build a sustainable football culture.”
Pinnick assured that the boys will not be treated like outcasts following the failure to reach the Championship final. “The NFF will send a jet to pick the players after the third place match on Sunday. The technical crew remains intact and the NFF will give support to them to plug the necessary holes in the team so that we will have a squad capable of doing the nation proud in Chile.”
The NFF President also noted that cup holders Cote d’Ivoire were eliminated in the group phase of the championship in Niger.
Meanwhile, the Amajimbos, who are now 90 minutes away from being crowned African junior champions have a solid performance against the Eaglets.
A goal from mercurial goal-poacher Khanyisa Mayo was all Amajimbos needed to overcome probably their biggest obstacle.
Both teams had already sealed their place at the World Cup in Chile and started the match at a high tempo.
The Amajimbos continued to search for the opening goal, they went into the attack on the 26th minute resulting in Mayo sweeping home the crucial goal.
Nigeria came back a rejuvenated side in the second half pushing for the elusive equaliser but a combination of good goalkeeping from Mondli Mpoto and tight defence put paid to any of their chances pulling things back.
Amajimbos coach Molefi Ntseki was over the moon about the victory but added he was not surprised by the outcome. “We watched Nigeria throughout the tournament, because there was a chance of us playing them.
“We identified a lot of mistakes in their game and this victory was down to our homework and our players playing to instructions. Nigeria are a good team, make no mistake about that but this is a culmination of our plans coming together,” said Ntseki.