Flying Eagles Hopeful Despite Loss To Ghana

Tunde Oyedele

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles remain upbeat of their chances at the Cape Town 8-Nation International Challenge despite losing their opening match 3-2 to arch rivals Ghana.

The Nigeria U-20 team, who are the defending champions of the invitational competition, showed guts after the interval against a more cohesive Ghana Black Satellites on the opening day of the tournament on Friday.

On Sunday afternoon, they will take on five-time world champions, Argentina at the impressive Cape Town Stadium, which hosted the 2010 World Cup.
The Argentines are leading Group A after a 3-1 win over hosts South Africa in their opening game also played on Friday.

“The boys have given us hope especially after what they showed in the second half of the game against Ghana,” said Flying Eagles Coach John Obuh.

“I congratulated them because they surprised me by the remarkable manner they fought back after the first half in which we were lucky not to concede a goal.

“I believe they would have conquered some of their fears after their first international game.

“We will continue to work on them psychologically, especially as they will be up against ‘white-skinned’ Argentina in their next game.”

The Flying Eagles watched part of the opening match between Argentina and South Africa.

“The tempo of our match and the competitiveness involved was far better than what we saw in the first match, but I have warned the boys not to take anything for granted because any team who come up against Nigeria will always raise their game,” said Obuh.

“The Argentines are very tactical and rather than power and speed, they rely on their football brain.

“Ghana created many chances against us which they could not put away, but with the Argentines, they do not waste their chances in front of goal.”

Some of the Nigerian positives from the match against Ghana were the performances of goalkeeper and skipper Samuel Okani and midfielder Nzube Anaezemba.
Okani kept the African champions alive with several saves particularly in the first half, while Anaezemba despite being the smallest player on the park roamed free and with purpose even when he was often outnumbered in the midfield by the Black Satellites.