The Golden Eaglets
ended up breaking records after being defeated by the Baby Elephant of Cote d'Ivoire
at the finals of the just concluded CAF under 17 championship on Saturday. The Nigerian
team, which won the heart of most spectators at Marrakech Morocco, scored 22 goals
in 5 games - an average of 4 goals per match.
The Eaglets alone
netted in 42% of the total 58 goals scored in the tournament. And both the top scorer
and runners up in the competition came from the free scoring Nigeria side. Isaac
Success scored 7 goals to top the scorers chart and Kelechi Ihenacho scored 5 goals
to place second.
It was widely
reported that this young Eaglets had scored 127 goals in their build up to the CAF
championship and it wasn't a fluke that the team added another 22, to bring the
total goals to 149 goals so far.
However, the
Baby Elephants seem to be their Waterloo, and defeated the Eaglets twice during
the tournament ( the group stage and the finals). Most of the spectators we spoke
to said that luck was playing in favor of the Ivorian side. But you can't take it
away from them, the Baby Elephant slim edge over the Eaglets may be what played
out during the tournament after all.
Perhaps, the
Eaglets were over confident of their abilities, while the Baby Elephants were more
determined to win. The goal scoring skills of the Ivorian were also not in doubt
during the penalty shoot out, which they won by 5 - 4.
The West African
derby was a pulsating encounter, which ended 1 - 1 at regular time and couldn't
provide a winner for the championship. It was left to a penalty shoot out to decide
the eventual winner and the Ivorian scored all their five penalties, while Chidiebere
Nwakali missed one for Nigeria.
The Ivorian
became the true champions. The baby Elephants didn't only win their first African
Under 17 title in style, but they emphatically defeated the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria
and dented the records of one of the finest under 17 team Africa has ever seen.
Though, there
are still room for improvement for both teams as Tunisia and Morocco would be joining
them to represent Africa in the up coming FIFA Under 17 World tournament in Dubai,
United Arab Emirate (UAE). You can be rest assured that Africa has a good representatives
in Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria.
