FIFA U-17 WORLD CUP: Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets Touch Of Class Excite Fans In UAE

In what may seem like a trepidation, understandably, the boys were nervous at the start, until about 30 minutes when Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets settled into their rhythm.

And by 35 minutes, the Eaglets has gone ahead through Kelechi Iheanacho, who raced in and rounded two defenders before pulling the ball high into the goal post.

That was just the beginning , in opening Group F match played at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium

 Al Ain, in the ongoing FIFA Under 17 World cup in United Arab Emirates.

Nigeria’s Eaglets took their Mexican opponent apart, displaying such football dexterity at the midfield and an unbelievable sharpness at scoring goals. At the end, there wasn’t an iota of doubt left in anyone’s heart that this Nigerian team is the favorite to win the tournament.

 Kelechi Iheanacho, who wears number 10 shirt for the Eaglets, may have stolen the show with a double braze. He scored 4 times, while Success Isaac and Emmanuel Nwakali scored 1 goal each to complete the 6 – 1 mauling of Mexico. Incidentally, Mexico is the defending champions of the tournament.

This outstanding performance may have now set the tune for the Eaglets second match against Sweden, who also defeated Iraq by 4 – 1. How both team match up on Tuesday, October 22^nd,  by 5pm GMT +, will decide who tops the group and what fans should expect at the later stage of the tournament.

But for some of us that have been following the build up of this Eaglets team, knows that scoring 6 goals in a game isn’t a big deal for the Nigerian side.  Although, Eaglets finished as runner’s up in African Under 17 tournament, where it lost to Cote d’ivoire 1 – 0 at the finals, the team broke the goal scoring record of the tournament. Success Isaac scored 8 goals to be the highest goal scorer, while Kelechi Iheanacho became the second highest scorer in the tournament with 6 goals.

One thing going for this team is how the boys make scoring goals so easy. it will not surprise me if the Eaglets take on Sweden with such a wide margin of goals.

This is one Under 17 team Nigerians are so proud of. The boys are young and Manu Garba, the Team's Coach, selected players from Secondary school  sports competitions and football academies across the country. None of the boys has ever participated in Nigerian Leagues.

Nigerians are so optimistic that most of the boys in this team can graduate into the senior national team in the future – and that will be the real dividend of the under 17 World cup.

For the records, Nigeria has won the Under 17 World cup 3 times in 1985, 1993 and 2007. With this team, fans are expectant once again.