Eaglet coaches,what next?

Korea 2007 u-17 has come and gone with the golden eaglets triumph and equaling Brazil's record of winning it thrice.
Comparing the three sets of eaglets that won the championship on the three different occasions - China'85, Japan'93 and korea'07, i believe the present squad is the most technical. The team is more organized with well defined purpose for the players. They plan their attacks and try as much as possible to make it simple and easily read and understood by other team mates. There is no gain in excessive dribbling which even get your other team mates confused, resulting in aimless attack. They also defended so well and avoided loosing concentration by remaining calm and composed. The team is able to play a free flowing football by not holding too long to the ball and giving other members of the team a sense of participation. Also noted, was their sense of unity in the team, one team member is concern about out-shining the other, everyone plays for the overall success of the team.
I wish more Nigeria coaches should emulate the work of coach Tella and build teams of similar structural organization, unity of purpose and technical discipline.
I believe coach Tella should continue in his current position to help build and expose more of our youths to the technicality of the game at this level.

The Golden Eaglets Triumph

The victory of the current set of Nigeria's golden eaglets (U-17 NATIONAL TEAM) is yet another indication that history perhaps nature has a way of choosing its champions and repeating itself.

History indicated that Nigeria has won her previous U-17 trophies in the orients-CHINA85 $ JAPAN 93, who can then be surprise by Nigeria's victory in KOREA 07.

Aside our victories coming from the far-eastern countries, history also has it that another African country gets to the semi-final stage of the competition. A recap shows Guinea playing the eaglets in the semi-final stage in China 85 and losing out to the eaglets on penalties. It was the then almighty starlets of Ghana with the mecurial Daniel Addo to lose to the Wilson Oruma led eaglets of Japan 93 and scaling through their semi-final pairing.

There are only two exceptions to this present victory: 1,Nigeria never had to play any of her West-African neighbours to be champions and 2, the country defeated in the final never starts with a G,-Germany in 85 and Ghana in 93. The two finals we lost were against Russia in87 and France in 2001.

History has again repeated itself with Nigeria triumph in Korea-07.

Chile 4- Nigeria 0,What lesson?

The quarter-final match between Nigeria and Chile has just ended with the later going through to the semi-finals.It is on record that Nigeria has never won against any south American team in this tournament.Enough of the theory of history always repeat itself, is it not time we look into this matter of the south American?
Though, i've not hidden my lack of confidence in this present under-20 side.I've always condemn their lack of creativity up front, the poor communication between the two front men of Ideye and Bala Ezekiel. I will still repeat that hardly did i see any exchange of passes between these two throughout the duration of the teams' campaign. Likewise,the defence has always lost concentration on various occassions in the past and i had predicted earlier that the day the team will fall,they will fall heavily.And now my prediction has come to pass.
It is always sad to see ones team loosing, while the match was still on, i was still hoping that luck may smile on us despite our inability to create any anxious moment in their goal mouth.
It over, Ladan Bosso's team has been eliminated by another south American team. The big question is how do we fashion out a way of playing south American teams and getting the desired results in the future?

THE NIGERIAN - ZAMBIA MATCH

Just finished watching the Nigerian under-20 team defeating their Zambian counterparts by 2 - 1 in the round of sixteen. I see nothing special in the victory, has no Nigerian team has lost to any of their African counterpart in any world cup tournament match at under-age level outside Africa.

 From the theory that history always repeat itself, it is expected that Nigeria should win. Now let refresh our memories with our past encounters against our African brothers in world cup under-age tounaments.

 1. In 1985 the Nigerian under 16 team defeated their Guinean counterparts on penalties after playing 1-1 draw at full time in the semi-finals before going on to defeat Germany 2-0 in the final match and winning Africa her first world cup gold.Members of the team include : Fatai Atere, Victor Igbinoba who scored the sensational 2nd goal against the Germans in the final.Others include the bandana tieing Kingsley Onye,Bella Momoh - the teams' highest goal scorer in that competition.

 2.1993,Kanu & co defeated hard fighting Ghana 2-1 in the final match of the same under-16 tounament in Japan,lifting the cup second time.

 3.2005, Holland. Mikel Obi and his counterparts met and defeated the Morrocan under-20 team by 3-0 in the semi-final match before going on to loose the final to Argentina by 2-1. *

NB. the only time that Nigeria has lost to an African nation in tournament such as this was in Nigeria'99.when Nigeria lost to Mali in the quarter-final on African soil. Conclusion is that Nigeria has never lost to any African team outside of Africa

THE NIGERIAN UNDER-20 TEAM IN CANADA.

Back to the issue of the day, the current under-20 team have impressed so many Nigerians with their flamboyant display of attacking football which is typical of Nigerian teams.But my fellow country men have failed to realised that this same team possess all the flaws of many Nigerian teams.
First, let examine the defence.The defenders looses concentration easily, giving opponents with very sharp attackers opportunities to capitalised on their errors to score cheap goals.
Secondly,the mid-field is packed with skillful players but there is problem of team work which is more obvious in the front line.There is hardly any exchange of passes between the two front men of BALA EZEKIEL and IDEYE, it is very obvious that both are playing for personal glory rather than the teams' glory.Bala is interested in winning the MVP award while Ideye in a separate interview indicate his willingness to win the highest goal scorer award. I believe Bosso should try and educate these boys that without the team's success their dreams may not be fulfilled if Nigeria is knocked out at an early stage. They should put the team's success first before any personal aim.
I wish the defenders should be more professional in their approach, they should dribble less and concentrate more on defending rather than been too eager to join the attack.Nigeria is noted for their attacking flare but that does not translate to ignoring the defending aspect of the game.According to a famous coach who says that "we all know that attacking football wins you lots of fans but it is good defending that win championships.
I believe that for us to win tournaments at this level and beyond (world cup proper), we need to improve on our defending and our tackles.
Nigerians are not bordered about the reckless tackle by Ambrose which earned him a red card in our match against Scotland all because we won.I hope the coaches will caution him and let him know the implication of such in a high profile match against deadly opponents like the Argentines,Brazilians e.t.c.Our players should be taught how to restrain from making a tackle whenever they're not sure of getting the ball, they should instead stay and block the player.

OTHER REASONS WHY ITALY SHOULD WIN

(3) They win whenever there is scandal back home.
(4)They win whenever they have a controversial star player.Paolo Rossi was released from jail before taking part in Espana'82 while Francesco Totti was ban by FIFA following his spitting incidence with a Danish player in Euro'2004.
(5)Any similarity between ROSSI and TOTTI.
(6)The last time Europe produced all 4 semi-finalists was in Espana'82. They are:Italy ,Germany, France and Poland.Italy won. Now all semi-finalists are Europeans:Italy,Germany,France and Portugal. so it is Italy's year of victory.

WHY ITALY SHOULD WIN (CONTINUES)

(2). Starting from 1970 Italy get to the final at every 12 years intervals.Loosing in 1970 to Brazil, twelve years later won against Germany in 1982.Twelve years after,in USA'94 loosing again to Brazil,now twelve years in Germany 2006, who will says this is not their year ?

REASONS WHY ITALY SHOULD WIN REVISITED

On the eve of the world cup final last year, i gave six reasons why Italy would be world champions.The reasons are
1.From 1982 tournament, one of the former champions will wobble to the final and they usually do this by relying on a single outstanding player to get them through to the final.The list is as follows.In 1982, it was Rummienger for Germany and likewise in 1986 it was the same Rummienger for the same Germany loosing in the final to Italy and Argentina respectively.In 1990 it was the turn of the lengedary Diego Maradona to lead Argentina to the final only to loose to Germany.1994 saw pony styled Roberto Baggio leading the Italians to the final and loosing to Brazil on penalities.1998 witness the goal scoring heroics of Ronaldo who failed the Brazilians in the final against the French. Year 2002,we all saw how Michael Ballack was very instrumental to the success of the Germans to get to the final before loosing to Brazil.We all knew how the French team started the 2006 tournament poorly and only picked up and benefited from the skills of Zidane to propel them to the final.All is now history.
All these go on to confirm the hypothesis that a star player will almost single handedly take his team to the final but fails to deliver the cup.
Watch out for other reasons

RE:DELLY'S FOOTBALLING VOICE

This blog is created basically to air and share my footballing opinion with my friends and acquittance. It's a common knowledge that football fans have different views and opinions concerning any particular team or match, having shared my opinion with friends and close associates in the past, i've come to the conlusion of sharing it with more people via this medium.
Last year, I gave six reasons why Italy would win thematch against France in the FIFA world cup final. I will repeat the reasons in my next posting and my opinion concerning the present Nigeria under-20 team.