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FEBRUARY 5, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 17

Battling to Survive

**Eagles**

As Nigeria’s Flying Eagles draw with the young Pharaohs of Egypt, the group is still open for surprises as the teams prepare for their last group matches
By Oji Odu
As if the African Independent Television (AIT) which has the right with AFRISAT to relay the 15th African Youth Championship (AYC) tagged Congo 2007 knew what was about to happen in the eight minute into the second half of the match between Nigeria and Egypt, it’s audio commentaries ceased while a “Dracular” music was aired, as the Egyptian youth side, Young Pharaohs opened scoring via a banana shot through the right winger from 45 yards to the post, similar to those of Henry Nwosu in his active days.
But this seemed to have woken the Nigerian Flying Eagles from their slumber as they came out smoking, abandoning their physical approach to a more tactical one. The Egyptian goalkeeper who was bombarded from every angle stood between the Eagles and the post thereby denying the Eagles opportunity to level scores in the 25th minute of the second half. It seemed that “the God of soccer” was with the Egyptians when in the 35th minute into the half time the Nigerians were denied yet another opportunity in a goal mouth scramble as the ball hit the bar twice before it was cleared out of danger.
The Source observed that by this time, the stadium, gates at Ponte Noir, venue of the match were thrown open for thousands to flood the stadium.
However, the rough tactics of the Egyptians to stop the rampaging Nigerians could not deter this as the 80th minute equalizer by Emmanuel Sarki who came into the second half as a substitute through a free-kick similar to that by Taye Taiwo against Ukraine at the 14th World Youth Championship (WYC) in the Netherlands, in 2005 caught the Egyptian goalkeeper napping.
By now the stadium had come alive as the Nigerian Eagles kept on piling the pressure against their opponents although the pressure did not yield another goal until the centre referee, Djoupe Kokou from Togo ended the match. Diouf Ousa who was assistant referee in the Nigeria/Zambia match was the match Commissioner. So the Egyptians dream of avenging the 2-0 defeat by the Samson Siasia led Eagles in Republic of Benin, 2005 was shattered.
Speaking earlier before the match Adegoke Adelabu, an ex-international (Flying Eagles) and Shooting Stars (3SC) of Ibadan said he was not impressed with the standard of play of the Nigerian side in their first match with Zambia. He said: “The match was too physical and not tactical enough as expected. I expect to see better play and goal in their future matches.”
Earlier, the Nigerian side had on Sunday, January 21, 2007 defeated the Young Chipolopolo; of Zambia by a 4-2 goal margin.
Zenke Terwade of Racing Strassburg of France’s second minute goal signaled to the Zambians that the Eagles had come for business. This was increased two minutes later by Echieyile Uwa with a powerful header from a cross.
Terwade added yet another goal in the 25th minute of the first half to comfirm the Eagles supremacy over the Zambians, who came back into the game determined not to be disgraced and would have pulled a goal back if Sebastian Mwansa did not miss the penalty awarded them after Tijani Akanbi handled the ball in the 18 yard box.
However, the dogged determination of the young Chipolopolo’s paid off with a powerful strike by Simon Lupiya which put them back in contention two minutes before the break.
The Source’s findings reveal that the Eagles seemed to have gone on a break after the three goals as in the 66th minute, Tembo Swayo converted another penalty kick to keep the Zambians hope alive. This jolted the flightless Eagles from sleep as they scored the fourth goal through Emmanuel Sarki to blackout the Zambians at about three minutes to regulation time.
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles coach, Godwin Uwua has expressed gratitude to the Federal Government and the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) for the support given them at the on-going AYC in Congo as he remains confident that Nigeria would win the trophy Uwua: “thanks to NFA, we have everything we need to win our games. And the best way we can show appreciation is to win the cup for Nigerians.”
The coach said he believes in his players who need necessary experience to deliver, just as he warned them not to be carried away by the respect people have for them and become complacent.
He said, “I have told the players not to allow anybody to be deceived them by calling them Super Stars. Football matches are won by scoring goals and they need to score as many goals as possible to enable us get to the final and win the cup.
“I am sure that if we keep our cool and make use of our chances, we shall win the cup.”
Nigeria had won the last AYC in the Republic of Benin in 2005 by beating Egypt in the finals by two unreplied goals. The Siasia-led Flying Eagles were wonderful at the WYC in Netherlands where they came second having lost to Argentina in the finals by a 2-1 goal margin.
The draw (1-1) with Egypt according to soccer analysts still leaves the group open after Zambia came from behind to defeat Cameroon, 3-2. Therefore, Nigerian boys should be serious and not allow Cameroun to spoil their chances in their last match which is a formality one for Cameroun, having lost their first match to Egypt.
In Group A however, Gambia is leading having defeated both Bourkina Faso and Congo, and The Source’s reports believe that this feat must have been as a result of the one million dollar promised them by their President, Yahya Jameh if they won the championship.