Nigeria Content Online

Nigeria’s under-20 men’s team, the Flying Eagles, on Thursday defeated their hosts South Korea 1-0, in the opening match of the Suwon U-20 invitational tournament.

Central defender, Gbenga Arokoyo scored the only game of the match 15 minutes from time, when he nodded home from a corner kick inside the Suwon World Cup Stadium.

And try as much as they did, the hosts could not find a way back into the game thanks to some brilliant goalkeeping by Danjuma Paul, who did not show any signs of jet lag.

After arriving in Lagos from South Africa on Monday afternoon, the Flying Eagles, who won the African Youth Championship (AYC) last Sunday, had to travel to South Korea aboard Emirates Airlines the following day, but without three members of the AYC-winning team.

Missing trio

Striker, Stanley Okoro had to head back to Spain to join his club, Almeria, same as defender Terna Suswam who jetted off to Portugal where he plays for Vitoria Setubal.

The father of defender Chima Oluocha died on the day the Flying Eagles were handing out a 3-2 defeat to Cameroun in the final match of the AYC and the defender was released to go home to attend to his late father’s funeral rites.

But all that did not prevent John Obuh’s side from emerging victorious in their opening game of the tournament, which is taking place in South Korea’s second largest city, after Seoul.

Four countries that have already qualified for this year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia, which gets underway in July, are in attendance. They are Nigeria, South Korea, New Zealand and Uruguay.

In Thursday’s other game, New Zealand lost by a lone goal to Uruguay.

Nigeria will next play against Uruguay on Sunday at the same venue before wrapping up the tournament with a game against New Zealand next Tuesday.