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Nigeria’s
U-20 team, the Flying Eagles may be pitched against strong sides like
Brazil and Argentina, when the draws for this year’s FIFA Under-20
World Cup takes place in Cartegena, Colombia, on Wednesday (2am
Thursday, Nigerian time).

The Flying Eagles
and other African qualifiers; Cameroun, Egypt and Mali are some of the
teams in Pot C for the draws. The other countries in the same pot are
Uruguay, Croatia and Ecuador.

However, the
tournament’s most successful country Argentina are in Pot A along with
hosts Colombia, Brazil, Spain, England and France, which inevitably
means the Flying Eagles will be grouped along with any of these six
teams.

At the Netherlands
2005 edition of the tournament, Nigeria was in Group F with Brazil with
both teams playing out a 0-0 draw in the group’s opening match.

The Samson Siasia-led team went on to reach the finals of the tournament losing 2-1 to Argentina.

No big deal

For Garba Lawal, a
former Super Eagles player and member of the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) technical committee, being grouped along any of the
teams should not cause any stir.

“Once you qualify
for a tournament, you are expected to play with any of the other teams
that make it to the championship so whether it is Brazil or Argentina,
it makes no difference to me” he said.

Lawal, who was the
team manager for the 2009 U-17 team, whose players form the bedrock of
the present Flying Eagles team, said he would even prefer to play
tougher oppositions in the group stages.

“While I will say
that there are actually no minnows in football again, I will actually
prefer playing the so called tougher teams in the group’s stage; they
give you a better assessment of your team” he said.

Getting the ticket

Nigeria beat Gambia
2-0 on Sunday at the ongoing African Youth Championship (AYC) to
complete the African quartet heading to the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Nigeria, with five AYC titles joined Cameroun, Mali and Egypt as the
continent’s contingent to Colombia 2011.

Defending FIFA U-20
World Cup champions Ghana, were eliminated along with the Gambians.
Ghana, who drew with Cameroon 1-1 on Sunday, became the first African
team to lift the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009 when they beat Brazil in
the final.

Nigeria had
previously been the most successful youth team from the continent,
having lost in the final match at both the 1989 and the 2005 editions.
They will look to match those accomplishments in Colombia, which will
host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in eight cities from July 29 to August 20.