Nigeria Content Online

Not
perturbed about the size of their opponent or lulled by their exploits
so far at the ongoing Africa Youth Championships (AYC), Nigeria’s
Flying Eagles have vowed to win today’s semi-final contest against
fellow West Africans, Mali.

The match, which is
the first of the two semi-final matches billed for today, comes up at
the Dobsonville Stadium in Johannesburg at 11am Nigerian time.

Mali and Nigeria
have met four times at past AYC, with one being a match for third place
in 1995. Of the four matches, Nigeria won two while the other two ended
in draws. However the Malians have been superb in the present edition
of the AYC, scoring the most goals, so far, at the tournament – six.

With their sheer
size and athleticism, the Malians easily overcame their Group ‘A’
opponents, South Africa and Egypt. However, John Obuh, the coach of the
Nigerian team dismissed fears that the size of the Malians would put
them at an advantage over his team. According to Mr Obuh, there is more
to football than the physical size of players.

“Football is not
about size. The most important thing is your brain. After all, the best
player in the world (Argentina’s Lionel Messi) is not the biggest
player around,” he said.

He added: “By the time we clash with them, we will know which will come out tops – (body) size or the brain.”

New target

After achieving
their primary target of making it to the FIFA U-20 World Cup billed for
Colombia later this year, the Flying Eagles now hope to add another
feather to their cap by making it to the final of the AYC.

A win will see the
Flying Eagles make their first final appearance since losing in the
championship game of the 2007 tournament to hosts, Congo; the young
Nigerians are resolute that the goal is attainable.

Chima Uluocha, a
defender, is one of the home-based players in the Flying Eagles team;
he has promised an improved performance from him and his teammates.

“We will improve on
our performance against Gambia to beat Mali. They are a good side but
we are better and have been improving as the tournament progressed,” he
said.

Similarly, Terry
Envoh, a forward, affirmed: “We expect nothing short of victory. We
will be alert, fit, quick and stick to our style of play and game plan
so as to win on Thursday.”

To get to this
stage, Mali defeated hosts South Africa 4-2 in the opening match and
Egypt 1-0, before holding Lesotho to a 1-1 draw to top Group ‘A’.

Nigeria picked the
second spot in Group ‘B’ after beating world and African champions
Ghana 2-1; losing the second game 0-1 to Cameroon before beating Gambia
2-0.

Meanwhile, in today’s other semi-final match, Cameroon and Egypt will be doing battle for the other final ticket.

Both teams had clashed at friendly matches played in Egypt, leading
up to the AYC, with the young Pharaohs defeating their Cameroonian
counterparts on all three occasions.