By George Aluo
Five-star performance! That was what the Golden Eaglets put up last
night in the city of Abu Dhabi to record Nigeria’s 4th win in the FIFA
U-17 World Cup.The free scoring Eaglets overran defending championships, Mexico with ease hitting them by three unreplied goals inside the Mohammad Bin Zayed Stadium. Last night’s win was one which confirmed Nigeria’s superiority over their central America opponents having hit them 6-1 in the group stage.
When the final whistle went in the UAE capital, fans and players alike rejoiced, fingers pointed to the sky, with what has become the traditional Nigerian celebration of: “yes, yes yes!” Legendary Nigerian ex-international, Nwankwo Kanu also joined the celebration from the stands. Kanu it is recalled captained the Golden Eaglets to lift the trophy in 1993 in Japan.
Mexico kept the ball for a full two minutes at the start of the game, moving it around well and making the Nigerians chase. El Tri even managed the first chance on goal after six minutes. Osvaldo Rodriguez crossed from the left, but Alejandro Diaz couldn’t keep his close-range effort the right side of the post. Two minutes on and Ivan Ochoa – who scored twice in the semi-final win over Argentina – saw his off-balance header pushed over the bar by Dele Alampasu.
The corner came to nothing for the Mexicans, but Nigeria benefitted greatly by bursting out on a classic counter-attack. Kelechi Iheanacho went flying up the pitch. With just one Mexican defender in position, the No10 Golden Eaglet laid the ball in for Taiwo Awoniyi who then fed it on to Musa Yahaha, who had a little help from Erick Aguirre. The Mexican midfielder mistakenly hit the ball into his own net in an attempt to recover. Yahaya was however credited as the goal scorer.
With the score 1-0, Musa Muhammed was giving the Mexicans fits with his rampaging runs up the right side. He pinned the opponents back at every opportunity. As the first half pushed toward the interval, the Africans upped their tempo in search of a second goal. Yahaya rattled the crossbar with a stunning effort from 20 yards out after 38 minutes. Pressure was mounting and the fans in the stands were on their feet when Awoniyi’s bicycle-kick from the penalty spot forced Raul Gudino into a magnificent reaction save in the dying moments of the half.
The second period began with a frenzy of attacks at both ends of the pitch, but it was Nigeria who made theirs count, making it 2-0 in the 56th minute. Captain Muhammed released what could pass for an inter continental ballistic missile of a shot which the Mexican keeper Gudino simply couldn’t hang on to. He spilled a rebound directly to the feet of the most dangerous man on the pitch, and Iheanacho made no mistake registering his sixth goal of the tournament.
With a quarter-hour to go, Mexico managed to carve out a rare second-half chance, but Ochoa’s header from close-range slipped wide of the post as the holders began to wilt under the ceaseless pressure of the buzzing Nigerians. Muhammed added a third with ten minutes to go, curling a sublime free-kick into the top corner.
Anyone in UAE who had the pleasure to see them will tell you that this Nigerian team were the best on offer. Even a few of the Mexican fans were mumbling “yes, yes, yes” when the final whistle went on Nigeria’s glorious campaign.
It would be noted that Nigeria emerged champion on a clean slate as the Eaglets remained unbeaten all through the competition. Interestingly, all the country’s victory in the competition has been achieved on Asian soil. Nigeria won the maiden edition of the tournament way back in 1985 in Japan, re enacted the feat in 1993 in Japan, won again in Korea in 2007 before last night’s feat in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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