Flying Eagles: Winner That Didn’t Win

BY FEMI FABUNMI
It is no longer news that the Flying Eagles of Nigeria   kissed the
U20 World Cup goodbye very early ,what is however surprising is the
fact that west African neighbours  Mali and Senegal finished third and
fourth respectively in the competition.                                 Incidentally,both Mali and
Senegal gained access to the second round as 3rd best teams from their
various groups,while Ghana and Nigeria that finised first and second
respectively in their groups couldn’t get pass the second round
stage.                          Ghana got bundled out in the second round of New-Zealand
2015  when it met a stiffer opposition in another west African country
Mali ,the match ended 3-0 in favour of the young Eagles of Mali, while
the flying Eagles of Nigeria were also defeated by European Champions
Germany by 1-0 nil.
Prior to the tournament the Nigeria Flying Eagles were tagged
tournament favourite,based on it’s antecedents as African champions,
and also winning virtually all the friendlies it played  in
preparation for the U 20 World Cup.
Twice Nigeria has gotten to the final of the competition  and the
Flying Eagles couldn’t lay their hands on the tropy,in 1989 after
winning the semi-final in a dramatic fashion against Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic(USSR) coming down from 4 goals to equalize and
winning 5-4 on penalties only to loose to Portugal by 2-0 in the
final,similarly Isaac promise led Flying Eagles also lost to Argentina
in the 2005 edition of the U20 World-Cup hosted by  The Netherlands.
This present crop of the flying Eagles actually gave football fans in
Nigeria a glimmer of hope,the country’s U20 side has never had it so
good in terms of hype, they were tagged tournament favourite alongside
Germany,in the second round match between Nigeria and Germany the
English  commentator was heard saying that ‘’ unfortunately two sides
that were tipped to win the tourney have now clashed  one of them will
crash out today’’.
Nduka Ugbade a member of the  promising 1987 set that also didn’t live
up to expectation and  crashed out from the group stage is  now one of
the assistant coaches of the flying Eagles, in an interview just
before the first match against Brazil he posited that he is quite very
confident with this set of flying Eagles, in his words “Flying Eagles
style of play cannot be matched by any team in the world not even the
Brazil of this world”.
Football analysts had faulted the team selection process of coach Manu
Garba, when he chose to go to the world cup of this magnitude with 5
defenders, 8 midfielders and 5 attackers, he also included players
that were never in camp.The likes of Man City attacker Kelechi
Iheanacho, Granada of Spain playmaker  Isaac Success and Gent of
Belgium striker Moses Simon had to join the team at the 11th  hour,
while a Christian Pyagbara who had been in camp from inception was
dropped.His decision to also relegate goalie Dele Alampasu to play
second fiddle to Joshua Enaholo was also questionable,the latter
didn’t really have a good tournament.
Bulk of the players that executed and won the U17 championship two
years ago in United Arab Emirate(UAE)  graduated into current U20 side
with the inclusion of few players to complement their effort, little
wonder FIFA named the side the youngest in the competiton with average
age of 18.
Taking a cursory look at the two finalist Brazil and Serbia, one can
depicts that Serbia that eventually  won the competition has had
preparations for the tournament going on a long time ago,Shortly after
the European Championship which Germany won after Defeating
Portugal,the Serbians swung into action by hitting camp immediately,
the coach of the side Veljko Paunovic identified the grey areas
invited couple of players to add to what he had on ground  while
players found wanting were sent packing.
However, In  Chile 1987 when the likes of Mercurial midfielder Etim
Esin, Nduka Ugbade ,Olubunmi Adegun, Adekola and many others were
tagged the favourites ,the side lost by 4-0 to Brazil drew 2-2 with
Canada and lost to Italy by 2-0 hence they crashed out in the group
stage.Co-incidentally Yugoslvia went ahead to win the competition. In
2015  history repeated itself when the Flying Eagles again was tagged
favourite, Serbia that broke up from Yugoslavia also won .
Meanwhile, Flying Eagles chief  coach Manu Garba who had gotten to the
final of every competition he has featured in  from when he was an
assistant to YemI Tella in 2007 , to winning the U17 World Cup in
2013,and also winning the AYC in Senegal, has expressed  disbelief and
disappointment at the early exit of his team, in his words ‘’I had
thought with the comprehensive training we went through and also with
the caliber  of boys at our disposal we will play in the final’’ he
stressed.
Pitched in the same group with Brazil, Hungary and North Korea, the
Flying Eagles were expected to break the Jinx against Brazil at this
level and  also override the two remaining teams in the
group,expectedly Korea was crushed by 4-0 and Hungary got defeated by
2-0 but the jinx continues against Brazil as the team lost by 4-2  to
the young Selacaos  in the very first game of the competition.