₦airaland Forum

Watch this intriguing clip between Deinde and Tejiri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkFpJURlN68&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hello Everyone. Good 2 be here. Has anyone wondered why CAF is duplicating U-23 tournament. Why not use the AAG tournament? Why create another U-23 tournament?

Icon4s:
Dont mind those guys that were shouting "we are favourites" up and down. They were calling those of us that dnt see the Flying Eagles as favourites "plastic fans".
I mentioned that I pray d Super Falcons should even get 1pt from dat Grp of death and some term me unpatriotic.

Now we know hu d real plastic fans are. They only follow the national teams when we are getting d results.

When I saw the favourite tag, I wondered what the yard stick was. I guess it was because we had won U-17 world cup 2 years earlier. But U-17 and U-20 are completely different. None of teams that made it to last 4 in d 2013 U-17 made it to last 4 in d U-20. This is not one-off. Argentina who has won six times has never won the U-17. Players have different cycles and peak at different times. That u were better than a player when u were both 17 doesn't necessary mean u'll be better at 19. Or maybe it was because they beat Nigerian Club sides in d Super 6. As impressive as this was I had my reservations. The first being it was preseason. Fitness levels of these players were not at optimum level. Real Madrid, Man U (to mention a few) have suffered embarrassing defeats to African club sides during preseason. Second, the Nigerian club sides were not that strong (none made it to the group stage of the Caf Champions league). Kano Pillars were actually eliminated in d 1st round.

Icon4s:
Bt seams d Malians have been improving as d tourney progresses. They(David) even beat the mighty Germany (Goliath)-the slayers of Nigeria.

If they can beat Germany hu is Serbia?
Any way football is no mathematics, it can go either ways.

Football is all about taking ur chances. D Malian equalizer came 2 mins after the Germans had missed a gilt edged opportunity to go 2 up. Germans were awarded a penalty but d Malian keeper came up with a brilliant save. So the team that maximizes its opportunities will prevail.

Icon4s:
My prediction:

MALI VS BRAZIL -Final

Serbia vs Mali would be a cracker. A rematch of their group match which Serbia won 2-0.

femi9naija:
I'm more impressed with Mali. Never gave them a chance against Ghana and Germany. How i wish they could win it.

We are on d same wavelength. I think Senegal got the luck of the draw. However, they have a chance to prove me wrong when they lock horns with Brazil.

Semifinal fixtures

Serbia vs Mali

&
Senegal vs Brazil

achimotan:
Senegal has also made to the semi finals

How ironic? Senegal and Mali, some thought were just in NZL to make up the numbers, are the African teams that progressed d farthest.

P0intBlank:
Spot on! Best write-up I have read on this thread so far. U've spoken my mind. Those of us that have followed football for so long know things can go horribly wrong. History is replete with teams that flattered to deceive. As u know human love is fickle. If that were to happen the same people praising Manu Garba will come here, bash him and call him tactically inept. And claim that their grand mothers would have done a better a job with talents at his disposal. I'm calling for caution because there's a very thin line btw confidence and over confidence.

Chai! Failure is an orphan. This thread has been deserted. I knew this would happen. We've watched football for more than 2 decades; we've seen these things happen again and again. Winning these kinds of competitions is not aim, developing players for the future is. Maybe this thread should be modified to track the progress of players that constituted 2013 U-17 team/2015 U-20 team. 5 to 10 years down d line if we've 5 to 8 of this players forming the crux of the National team I would still consider Manu's team a success.

CFCfan:
They beat Germany 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regulation time.

With Mali being d current U-17 African champions and this U-20 Malian team also proving its mettle that the future is no doubt bright for Malian football.

Didn't know the Malians were this good. This victory was no fluke. It was well deserved. For those who missed the action u can click on this link to see the highlights. All 3 goals were well constructed, the last one was messi-esque.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCbC5Mxo8FI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Duru1:
There is no offside with corners is not utterly correct.The Swedish second goal could have been marked offside if the defenders had rushed out when ball was first knocked down for a rebound. Instead one or two of Falcon's defenders stood on the goal line.

"....Regardless of position, there is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from a corner kick,
goal kick , or throw-in" (U can read the FIFA Laws of the Game). I have watched the goal again. Did u really expect them run out when their goal was under siege? It was because one of them was on d line that the ball didn't go in initially

adeaks:
Our girls are defending the corners too close to the goal thereby choking up the box. They should take up positions around the middle of the box.

Besides, when defending set pieces usually its either you use zone defence or man-to-man. It seems our girls are not using any of these. They are not marking man to man and they are also not taking positions in zones. They are just congregating together anyhow.

Its obvious our coach didn't do set piece defence with them. Very poor

I'm sure u know there's no offside with Corners because every player is behind the ball. What do u do when ur opponent decides to crowd ur six yard area? Leave them alone?

Badosqi:
Make the unthinkable happen jare.
North korea should go ahead and sama the young samba boys. We can still top our group.

Unfortunately, Brazil has gone ahead. It's now 2-0

mikron:
that was why he said his prefered not manu's lineup

Wasn't referring to his lineup.

Xlad:
[b]My preferred starting 11.


....................................Enaholo...........................................

.......Musa...........Ndidi..................Bello...............Mustapha......

......................................Idowu............................................

........................................................ ....Ifeanyi......................
........................Sokari...........................................................

.......Iheanacho.......................................................................
.............................................................................Yahaya....

.....................................Success...........................................


Sub:
60-65mins.. Yahaya ⇌ Saviour
69-73mins.. Iheanacho ⇌ Awoniyi ( Success will now play as a winger)
75-80mins.. Success ⇌ Moses/Bulbwa

Hungary is a team that will like to hit us hard with counter attack because what they will have in mind is to play a goalless draw with us.. Ifeanyi and idowu are defensively minded players so i think it will be hard for Hungary to achieve their plans but the coach needs to tell both the winger and ifeanyi to help mustapha. Only him playing as defender, mid-fielder and winger same time is not good and again, he should stop being in a hurry to attack. His no.1 duty is to defend and not to attack likewise musa. Ifeanyi is improving more especially his long range passes but he must avoid silly mistakes.
Sokari from his game so far is not that much a counter attack minded midfielder. He is a wonderful midfielder that will always be controlling the tempo of the game, slowing it down when needed. Iheanacho contributed more offensively in the game he played than bulbwa. He gave an assist and also hit the bar. The only problem with him is that he is not contributing defensively but i think after the snub by Manu, he will up his overall contribution. Moreover he is very very good when it comes to counter attack than Bulbwa.
Saviour is that type of player that always tries to dribble and score.. His effort will be needed much during 2nd-half so starting yahaya will be better cause he is not that selfish with the ball and is very good in assisting.
When it comes to confidence and composure in front of the goalpost at this current stage, mehn, Success is still ahead of Awoniyi. i'm a strong fan of Awoniyi but mehn, Success got two opportunities and scored with it while awoniyi missed atleast 4 chances. We can't gamble in-front of goals. Any opportunity we get must be converted to a goal; so starting Success will be more okay than starting Awoniyi moreover he is faster than Awoniyi. Awoniyi can come in during 2nd-half and do what he does best(assisting).

I was discussing with my university football coach about this tournament although his country didn't qualify and i didn't know the man is even following everything and the man told me he is yet to miss a nigerian match. He told me clear that when it comes to quick counter attack, so far in New Zealand, that Nigeria is the most dangerous because when they are on counter attack just a maximum of 4 passes will result to a goal. He was like saying our first and second goals against brazil was after two and three passes where interchanged respectively while our second goal against N.Korea involved only a single pass. that the possibility of nigerian counter attack resulting to a goal is 90% which is even more better than the germanys and portuguess.

Goodluck F.E[/b]

Do u also preplan ur subs? Shouldn't u wait to see how the match pans out?

Tomtoxic:
i knew mexico was a north american country always wondered hw they ended up playing copa america#bro wat of israel i think they played euro 08 but they are nt in europe were they invited too

Israel, though in the middle east, is a member of UEFA. The were previously under the AFC. However, continuous friction with their Arab Neighbours prompted this move.

adeyemi2015:
If we (FE) play the exact pattern and the style against the Germans what's your expectation as far as (the end) result is concerned?

If we play to our full potential, we stand a chance.

adeyemi2015:
The last 10 mins of Nigeria/Korea match, especially when Yahaya was introduced; didn't you notice the Lads played good football? Barcelona-like? Good possession, build up and forward play?

Yeah

Krasid:
Mexico does not play copa america.They play the north american gold cup.

They play both. Because South America has only 10 teams and they want to play a 12 team tournament format, so they invite 2 teams from the CONCACAF region. I am wondering what happens the day an invitee wins the tournament. Maybe that's why the pick fom North America.

adeyemi2015:
Lol! We are both supporting the same Club in Manchester United
I wanna ask you a question dude, just a question; do you believe (or think) the lads can play the Barcelona-like style?

To play like Barcelona u'll need 2 things. A coach that shares that philosophy and recruit the right kind of players to fit in. The former we have (LVG believes in possession football as seen in his days with Ajax and Barcelona) the latter we have to get. We are already playing a kind of possession football but we lack the cutting edge. Hopefully, this coming season LVG would buy sensibly and these players would fully understand his philosophy.

adeyemi2015:
Seems you are a Chelsea fan
You are expecting the Flying Eagles to be parking Trailers in every match just to win the Tournament
FC Barcelona is on the verge of winning treble with attacking football!!!
Guy! We shouldn't underrate nor overrate any opponent. We can do it, if we believe we can! You and I agree that the Team is full of talents, we should just hope they play to their standards and do us proud against any Team!
Up Super Flying Eagles!!!

Ain't Chelsea. Been a United Fan since 1997. True, Barcelona plays attacking football. But it's d way they defend that has been key. Quite unconventional. They defend with the ball (The only team that does this. They keep the ball so well that opponents see so little of it. If u don't have the ball u can't bite) and they defend without the ball (when they do lose possession they press aggressively high up the pitch often in packs of 2's or 3's blocking the spaces between the opposition's players limiting space and time to think thereby forcing errors from the opposition)

bataderemi:
Sorry, what's the name of the great coach u quoted?? Technically, if u win matches then u win the tournament.

Sir Alex Ferguson

tbaba1234:
My head is convinced about the quality in the side, now we need to get them playing.

Ok, Sir

BascoVanVeli:
Didn't we trash Ghana 2-0 in the semis of the ayc? How much did that fact help Argentina?

He asked a question whether Germany would have beaten Austria. I reminded him that they had beaten Austria earlier. It may not have bearing now but it gives u an idea about the strength of this German side.

tbaba1234:
If you watched Ghana's first game, you would have written them off. Yet, they topped the group. USA 94, Italy group games, , you would have written them off.

Argentina came with one of the most talented team but they are going home.

Even against brazil we lost due to individual errors not a fantastic Brazilian display. Once the Nigerian team settles, they will be difficult to beat.

If this were to happen I would be d happiest. My heart wants them to win but my head is yet to be convinced

adeyemi2015:
It's better we lost honorably dude! I stand on my point! Because we lost the first Game to the Brazilians, thus so many of you lost complete confidence in the Lads? Let's assume the Germans are our first match? Would you have panicked of our Lads losing to them? Anything can happen in the Game of football dude! Did you ever think Juventus would play this Year Champions League Final? Did you ever think they could get past Mighty Real Madrid?
We shouldn't be too hopeful out of mediocrity! Because you luckily passed UTME does not make you an University Candidate; Post UTME is waiting to expose your mediocrity!

I was not among those who believed Nigeria would thrash Brazil. I was not carried away by their performances in friendlies. I just kept my finger crossed. If u came across my earlier post I said Brazil for me was d litmus test. After that match it dawned on me that they were good but not as hyped. I clearly saw flaws that any good side could exploit. Like a great coach once said "attack would win u matches but defences win u tournaments".

adeyemi2015:
Are we parading a mediocre Team? If we are..... then we honorably don't deserve the Cup!!!
What's the essence of becoming the Champions if we are so scared of facing a particular Team?
I prefer the Boys facing and losing honorably to the German Team than avoiding them by playing below their standard against the Hungarians.
To be a Champion, you must be brave and fearless to successfully whither any challenge (obstacle) that might tend to slow you down or crush you off the lane!
If genuinely we believe in the Team's potentials as we are claiming, then we should stop demoralizing the Lads.

Well, u've point. This fine if u're d best. But if u're 2nd best or so, would it not be better to meet the best in the final and if u lose get a silver medal than to meet the Best in the 2nd Round go home empty. And from ur tv watch teams u probably would have beaten if u had met progress. I'm not saying Germany is best. I'm just giving an illustration. Imagine in 2005, Mikel's Nigerian team had met Messi's Argentinean team in the 2nd Round and results remained the same. We would not be celebrating that team.

joseph1013:
Chief, what makes you sure Germany would have beaten Ghana and Austria? Mind you, Argentina with these same players won the U20 South American Championship. Brazil, Uruguay, Columbia were there. Argentina is the biggest name in the U20 World Cup owing to their dominance over the years. You dont analyse football that way, bro.

Oga, I agree with u. But this Germany strong sha. Germany thrashed Austria 4-0 when they met in the semis of the European Championship.

khattab02:




lol.... Just saw the end quote of the Argentine Coach ''now we 've got to hope for a miracle''



with 2 points? It seems he hasn't study the situation of other groups? It will be very difficult for them to qualify.




Verdict: just book the next available ticket and go home and rest!

Looooool