Manu focussed on winning World Cup title

Woods

The Golden Eaglets and their coach Manu Garba are embarking on a mission that goes far beyond the ongoing U-17 World Cup in the UAE.

Nigeria are three-times champions of the competition, having conquered the world in 1985, 1993 and 2007. But at senior level the national team have under-achieved — they have never progressed beyond the second round at the World Cup finals, while their Africa Cup of Nations success earlier this year was only their third continental triumph.

So Garba was handed a crucial task when the Nigeria Football Federation asked him to travel the length and breadth of the country to find a group of players that will eventually form the backbone of a successful senior team.

 The coach and his staff, including ex-internationals Emmanuel Amunike and Nduka Ugbade, spent two years compiling a squad made up entirely of players who were not aligned to a particular club, so that they can be moulded into a successful team.

Garba was an assistant to late Yemi Tella when Nigeria won the 2007 edition of the World Cup in South Korea.

“I was told not to pick up a single player who is already linked to a club. All our players are from the grassroots football academies operating within Nigeria,” Garba told Gulf News.

And they have impressed in the UAE so far, beating defending champions Mexico 6-1 in their opener before drawing 3-3 with Sweden and thrashing Iraq 5-0 to top Group F. They then eased past Iran 4-1 in the round of 16 to set up a quarter-final clash with Uruguay in Sharjah on Saturday.

But Garba expects the team to improve as the tournament goes on — especially as their preparations were hampered by the fact they had very little time for pre-tournament friendlies. Their last match was on September 25 in Abuja, when they enjoyed a 6-1 thrashing of the Abuja-based Amakson Football Academy.

“The draw with Sweden explains the inconsistency that comes from a team that is yet to find its stride as they have not been together for a long time,” he explained.

“We simply did not have the opportunity and luxury of friendly matches. But this is a squad that has the capacity to evolve and become better with each match. This team can only get better,

“Now that we are in the knockout rounds we will ensure we keep our mistakes to a minimum. We received some unnecessary yellow cards in the early stages of the competition, but I believe we can only get better from here on.”

Garba believes him team will beat Uruguay and qualify for the semi-finals.

He said, “Uruguay, like the other South American teams, play with the same style as our team and are a good side, but I am confident our team will be one of the last four teams in the tournament.

“But our big victory does not mean our team did not commit mistakes. We have to work on these mistakes because the competition is getting tougher and stronger.

“We are an attacking team. We have scored 18 goals in four matches and I don’t remember a match, friendly or official, we played and failed to score goals. But we also have to pay attention to our defence because there appeared some mistakes, which we cannot afford in the quarter-final.”

The winners of the clash will be up against Sweden on Tuesday.