Golden Eaglets start the defence of their U17 World Cup title well beating USA 2-0

NIGERIA'S Golden Eaglets got their defence of the U17 World Cup off to a flying start with a 2-0 demolition of Team USA in their opening match yesterday just as the home-based Eagles beat Burkina Faso by the same scoreline in a Championship of African Nations (Chan) qualifier.

 

Currently the U17 World Cup defending champions, the Eaglets are in Chile hoping to retain the title and President Muhammadu Buhari has charged them to do so. They got their defence off to a good start in Santiago yesterday with two second half goals in the 50th and 61st minutes from Chukwudi Agor and Victor Osimhem respectively.

 

Yesterday, a scoreless opening 45 minutes saw plenty of chances go begging for both sides, with the USA’s Haji Wright came the closest to opening the scoring 13 minutes in after getting on the end of Christian Pulisic’s cross. Pulisic in particular tormented the Nigerian backline with his pace and skill attacking down the left but the Eaglets held on and five minutes after the break took the lead.

 

After the restart, the Americans were unable to clear during a scramble in their area and Agor capitalised on the Stars and Stripes’ mistake and smashed the ball into the net. However, the opening goal did not diminish the Americans’ attacking spirit but they could not create any clear-cut chances to find an equaliser.

 

With half an hour remaining, Osimhen doubled Nigeria’s lead after cleverly beating two defenders and calmly finishing past William Pulisic in goal for the Americans. To make matters worse for USA, Auston Trusty was shown a straight red card three minutes from time.

 

With the man advantage, the Eaglets confidently controlled the tempo of the game until the final whistle to put them on top of Group A, at least temporarily as Croatia take on tournament hosts Chile, also in Santiago, later on today. Nigeria plays Chile on the 20th and Croatia on the 23rd of this month.

 

Meanwhile, the home-based Eagles beat Burkina Faso 2-0 in a 2016 Chan qualifier played at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt, Rivers State also yesterday. Bature Kawu scored Nigeria`s first goal in the 24th minute while Gbolahan Salami scored the second via a penalty in the 77th minute.

 

Super Eagles assistant coach, Salisu Yusuf, said: “We just finished a tough match, which we could have won with as much as 4-0. We thank God, the boys did very well as the Burkinabe’s are good and twice on a counter attack, they could have scored.

 

“Generally, my team did well. We made some mistakes and we will get back to the drawing board to rectify them but generally, we had a good game.”