Tag: Manu Garba

NIGERIA’S Flying Eagles will begin the quest for a seventh African Youth Championship title on Sunday when they take on host country Senegal in what is expected to be a bruising physical contest.

Kick-off time at the 45,000-capacity Stade Leopold Sedar Senghor is 4.30pm local time, which is 5.30pm Nigerian time.

Flying Eagles coach Manu Garba has described Sunday’s opening game against hosts Senegal as his team’s most important match.

“Our opening game is as good as the final,” Manu said at his team’s official press conference at Leopold Sedar Senghor in Dakar on Saturday.

“We will not toy with this game as we want to win it. It is our most important match of the tournament.

“They say the journey of a million miles starts with the first step. We want to win and go all the way.

“If you lost the first game, you will most likely struggle in the tournament.”

He added: “At the 2013 CAF U17 Championship we beat Ghana 6-1 in our opening game. We also beat Mexico 6-1 in our opening game at the FIFA U17 World Cup.

The second Group A match between Cote d’Ivoire and Congo will follow at the same venue.

The Nigeria U20s rounded up their build-up for Sunday’s showdown with an early morning workout at the Stade Iba Mar Diop Saturday with all 21 players fit and available for selection.

The squad boast of eight players from the country’s team who won the 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates thus making them one of the youngest at this tournament.

“We know what is expected of us and we have promised to do Nigeria proud,” said skipper Musa Muhammed, a swash-bucking right fullback who led the Golden Eaglets to a record fourth World Cup two years ago.

The Flying Eagles preparations have included taking part in an invitational tournament in Abuja involving four of Nigeria’s top clubs and the country’s U23 team.

They won the six-team competition in style after drawing only their last game against the country’s U23 team. They also played two test games against their Ghanaian counterparts, drawing the first 2-2 in Accra before they won the second 2-0 in Tema.

Senegal, on the hand, rounded up their build-up with two confidence-boosting wins over Group B teams Zambia and South Africa.

Flying Eagles’ head  coach, Manu Garba, has hinted that there won’t be complacency when the U20 national team face Dolphins today in the Day 4 of the Super Six tournament.

Flying Eagles have won all their three games till date against Enyimba, Kano Pillars and Warri Wolves and they want to add Dolphins to the list of those they have beaten during the tournament taking place in Abuja.

Garba said: “I am happy with the way my boys are playing and when we face Dolphins it will be another tough match and I have told by boys to be prepared and well armed.”

Flying Eagles are at the top with nine points and are two points ahead of second placed U-23 national team while Enyimba are third with six points from as many matches.

Head coach of Nigeria’s U-20 football team, Manu Garba says he was shocked when he received the news that Manchester City starlet, Kelechi Iheanacho would not be competing at the 2015 Africa U-20 Championships in Senegal.

City, through recruitment operations manager, Fergal Harkin, had informed the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) that Iheanacho and Chidiebere Nwakali (also on the books of the Citizens) would not be available for the Championships.

“With regards Kelechi Iheanacho, he is currently injured. We believe he will be fit around the middle of March but can keep in contract regarding his recovery,” read Tuesday’s mail in part.

“For Chidiebere Nwakali, we are currently in the process of agreeing his loan deal to Europe and he will not be available to meet up with the national team until further notice,” the correspondence from City read.

Garba has now revealed that the news of the duo’s unavailability was only broken to him by supersport.com.

“I heard the news for the first time from you (supersport.com) and I was shocked because both players were with us for the qualifying games for the (U-20 Championships),” Garba said.

The experienced trainer who led Nigeria’s U-17s to the title at the FIFA World Cup in the United Arab Emirates however claimed the absence of both players would not detrimentally affect Nigeria’s chances in Senegal.

“Their absence will not affect the team because even during the qualifying matches, Kelechi was on the bench for most of the games and only came on as a substitute.

“My team is full of very good players and we don’t build the team around any individual. I believe other players will rise to the occasion and take his place as we look to give the country creditable representation in Senegal,” he said.

The 2015 Africa U-20 championship will get under way in Senegal from March 8.

Nigeria’s Flying Eagles are in Group A of the competition alongside Congo, the Ivory Coast and hosts, Senegal.

Nigeria’s Under-20 team coach, Manu Garba has said he expects his team to improve on their finishing despite beating Jamba Academy of Kaduna 4-1 in a test match yesterday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.

Manu Garba said he was satisfied with the many chances his team created against a good Jamba side, but would blame match rustiness for his team’s poor finishing.

 “We created many chances to score, but we failed to take most of them,” Manu said.

“Probably the problem may be that we have been on break for over three months and so many of these players are now match rusty. But in a proper game we may not create as many such chances and so the more reason why we must take most of our chances now.”

 Manu also saluted Jamba Academy, but said some of the new call-ups have to do much more to stay on the squad.

“Jamba are not a bad team from what they showed against us, but all the new players who played today for us have to do much more to get into this team because they are not close to the players we already know,” he said.

Academy owner, Jamba Zira said he was proud of his team’s display against a national team.

“My boys gave a good account of themselves and even scored the best goal of the entire match,” he remarked. “We can only learn from this experience.”

After a catalogue of early misses, the Flying Eagles took the lead through a Wasiu Jimoh free-kick after eight minutes.

Israel Emmanuel aka ‘Ronaldo’, Billy Auta, Mustapha Abdullahi and Ifeanyi Matthew all had chances to score for the Flying Eagles, but they failed to put them away. And it was not until the 55th minute that they doubled their advantage through ‘Ronaldo’, who fired home from inside the box.

Jamba, who impressed with Peter Bala imposing himself in midfield with his well-measured long balls, deservedly pulled a goal back in the 85th minute through Mathias Kato. Kato collected a pass from Bala before he fired beyond the diving goalkeeper Dele Alampasu.

Ifeanyi Matthew then put the Flying Eagles 3-1 ahead in the 93rd minute from the penalty spot after Tsafa Terpase Barnabas was brought down inside the box. Two minutes later, goal scorer Kato turned to zero when he was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Wasiu Jimoh.

Matthew scored again from the penalty spot in the dying minutes of the encounter when substitute Chisom Eze was brought down inside the box.

The Flying Eagles will play a second test game against Standard FC of Zaria on Saturday morning at the same venue.

Under 20 national team coach, Manu Garba, has revealed that the door is open for players with dual nationality to represent the Flying Eagles.

Several Anglo-Nigerian players have opted to defend the colours of Nigeria instead of England in recent times.

But the FIFA Under 17 World Cup – winning manager has stressed that the Flying Eagles hopefuls must be able to bring competition to the team, pointing out that he has an idea of how the squad he is taking to Senegal will look like.

”All the good England – based players within the age bracket should contact us and let us know they are interested in playing for the Flying Eagles. Because we already have a team, they have to foot their traveling expenses,” Manu Garba told SL10.ng.

”They have to prove to us that they can displace the players on ground before they are selected.”

Subject to the approval of the Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, Manu Garba will run the rule over the England – based invitees when the camp is opened in the coming weeks.

”We have submitted the programme to the Technical Committee of the NFF. Probably before the end of this month, we will get the approval as it is still being awaited, and we will start preparations,” Garba concluded.

It is understood that highly rated Birmingham City midfielder Viv Solomon-Otabor is one of the players that is being considered for the training camp.