The Nigeria U17 team will in the coming days roundup preparation for the U17 Africa Cup of Nations with the final step expected to be a camp in Germany as first reported by OGN.
Coach Nduka Ugabde has been drilling the lads in Abuja for the past two months in his bid to ensure that they pick one of the four tickets available for African teams at the World Cup from the tournament, which is the qualifiers for the World Cup.
In test games, the team has blown away all opposition that has come their way and the manner they have gone about it is what has been the talking points as they build up to the tournament, which will take place in Algeria.
So far in test games, they have scored a total of 60 goals and conceded just 14. A sign that they have some sort of balance between defence and attack. Who are the players responsible for this goal scoring feat.
Ironically, the team doesn’t seem to depend on just the attackers for goals with the midfielders and defenders also get in on the act. The trio of Yahaya Lawali, Light Eke and free kick specialist Emmanuel Michael have all weighed in with couple of goals.
The attack of the team defines potency with the quartet of Precious Williams, Charles Agada, Abubakar Abdullahi and Umar Abubakar. They have accounted for 65 percent of the goal, so good that Umar has been listed in the Nigeria U20 preliminary list for the U20 World Cup. All eyes will no doubt be centered on them.
They will play their opening group game against Zambia on the 30th of April before taking on Morocco on the 3rd of May, their campaign in the group will end with a game against South Africa on the 6th of May.
Mohammed Mowiz
