Holders Flying Eagles of Nigeria started their campaign at the 2024 WAFU B U-20 Championship on a losing note, going down to a 1-0 defeat against Burkina Faso.
Aliyu Zubairu’s side put up a shambolic display in the encounter played at the Stade Municipal, Lome .
The Flying Eagles were lucky not to concede in the first half with goalkeeper Nathanial Nwosu pulling off a big save to keep the scores even.
Fandino Abib Coulibaly however scored the winning goal for Burkina Faso four minutes before the hour mark.
The Nigerian boys now need to win their last group game against Cote d’Ivoire to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals.
The encounter against the Ivorians will hold at the Stade Municipal next week Thursday.
Burkina Faso will next play Cote d’Ivoire in their second Group B match on Monday.
By Adeboye Amosu
14 Comments
The author took the right words from my mind, this was a shambolic display by this team, who ever is the coach doesn’t deserve to be on the bench, this is the worst Flying Eagles have watched in a long time. No co-ordination, passing, marking was just terrible. Maybe the goalkeeper was the only outstanding person in the team. Where on earth did they unearth this useless players from.
Bokinabe guys could have been in camp for the past two years the way dey are playing. Ball dey their leg . While the eagles struggle to play Brazilian football as if they are professional players camped for four days ..
A coach that we knew nothing about, untested, Quota system shit = shit results. Another u20 generation about to miss out
You are so right.
He won the federation cup with Elkanemi,so he’s not a novice in coaching probably on the international level i will agree..Ladan Bosso should have carried on with coaching the flying eagles in my opinion he’s a decent coach.
Nigerians many who sees nothing good about Bosso,may start having a rethink haha
Mostly Northern players in the team. How did we get here for Christ sake
Congratulations NFF. Keep recycling mediocrity. Next will be Ladan Bosso. Same people everytime, same result. What a shame.
How not to prepare for a major tournament
1. Appoint a coach 1 month to the tournament
2. Assemble a team haphazardly based on referals and not on intensive scouting and screening.
3. Play all kinda mushroom academies in friendlies rather than teams that will provide similar level of opposition as your real tournament opponents would.
I’m with you on that!
For the last three years, I’ve been saying it: Ibrahim Gusau is a catastrophe for Nigerian football development. And now, the disaster is fully here. Nigerians have no idea what’s coming in the next few years. We are heading straight for a situation where producing quality Super Eagles players will be a distant memory. Why? Because there’s literally **no talent pipeline being built to replace our current crop of players.
Let’s break it down. It’s been almost 10 years since Nigeria did anything meaningful at a FIFA youth competition. Ten long years! That’s an eternity in football development. And what does that mean? It means the conveyor belt of Nigerian talent to Europe has all but dried up. Do you know what that youth platform used to be? It was our golden ticket to the big leagues. That’s how our legends got their start! Celestine Babayaro, Nwankwo Kanu, Wilson Oruma, and so many others. They were scouted from youth tournaments and went straight into the big clubs in Europe, where they became world-class players and added immense quality to the Super Eagles.
But now? Gusau has turned that pipeline into a blocked drain. No youth programs of substance, terrible coaches appointed to the U-17 and U-20 teams, and laughable preparations for regional and global competitions. The result? Complete loss of total respect in club and youth football. See our Flying Eagles just got outplayed by Burkina Faso! BURKINA FASO! 1-0! The defending champions, reduced to barely surviving a match where our goalkeeper had to make miracles happen just to keep the scoreline respectable. We’re not just losing, we’re losing embarrassingly. Shambolic doesn’t even cover it.
Let me tell you what this means for the future of Nigerian football: in a few years, when the current Super Eagles players retire, we’ll be left with nothing. Zero. Zilch. The average age of our current players is around 27. In the next few years, they’ll be winding down their careers. But instead of having a fresh crop of young, talented players ready to step up, we’ll be scrambling to find replacements because our youth teams are a joke. This isn’t just bad news, it’s a football apocalypse.
And the hypocrisy! Oh, the hypocrisy of it all! Gusau and the NFF will tell you they care about grassroots football, that they’re building for the future. Lie of the century! They’ve done absolutely nothing to develop young talent. Instead, they’ve thrown all their energy into managing the Super Eagles, and they’re not even doing that well! It’s like a chef who burns every meal but still insists on calling himself a five-star cook. No, sir—you’re not fooling anyone!
You see, back in the day, our youth players were so good they were constantly knocking on the doors of the Super Eagles. They were considered threats to the established stars because they were already playing in the first teams of big European clubs. Remember the **1993 U-17 squad**? Players like Kanu, Babayaro, and the rest? They weren’t just hanging around; they were stars in the making, pushing the big names for spots in the senior national team.
But now? Nothing. The current NFF has allowed our youth system to collapse, and Gusau is at the center of it. His idea of youth development is probably a PowerPoint presentation and a couple of PR stunts. That’s why, instead of producing future Super Eagles, we’re producing players who can’t even compete at regional levels. And then they wonder why the Super Eagles struggle in big tournaments? It’s not rocket science—it’s pure negligence!
Let’s talk facts: in the past, the U-17 and U-20 teams were the fast track to stardom. Players like Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Samuel Chukwueze all got their big breaks at youth tournaments. From there, they were scouted by European clubs, trained in elite football environments, and returned to Nigeria as polished stars ready to boost the Super Eagles. That’s the system that worked for decades. But now, thanks to Gusau and his team, we’re facing a future where no Nigerian youth player is making the jump to Europe because they don’t even get the chance to showcase their talents.
So, Nigerians, let’s be real: the football future we’re heading towards is bleak, and it’s all thanks to the inept leadership we have right now. Gusau has successfully taken one of the most promising football nations in the world and turned it into a laughingstock. If we don’t act fast, the Super Eagles will become nothing more than a distant memory, and the only place you’ll see future Nigerian football stars is in your nostalgia playlist.
Kudos, Papafem. I wish the NFF would read your post!
Tears in my eyes for Nigerian football.
Simply put:
Quota system is killing Nigerian Football like it stifled every sector in the country.
The Flying Eagles have a mountain to climb to qualify for the U-21 Afcon going by their disjointed 1:0 loss display against Burkina Faso yesterday.
Watching the match; the first half showed glimpses of promise in moments of slow and methodical build-up play from Nigeria. Even at that, B/Faso asked the more telling questions by forcing Goalkeeper Nwosu into breathtaking saves.
In the second half though, B/Faso took control and rightly took the lead after Nigeria botched a simple task of defending a long range harmless freekick for the only goal.
Well, the Flying Eagles showed attacking intent but lack cutting edge where it mattered most. The 4-3-3 formation worked in midfield, as that number 10 particularly, showed class and composure on the ball. But up front, communication broke down, connection was not neat and their movements lacked imagination. At the back, the Flying Eagles lacked discipline as the defenders were often all-over-the-place.
Decision making was poor; they struggled to carve out neat scoring chances; their long shots were aimless and poorly executed; they lost aerial battles; they were poor playing out from behind which was almost punished; and they just lacked coherence where it mattered.
Personally I struggle to see how this poorly primed, hastily assembled and badly prepared Flying Eagles outfit lacking in wit, imagination and football-charima get a favourable result against Ivory Coast on Thursday.
If they prove me wrong, I will be happy because the team does have redeeming qualities. Their midfield is okay. If the defence can be shored up and bite added to their attack, the Flying Eagles might just turn a corner against Ivory Coast.
But I will not be holding my breath.
No doubt about it @deo,well narrated in the best possible way..
Apparently the team is lacking in wit,like you rightly said,the midfield was good i concur.I was impressed by the number 10 i think he’s by name Salihu ply’s his trade for Elkanemi warriors.Good intelligent midfielder.I also saw the passing game where they tend to build from the back,similar system Finidi adopted in our 2-1 friendly victory against Ghana few months ago.However the passing was slow giving the Burkina Faso team time to regroup at the rear and leave no space for our attackers to do any harm..From what i saw in that game,if it carried on for another 5 days our boys will not register any shot on target let alone scoring,that was how organised the Burkina Faso’s team was.
Literally our attack was blunt,they were lacking ideas on how to trouble and open up their opponents,the defence were vulnerable gifting their opponents needless chances upon chances,we have the goalkeeper Nathaniel Nwosu to thank for helping to keep the scoreline respectable.
Next is Ivory Coast.Another very difficult and physical Francophone side,however this is football i wouldn’t write our boys off,they could still qualify with the right mentality and with luck also..Let’s hope Burkina Faso wins with a two goals margin should that happen,we need just a draw to go through but if it ends in a draw then an outright victory for the flying eagles or exit the qualification tournament..
Let’s be positive and hope for the best!